#23 - If an act of civil disobedience -- willfully breaking

[ClaudiaK32]

I thought that the answer to this was A. I figured this out by taking the contrapositive of the first statement.

original statement: act not justified --> done out of self Interest alone + not out of concern for others

my contrapositive of the statement: act is justified --> done not out of self interest alone OR out of concern for others

Am I incorrect in this answer choice because there is also another statement about what justifies an act of civil disobedience?

Thank you!

[Kristina Moen]

Claudia,

Careful with the contrapositive. Think "Flip 'n negate." Take any original conditional relationship A B and flip 'n negate, which gets NOT B NOT A.

So with your original statement: act not justified --> done out of self Interest alone + not out of concern for others

The contrapositive is actually "Concern for others OR Not done out of self-interest alone act justified."

If you negate, but don't flip, you're creating a brand new conditional relationship. Here's an example I like to use:
All nuns are women becomes Nuns Women

Does that mean that if someone is not a nun, they are not a woman? Of course not! You have to flip 'n negate to get the contrapositive NOT woman NOT nun. So if I meet a man, I know he can't be a nun. And that works!

[nrpandolfo]

Having a bit of trouble understanding the answer choices in this one,

How is E not just the opposite of D? Also, A and C seem very similar. Can you please explain the differences?

[Alex Bodaken]

nrpandolfo,

Thanks for the question! Let's start by diagramming the Conditional Reasoning present in the stimulus:

If act done in self-interest alone (SIA) + not out of concern for others (CFO) --> civil disobedience not justified (CDJ)

If one's conscience requires one to do so (CRO) --> civil disobedience justified (CDJ)

From this, we can glean that civil disobedience is justified if one's conscience requires one to do it, and it isn't done only for self-interest. This is the principle that we are looking to apply to the answer choices - crucially, the correct answer choice will fulfill both elements of this principle (that one's conscience requires one to do it AND that it isn't done only for self interest).

Now, let's go through the answers one by one.

(A) "Keisha’s protest against what she perceived to be a brutal and repressive dictatorship in another country was an act of justified civil disobedience, because in organizing an illegal but peaceful demonstration calling for a return to democratic leadership in that country, she acted purely out of concern for the people of that country."

It's clear that Keisha is not doing this only for self-interest. But answer choice (A) doesn't mention that her conscience requires her to do it, so this doesn't perfectly fit our principle.

(B) "Janice’s protest against a law that forbade labor strikes was motivated solely by a desire to help local mine workers obtain fair wages. But her conscience did not require her to protest this law, so Janice did not perform an act of justified civil disobedience."

Here again, it is clear that Janice is not motivated purely by self interest, so that part is fulfilled. But the second sentence is a mistaken negation of our conditional reasoning: we know that CRO-->CBJ, but it is not accurate to say that if one's conscious doesn't require one to protest (CRO) --->the civil disobedience isn't justified (CDJ). Because of the mistaken negation, this answer choice isn't accurate.

(C) "In organizing an illegal protest against the practice in her country of having prison inmates work eighteen hours per day, Georgette performed an act of justified civil disobedience: she acted out of concern for her fellow inmates rather than out of concern for herself."

This answer has the exact same flaw as answer choice (A) - it speaks to the first part of the principle (not acting out of self interest) but fully neglects the second part (conscious requiring one to protest). Therefore, it doesn't fit our principle.

(D) "Maria’s deliberate violation of a law requiring prepublication government approval of all printed materials was an act of justified civil disobedience: though her interest as an owner of a publishing company would be served by repeal of the law, she violated the law because her conscience required doing so on behalf of all publishers."

This is our credited answer choice. It speaks to her conscience requiring her to do so, and the line "on behalf of all publishers" makes clear that she is not doing it purely out of self-interest. Therefore, it matches our principle and is correct.

(E) "In organizing a parade of motorcyclists riding without helmets through the capital city, Louise’s act was not one of justified civil disobedience: she was willfully challenging a specific law requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets, but her conscience did not require her to organize the parade."

This answer choice is incorrect on several levels - it doesn't make clear that is is not motivated by self-interest, and it contains the same mistaken negation as answer choice (B) for the second piece of conditional reasoning.

Hope all of this helps!
Alex