Two things are true of all immoral actions. First, if they are performed in public, they offend public sensibilities....

Asnodgrass July 17, 2014

Why is A the right answer?

Hi there, Could you please explain why A is the right answer? Thank you!

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Naz July 17, 2014

Let's diagram.

"If they [immoral actions] are performed in public, they offend public sensibilities."

P1: IAPP ==> OPS
not OPS ==> not IAPP

"Second, they [immoral actions] are accompanied by feelings of guilt." We can rewrite this: If it is an immoral action, then it is accompanied by feelings of guilt.

P2: IA ==> AFG
not AFG ==> not IA

We are looking for the answer choice that must be false. Answer choice (A) states, "Some immoral actions that are not performed in public are not accompanied by feelings of guilt."

An immoral action that is not performed in public is an immoral action that is performed in private. So, either way, whether in public or private, it is still an immoral action.

So, let's diagram:

(A) IA-some-not AFG
not AFG-some-IA

We know from the contrapositive of the second premise that if something is not accompanied by feelings of guilt, then it is not an immoral action (public or private). Thus, (A) cannot be true because we know that ALL immoral actions are accompanied by feelings of guilt. If they are not accompanied by feelings of guilt, then they are NOT immoral actions.

Hope that was helpful! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Romans November 12, 2014

I have the same question. I thought that A is not IAPP - some - not AFG..... Why A must be false?

Naz November 12, 2014

I see where your confusion in our versions of diagramming (A) is. As you can see in the updated explanation above, answer choice (A) states "some immoral actions that are not performed in public." Well, that means we are referring to immoral actions that are performed in private, right? So, either way, we are still discussing immoral actions.

Thus, we can just write it out: IA-some-not AFG

But, we know from the contrapositive of "P2" that "not AFG" means "not IA," because all immoral actions are accompanied by feelings of guilt. So if it is not accompanied by feelings of guilt, it is not an immoral action--regardless of whether it is done in public or private.

That is why answer choice (A) must be false.

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.