Q15 - To perform an act

[ms.ingridl]

Can you please explain the question, as well as why B is not the right answer?

[bbirdwell]

It's just a basic conditional logic problem.

Your thinking, or a diagram, might look like this:

morally wrong --> offend humanity --> equally bad

murder = morally wrong

A) says that lying = morally wrong. Following the chain of logic above, then, we know that lying and murder are equally bad. So this answer is correct.

B) is about saving people. We don't know anything about saving people given the info above. All we know about are acts that are morally wrong, including murder.

C) says stealing = morally wrong. This would mean, using the chain of logic, that stealing and murder are equally bad. However, this is not what the choice says. We know nothing of the importance to society.

D) is unsupported. It would be a better answer if it told us that accidentally causing death was morally wrong.

E) is tempting. However, in this situation, not killing may cost the life of another, but "not killing" is not morally wrong. Therefore it's unsupported.

[kkate]

From the above post, I understand why E can be wrong. But my thought process for choosing E was:

In a situation in which the life of one person can be saved only by killing another person --> if we save A, we kill (ie. murder) B. if we don't kill B, A dies. Either way, we end up killing either A or B.

Therefore, killing and not killing are equally bad --> either scenario leads to a murder so yes.


--
Now rethinking this.......... I'm starting to see the difference. I think I incorrectly arrived at the conclusion that either way WE end up killing A or B. There's a difference between us killing A vs. A dying (could be either natural or voluntary). We could kill B (=morally wrong) but there remains uncertainty regarding A's death if we weren't to kill B. Therefore, it could be morally wrong.

......am I going too far with this? My head hurts eugh.