Q21 - Genuine happiness consists not in

[wangsiyunjocelyn]

Conclusion:The happy life tends to be a morally virtuous life.
Premise: genuine happyness consists not in pleasurable feelings but instead in one's sense of approval of one's character and projects.

It's Nessesary Assumption question so be on the look out to new information in the conclusion, which is "a morally virtuous life". The right answer should close the gap between "a morally virtuous life" and "one's sense of approval of one's character and projects. "

So the Answer choice B is correct.

I found the conclusion of this question unusual cos it introduces new information "good life" and give an explaination of it while refutes another alternative explaination. The key to find the right answer is to focus on the argument core.

[asafezrati]

Can any MLSAT instructor explain this one and the right approach to it?
The stimulus also presents some alternatives which are less likely, such as pleasurable feelings and material well being. How should these be treated while reading the stimulus?

Thanks

[logicfiend]

Not an instructor, but I think the key to a question like this is really understanding the argument before going into the answer choices. There are a lot of superfluous terms that are only qualifying the real argument - material well-being and pleasurable feelings are all irrelevant to the gap in this argument.

We know: Genuine happiness is NOT about pleasurable feelings, it's about approval of one's character and projects.

Therefore, happy (aka the good life) is NOT about material well-being, but rather about living a morally virtuous life.

I've bolded the parts that we need to connect. This is a tricky question because you need to weed through the sentences to see the gap. It's very common in LSAT questions to give you a lot of information and force you to figure out what is important.

Start by identifying the conclusion and tracing back where the support is for that conclusion. This will help you hone in on the important parts. Hope this helps.

[maryadkins]

EXCELLENT breakdown logicfiend. Thank you very much for that. Couldn't have put it better myself.

As for the others:

(A) only connects two parts of the conclusion together: material well-being and moral virtue. This isn't the gap.

(B) is correct for the reasons above.

(C) connects only parts of the premise.

(D) is about intentions and does not connect to the conclusion.

(E) connects the conclusion to the premise but not the part of the conclusion that matters! The part of the conclusion that is being relied on here is the "morally virtuous" part. In fact, the conclusion tells us that material well-being is irrelevant. So it doesn't matter what it has an effect on.

Hope this helps!

[Mab6q]

I understand why B is correct, but I'm having a hard time eliminating C and E using negation.

C. approval of one's own character and projects tends to result in pleasurable feelings. Would this not kill the argument because even if it does, it doesn't mean that pleasurable feelings has any impact on the happy life?

E. Material well-being increases one's sense of approval of one's character and projects.

Well, if material well-being gets us character and projects, which is what genuine happiness is all about, then that would seem to kill the conclusion.

thanks in advance.

[maryadkins]

C. approval of one's own character and projects tends to result in pleasurable feelings. Would this not kill the argument because even if it does, it doesn't mean that pleasurable feelings has any impact on the happy life?

Not sure what you're saying would kill the argument, but even if approval of your own character makes you have pleasurable feelings, that doesn't mean that happiness is dependent on those feelings. Besides, nothing here connects the conclusion to the premise so nothing here destroys a connection to it. We don't even have a connection here to destroy!

E. Material well-being increases one's sense of approval of one's character and projects.

Well, if material well-being gets us character and projects, which is what genuine happiness is all about, then that would seem to kill the conclusion.

The conclusion isn't dependent on these things not being connected. They can be connected without happiness being dependent on it. (If I say, I'm going to take an umbrella because it's raining, not because it's thundering," that means I'm not taking an umbrella because it's thundering. But I don't need there not to be thunder, or for rain or thunder not to be correlated; that doesn't matter to me.) The conclusion hinges on "a morally virtuous life." Don't get thrown by the excess clauses meant to distract you that aren't the crux of the argument.

[vstoever]

The premise says "one's sense of approval of one's character and projects"
How do we know that means one's sense of their own approval and not one's sense of others approving of them? That was why I eliminated B and picked E because on B (unlike E) it switched from one's sense of approval to people who approve of their own character. Can someone explain this?

Also when you diagrammed this, did you just not diagram the things happiness is not and only diagram what it is?
Thanks!!

[JorieB701]

I'm so appreciative of the previous posters but I'm still not entirely understanding this argument.

