 for A might be right even so, when all ethically relevant factors are taken into account. If A helps to save innocent people’s lives, for example, it’s right—actually right, as Ross says—even though it’s a lie. Nor is the relation between (L) and (W) causal or inductive. Lying doesn’t cause wrongness, and although it might be that most (or even all) lies are all-things-considered wrong—actually wrong—it might be that most (or even all) lies aren’t all-things-considered wrong—actually wrong. Regardless of which alternative (if either) is correct, (L) still provides some reason for thinking that (W) is true. That’s to say that the inference from (L) to (W) isn’t based on an empirical generalization of any kind. Rather than being deductive evidence or empirically based inductive evidence, (L) is criterial evidence for (W). All by itself, irrespective of any other considerations, any other premises, it lends some but not definitive support to (W). The inference is an immediate one, in other words, in the logician’s sense of the term, and since it is and isn’t grounded on empirical facts, it looks like a deductive inference. It’s not a deductive inference, however: unlike a standard deductive inference, but like a standard inductive inference, additional premises—such as “Act A saves many people’s lives”, or “Act A leads to many people’s deaths”—can affect the strength of the inference, weakening it in some cases, strengthening it in others, and having little to no effect on it in still others. As with a typical inductive argument, strength of inference isn’t an all-or-nothing affair. The inference is defeasible, in that countervailing considerations can weigh against the support the premise provides, even to the point of nullifying it altogether, or at least very nearly doing so; but it’s also buttressable, in that additional considerations can bolster or further strengthen such support, even to the point of making the inference well-nigh deductively sound. Or, of course, the inference can be strengthened by some considerations and weakened by others.