I think there’s a difference between (A,B) and C: On the A’s or B’s in-bracket, we can’t say that one option is strictly better than the other.
(Conditional on missing the terrorist / the child, A / B is indifferent between shooting and not shooting).
There’s also a difference between (B,C) and A: On B and C, we’re clueless on the out-bracket (conditional on hitting the terrorist, shooting is strictly better, and conditional on not hitting the terrorist it’s strictly worse). On A on the other hand we’re clueful on the out-bracket (it’s never strictly better for child+Emily to shoot).
I’m pretty unsure what to make of this. (I might also have misinterpreted the case). I think (1) is a point against A- and B-bracketings being action-guiding. (2) might be a reason to rule out A-bracketing. So considering A, B and C as candidate bracketings, I might go with C’s verdict.
Yeah, if we’re clueless whether Emily will feel pain or not then the difference disappears. In this case I don’t have the pro-not-shooting bracketing intuition.
I was thinking on C we’re clueless on the out-bracket, because, conditional on shooting, we might (a) hit the child (bad for everyone except Emily), (b) nothing (neutral for everyone except Emily) or (c) the terrorist (good for everyone except Emily), and we’re clueless whether (a), (b) or (c) is the case. I might misunderstand something, tho.