A right?

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A right?

by mehaksal » Sat Aug 11, 2012 6:09 am
A certain moral system holds that performing good actions is praiseworthy only when one overcomes a powerful temptation in order to perform them. Yet this same moral system also holds that performing good actions out of habit is sometimes praiseworthy.

Which one of the following, if true, does the most to reconcile the apparent conflict in the moral system described above?

(A) People who perform good actions out of habit have often acquired this habit after years of having resisted temptation.
(B) Most people face strong moral temptation from time to time but few people have to endure it regularly.
(C) People virtually always perform actions they think are good, regardless of what other people may think.
(D) Since it is difficult to tell what is going on in another person's mind, it is often hard to know exactly how strongly a person is tempted.
(E) It is far more common for people to perform good actions out of habit than for them to do so against strong temptation.
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

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by techyrajeev » Sat Aug 11, 2012 8:40 am
My take is 'E'


If something is more common, it will be less praiseworthy.

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by mehaksal » Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:28 am
ummm...still confused!!

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by mehaksal » Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:29 am
ummmmmmmmmmmm...confused still!!

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by vk_vinayak » Sun Aug 12, 2012 5:44 am
mehaksal wrote:A certain moral system holds that performing good actions is praiseworthy only when one overcomes a powerful temptation in order to perform them. Yet this same moral system also holds that performing good actions out of habit is sometimes praiseworthy.

Which one of the following, if true, does the most to reconcile the apparent conflict in the moral system described above?

(A) People who perform good actions out of habit have often acquired this habit after years of having resisted temptation.
(B) Most people face strong moral temptation from time to time but few people have to endure it regularly.
(C) People virtually always perform actions they think are good, regardless of what other people may think.
(D) Since it is difficult to tell what is going on in another person's mind, it is often hard to know exactly how strongly a person is tempted.
(E) It is far more common for people to perform good actions out of habit than for them to do so against strong temptation.
I think A is correct.

Moral system praises good actions only when when they are performed resisting temptations.

But the same moral system sometime praises good actions that are performed out of habit.

What explains the paradox? If only those good habits are mastered by after years of having resisted temptation. It explains that these good actions (performed out of habit) are also performed by resisting temptations.
- VK

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