I'm thinking about it like this:

Genuine happiness is about the approval of one’s character and projects, therefore the happy life is the good life (which is ultimately a morally virtuous life).

But during my PT I was confused by the language of the conclusion. The "material well-being" part seemed to be a part of the conclusion, is it not? Is it just kind of an aside? If it's inconsequential to the argument being made, as noted by previous posters, then I can understand how E is wrong but the wording is tricky and I'm hoping somebody like Patrick can come in and illuminate this a bit.

[JorieB701]

Conclusion:The happy life tends to be a morally virtuous life.
Premise: genuine happyness consists not in pleasurable feelings but instead in one's sense of approval of one's character and projects.

It's Nessesary Assumption question so be on the look out to new information in the conclusion, which is "a morally virtuous life". The right answer should close the gap between "a morally virtuous life" and "one's sense of approval of one's character and projects. "

So the Answer choice B is correct.

I found the conclusion of this question unusual cos it introduces new information "good life" and give an explaination of it while refutes another alternative explaination. The key to find the right answer is to focus on the argument core.

This post says something I've been confused about for awhile now. This says, "the right answer should close the gap between a morally virtuous life and one's sense of approval.." But if this is a necessary assumption question, how do we know that we need to close this gap? I know that when it comes to answering a sufficient assumption question the gap needs to be closed entirely.. so, when this is said in regards to a necessary assumption question do they simply mean that we need to make some sort of a connection between the premises and conclusion? Are we looking for something that just kind of suggests that the premises are relevant to the conclusion?

[ohthatpatrick]

I think the poster just meant "close the gap" in the "at least somewhat" sense, not necessarily "close it entirely".

I interpret that verbiage as "we've gotta connect these two ideas".

As you can see, the correct answer does NOT close the gap entirely ("tend to").

I'm not sure I understood your question.
Nec and Suff assumption are both concerned with
1. closing gaps
2. ruling out objections

Suff assumption skews way more towards #1 (like 93% of them).
Nec assumption is more 50/50.

[JorieB701]

I think the poster just meant "close the gap" in the "at least somewhat" sense, not necessarily "close it entirely".

I interpret that verbiage as "we've gotta connect these two ideas".

As you can see, the correct answer does NOT close the gap entirely ("tend to").

I'm not sure I understood your question.
Nec and Suff assumption are both concerned with
1. closing gaps
2. ruling out objections

Suff assumption skews way more towards #1 (like 93% of them).
Nec assumption is more 50/50.

Thank you! Awesome breakdown, that helps a lot. Necessary assumption questions have been something of an enigma for me for precisely this reason. I never knew what to expect but it helps to know that it's just 50/50, so I should expect both. I think what throws me off on these questions is when they do seem to close the gap for the most part. I tend to hesitate when committing to an answer because I'm thinking it must be a trap sufficient assumption answer choice.

[vita.viktor]

I think both B and E are required assumptions.

If the conclusion is the second sentence, which can be simplified to say happy life is (1) not one of material well-being (2) but rather a morally virtuous life, then it seems to me both B and E are required assumptions; unless (1) is not part of the conclusion. If (1) is not part of the conclusion, why is it not?

THanks!

[TrevorN218]

I interpreted E as wrong by negating it.
By negating it, "material well-being does increase one's sense of approval of one's character and projects"
This doesn't hurt the argument really. It simply means it increases but since it doesn't state by how much. It could be by .02%. Like others have said as well, material well-being is not relevant information to the argument core.

And C doesn't connect the important parts of the argument. So what if approval of ones character increases pleasurable feelings. This does nothing for general happiness since the argument states general happiness doesn't consist of pleasurable feelings.

[mswang7]

This question threw me for a loop. Here's how I broke it down.
Happiness = not pleasuable feelings
Happiness =approval of character
Happy life ~ good life
Good life = not material
Good life = morally virtuous
therefore
happy/good life is approval, morally virtuous
Happy/good life not pleasurable feelings or material.

I thought A matched this pretty well - if we negate, a morally virtuous life doesn't require the rejection of material well being, I still think this destroys the argument since we cannot have material well being in a morally virtuous life per the above
If we negate B, People who approve their own character tend not to lead morally virtuous lives, I do see how this hinders the argument but not as strongly as A or E
Negation of E, Material well being increases one's sense of character, which is opposite of what the argument says so this destroys as well. Help!