PrepTest 114, Section 1, Question 19
Essayist: Only happiness is intrinsically valuable; other things(67 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(10 more words not shown)
- Athe notion that(9 more words not shown)
- Bpeople do not(10 more words not shown)
- Cthe judgment that(15 more words not shown)
- Dthe only way(18 more words not shown)
- Ea truly bad(6 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Only happiness has value in itself? That is a strong claim. What about fulfillment or justice? The essayist's answer is that other things matter only because they contribute to happiness. We need to understand that position before deciding whether the response to the philosophers works.
The philosophers point to a person who behaves badly but is happy. We may disapprove of that happiness because we think it is undeserved. Their challenge is that whether someone deserves happiness seems to matter in addition to whether that person is happy.
My first thought might be that seeing a cruel person happy makes other people unhappy, bringing the issue back to happiness that way. But read the essayist's actual reply carefully: the happiness a person deserves depends on how much happiness that person brings to others. That is about the person's contribution, not simply other people's reaction to seeing the person happy.
What we’re looking for
On that account, deciding who deserves happiness still uses happiness as the standard. Someone who brings little happiness to others could deserve little, without introducing a separate measure of value. To finish the argument, I'd predict a response that rejects the philosophers' challenge: their concern about who deserves happiness hasn't taken us outside the essayist's happiness-based account.
Working the answers
- A
The essayist doesn't discard the idea of deserving happiness as incoherent. The final premise offers a way to understand it: look at the happiness a person brings to others. A would abandon the very notion the essayist has just explained.
- B
The argument doesn't compare how much people actually value happiness with how much they think they value it. The dispute concerns whether another kind of value is needed to explain judgments about who deserves happiness. B changes that issue into a claim about mistaken self-assessment.
- CCorrect
The judgment of what happiness someone deserves is itself explained in terms of happiness: how much of it that person brings to others. The philosophers thought our concern about who deserves happiness showed that we value something besides happiness. The essayist's reply is that this judgment can remain inside the same happiness-based account.
That completes the response we predicted. It doesn't prove that happiness really is the only thing with value in itself; it states what follows from the essayist's proposed explanation of who deserves happiness.
- D
Bringing happiness to deserving people isn't presented as a guaranteed way to become happy yourself. The passage discusses what happiness someone deserves, not a method that assures the person of actually experiencing it. D introduces both a guarantee and a special restriction on whom to help.
- E
A person could be happy without deserving that happiness. Indeed, disapproval of a bad person's being happy is what starts the philosophers' challenge. The essayist's account of who deserves happiness doesn't establish that a bad person is incapable of feeling happy.
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