PrepTest 148, Section 3, Question 21
Genuine happiness consists not in pleasurable feelings but(47 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- AA morally virtuous(7 more words not shown)
- BPeople who approve(12 more words not shown)
- CApproval of one's(11 more words not shown)
- DAttaining happiness is(10 more words not shown)
- EMaterial well-being does(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Does liking yourself mean you're living morally? Someone could approve of a project that harms other people. Their satisfaction with themselves wouldn't automatically make the project virtuous.
What we’re looking for
We can accept the author's definition of happiness for this argument: approving of your own character and projects. The author also defines a good life as a morally virtuous one. But defining those two things doesn't connect them. To conclude that happy people tend to lead good lives, the author needs self-approval to tend to go along with moral virtue. That's the link I'd predict for the required assumption. We don't need every self-satisfied person to be morally good; the conclusion only claims a tendency.
Working the answers
- A
Defining a good life by virtue rather than wealth doesn't require rejecting wealth. Someone might be morally virtuous and materially comfortable. The author needs a connection between self-approval and virtue, not a rule that good people must give up material well-being.
- BCorrect
This connects the two definitions: people who approve of their character and projects tend to live morally virtuous lives. The first group is happy under the author's definition, and the second kind of life is good under the author's definition. Without that tendency, the definitions alone don't support moving from a happy life to a good one.
- C
Saying happiness consists in self-approval rather than pleasurable feelings doesn't mean self-approval can't produce pleasure. You could approve of your character and feel good about it. Whether that additional feeling occurs doesn't establish or undermine the required connection to virtue.
- D
We aren't told the real goals of people pursuing material well-being. They could be trying to become happy, impress others, gain security, or do something else. Their motives don't have to be settled for the author's proposed connection between happiness and virtue to hold.
- E
Material well-being might increase someone's self-approval. That would be compatible with the author's definitions and with the claim that happy lives tend to be virtuous. The argument doesn't need wealth to have no effect on happiness; it needs the people who count as happy to tend to live morally.
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