John: It was wrong of you to blame me for that traffic accident. ███ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ███ ██ ██ ████ ███████ ███ █ █████████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ █████████████
████████ ███ █ ███ ████ ███ ███████████ ███ ████ █████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███ ███ ████████████ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███████ ████ ████ █████████████
John believes he shouldn’t be blamed for the accident, but Michiko thinks he should. Michiko supports his claim with a conditional statement:
(1) If someone knows an action they perform might have consequences, then they are responsible for those consequences.
We need to find the correct application of Michiko’s principle. We are looking for an answer choice that tells us someone is responsible for the consequences of an action because they were aware of the potential consequences beforehand.
The principle that Michiko invokes, ██ ████████████ █████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████
Colleen was responsible ███ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ███
Colleen knew she might miss her flight if she visited the Eiffel Tower again, so she was responsible for missing her flight. This follows the principle set forth by Michiko.
Colleen was responsible ███ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██ █████████ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ██ █████ ████████
Wrong trigger. Colleen was not aware of the potential consequences of telling her brother the comment, so we can’t conclude she was responsible for offending him.
Colleen was responsible ███ ███ ████████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ████ █████████ ████ █████
Wrong trigger. We don’t know if Colleen was even aware that the manual had been published, or if there were any potential consequences to not following it.
Colleen was responsible ███ ███ █████ █████ ███████████ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████ ██ ████ ███████
Wrong trigger. The principle is about being responsible for the consequences of one’s own actions. We don’t have any information on whether people are responsible for the consequences of other people’s actions.
Colleen was not ███████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███
Wrong conclusion. We can’t prove that somebody wasn’t responsible for the consequences of their actions—only that they were responsible.