#22- The short-term and long-term interests of a business of

[ay514]

Hello,

I am having a hard time understanding why answer choice B is a better answer choice than answer choice C. I understand that because of the word "seldom" in answer choice C, it may not be as strong of a statement but I still feel like I don't understand why choice B is a better choice. Thank you in advance!

[Steve Stein]

This breaks down as follows:

The moral act is usually the one that serves the long term interests of a business, so there are often compelling reasons to choose the moral act.

Since this stimulus is followed by a Justify the conclusion question, our task is to find the answer choice that allows the author's conclusion to be properly drawn. In the breakdown above, we can see that both the premise and the conclusion deal with the element of a moral act. The rogue elements are those of "serving the long term interests" and "often compelling reasons," which must be properly linked by the correct answer choice, bringing us to answer choice (B), which essentially provides that long term interests often provide compelling reasons.

Answer choice (C) provides that there is seldom conflict between the moral choice and the choice that serves the long term interests of the company. The author has already established that the moral choice is usually the one which serves the long term interests, and this choice does not link the essential element of "compelling reasons." Basically, the absence of conflict does not necessarily provide compelling reasons to act.

[ay514]

that helped a lot. thank you!!

[blade21cn]

How do we analyze and diagram "the morally preferable act is usually the one that serves the long-term interest"? Or in a simplified version: "A is usually the one that does B." Thanks!

[spikesjb]

I don't necessarily agree that it is saying that the morally acceptable act often serves the long term interests.

I think it's actually saying that WHEN the long term and short term interests of a company conflict, then the morally preferable act is the one that serves the long term interests, as opposed to the short term interests: "The short-term and long-term interests of a business often conflict; WHEN (capitalization added) they do, the morally preferable act is usually the one that serves the long-term interest."

I think that assuming that this stimulus says "the morally preferable act is the one that serves the long term interests" allows answer B to be correct, but I don't think that is what the stimulus is saying. I think that the stimulus only tells us that WHEN the short term and long term interests conflict, that THEN the morally preferable act is the one that serves the long term interests (as OPPOSED to the short term interests). I think the stimulus makes it clear that is saying the morally appropriate act is to serve the long term interests of the company ONLY in instances where the short term and long term interests conflict. And if you take for granted that that is what the argument is saying, none of the answer choices are correct

Can someone explain to me why this is not the correct interpretation of what was written?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi spikes,

It's true that the stimulus says WHEN there's a conflict, the morally preferable act is usually the one in service of long-term interests. But the stimulus also says, in the first clause, that there IS OFTEN such a conflict ("The short-term and long-term interests of a business often conflict"). Since we know in fact that there is often such a conflict, we also know that it is often the case that the morally preferable act usually serves the long-term interest.

I also want you to be a little careful in your understanding of the conditional statement in the stimulus. You said, "I think the stimulus makes it clear that is saying the morally appropriate act is to serve the long term interests of the company ONLY in instances where the short term and long term interests conflict." That's not quite correct, because your only is modifying the situations of conflict. Instead, the stimulus says "In instances when there is such conflict (as there often is), then the morally preferable act usually is the one serving long-term interests." Just be careful not to read a Mistaken Reversal into the stimulus.

I hope this helps!

[spikesjb]

Ok , that actually clears things up tremendously. Thank you for the assistance.