Philosophy 233, Homework: Counterexamples

Remember, no handwritten homework will be accepted.

For each of the following conditionals, give an example that shows that the entire conditional is false. I prefer real to made up examples.

For example:
Conditional: If one does not like art museums, then one is uncultured.
Counterexample: Ray Charles is very cultured but doesn't like art museums because he is blind.


1. If someone is wealthy, then they are successful.

2. All prime numbers are odd.

3. Whenever someone achieves greatness, they have dared to fail greatly. (a translation of "Only those who dare to fail greatly can achieve greatly," said by John F. Kennedy)

4. All happy people are people who are doing something they consider valuable to society.

5. All classic movies are better than any contemporary movie.

6. Whenever someone accomplishes something, they should not be ashamed of that. (You can use "should" in your answer this time because I've used "should" in the conditional)

7. If someone says something false, then they are a liar.

8. Whenever a person x cares about some other person y, then x will act to benefit y.

9. If something is easy, then it is not worth doing.

10. If you do not believe that some claim is true, then you believe that it is false.