Q10 - Every moral theory developed

[geverett]

Stimulus: All moral theories developed in moral tradition tries to tell us what a good life is. However, most people would judge someone that embodied the western tradition's definition of a good life to not be living a good at all.

In sum - most people would not agree with the western tradition's opinion of what embodies a good life.

Question: Most strongly supports which one of the following . . .

(A) "that is better than a merely good life." We only know that most people do not want their children to embody all the ideals of a good life as defined by the western tradition.
(B) This compares different theories that both fall under the western tradition. We only know that most people's definition of a good life differs from the western tradition's. We do not know about the differences between definitions that are found in the western tradition.
(C) This is what we want. It basically says that most people's conception of a good life is different then western tradition's conception of a good life.
(D) We do not know if it can or cannot be realized. Nothing in the stimulus talks about the possibility or impossibility of attaining a good life as described by moral theories in the western tradition.
(E) We also do not know this. We know that western tradition's definition of a good life is different from most people's, but we know nothing about the possibility or impossibility of actually developing a theory to accurately describe a good life.

[mneggerly]

Could someone please further explain how C is the correct answer? I get why my answer of B is incorrect, but I didn't choose C because I thought it was too extreme with the inclusion of "any."

[maryadkins]

(C) is a bit extreme with that "any," yes, so good job looking out for extreme language.

But two things: In this case, the extreme language is supportable. The stimulus tells us "every moral theory..." which matches "any moral theory," and the two "most people" match as well.

Also, it's the only answer that comes CLOSE to being supportable and this is a most strongly support question.

Thanks for your question, and thanks for the explanation on this thread! Looks good.

[BarryM800]

Why is (B) not supported? It states that different people "might" ("would not necessarily fit another") have different ideals of one moral theory in the Western tradition. In the stimulus, we were given, as a general example, the moral theory of good life. So I thought the "most" statement in the second sentence in the stimulus would support the "some" statement in (B), since a perfect embodiment of one such theory might not be judged as such by most people. Thanks!

[Misti Duvall]

Why is (B) not supported? It states that different people "might" ("would not necessarily fit another") have different ideals of one moral theory in the Western tradition. In the stimulus, we were given, as a general example, the moral theory of good life. So I thought the "most" statement in the second sentence in the stimulus would support the "some" statement in (B), since a perfect embodiment of one such theory might not be judged as such by most people. Thanks!

(B) is tricky, and the not necessarily language does give it some wiggle room. Though I'm not seeing a some statement in there. I do think it's fair to say, based on the stimulus, that an embodiment of a moral theory developed in the Western tradition might not be viewed as living the good life by most people.

But answer choice B is saying something different: it's comparing theories developed in the Western tradition against each other. Answer choice C is much closer to what you anticipated.

Hope this helps!