A person’s failure to keep a promise is wrong only if, first, doing so harms the one to whom the promise is made and, second, all of those who discover the failure to keep the promise lose confidence in the person’s ability to keep promises.
Which one of the following judgments most closely conforms to the principle above?
Sufficient condition - Failure to keep promise
Necessary condition - Harms AND others lose confidence
Contrapositive :- No harm or others don't lose confidence -> Not a failureQuote:
(A) Ann kept her promise to repay Felicia the money she owned her. Further, this convinced everyone who knew Ann that she is trustworthy. Thus, Ann’s keeping her promise was not wrong.
A) Premise and conclusion is same - Anne kept promise therefore it was not wrong - Circular reasoning - Not what original argument is about - IncorrectQuote:
(B) Jonathan took an oath of secrecy concerning the corporation’s technical secrets, but he sold them to a competitor. His action was wrong even though the corporation intended that he leak these secretes to its competitors.
B) Selling to competitor did not harm the company - a necessary condition for a promise to be a failure; additionally it needs a second condition in AND as well which is not mentioned - IncorrectQuote:
(C) George promised to repay Reiko the money he owed her. However, George was unable to keep his promise to Reiko and as a result, Reiko suffered a serious financial loss. Thus, George’s failure to keep his promise was wrong.
C) Failure to keep promise -> Harmed Reiko; But the additional NC is misisng i.e. whether Reiko lost confidence in George - IncorrectQuote:
(D) Because he lost his job, Carlo was unable to repay the money he promised to Miriam. However, Miriam did not need this money nor did she lose confidence in Carlo’s ability to keep promises. So, Carlo’s failure to keep his promise to Miriam was not wrong.
D) Miriam was not harmed neither did he lose confidence -> Not a failure (Contrapositive condition) - CorrectQuote:
(E) Elizabeth promised to return the book she borrowed from Steven within a week. But she was unable to do so because she became acutely ill. Not knowing this, Steven lost confidence in her ability to keep a promise. So, Elizabeth’s failure to return the book to Steven was wrong.
E) Steven lost confidence but was he harmed - we don't know - hence can not say whether E's failure was wrong - Incorrect