Can you help me understand why B and D are wrong?
Here is how the formal logic for the principle goes:
If an action both achieves the agent's intended goal AND benefits someone other than the agent --> the action is morally good.
The contra positive being:
If an action is NOT morally good --> the action do NOT achieve the agent's intended goal OR the action does NOT benefit someone other than the agent.
In my initial assessments of B and D where I found them to be very tempting, I think I am mistaking the fact that in both answer choices, the necessary condition for NOT acting morally is met and from there I accept the conclusion that the particular action was not morally good. When I can't really do that unless I have a sufficient condition? Is this analysis correct?
For example, in B - I thought sure Derek's action was NOT morally good because it did NOT achieve Derek's intended goal (of welcoming the new neighbors - while the neighbors were grateful for his EFFORT to welcome them, they were not flatly welcomed...I suppose this could be debatable?...but even assuming that it was explicitly stated that the neighbors were NOT welcomed, B would still be wrong, right? Because just because a necessary condition for an action NOT being morally good is met, it does not mean that that action was necessarily NOT morally good).
In D, I thought again, sure Louisa's action was NOT morally good because it did NOT achieve its intended goal - but is my error the fact that I am taking achieving a necessary condition as sufficient to conclude that it's NOT morally wrong?
Essentially then, for this question we cannot really conclude that ANY action is NOT morally good because we have no sufficient conditions for it. is that correct?
help please - I feel like I am making a HUGE Formal Logic blunder that i've never run into before....
thanks a lot