The sole use and sole object of existence is enjoyment or pleasure,

Question

The sole use and sole object of existence is enjoyment or pleasure, which two words will here be treated as synonymous; happiness, also, though not quite identical in meaning, being occasionally substituted for them. Enjoyment, it must be observed, is of various kinds, measures, and degrees. It may be sensual, or emotional, or imaginative, or intellectual, or moral. It may be momentary or eternal; intoxicating delight or sober satisfaction. It may be unmixed and undisturbed, in which case, however short of duration or coarse in quality, it may in strictness be called happiness; or it may be troubled and alloyed, although of a flavour which would be exquisite if pure, and if there were nothing to interfere with the perception of it. Understood, however, in a sufficiently comprehensive sense, enjoyment or pleasure may be clearly perceived to be the sole object of existence. The whole value of life plainly consists of the enjoyment, present or future, which life affords, or is capable of affording or securing. Now, the excellence of all rules depends on their conduciveness to the object they have in view. The excellence of all rules of life must, therefore, depend on their conduciveness to the sole object which life has in view, viz., enjoyment. But the excellence of rules of life, or of conduct or modes of acting, would seem to be but another name for their morality, and the morality of actions obviously depends on their conformity to moral rules. Whence, if so much be admitted, it necessarily follows that the test of the morality of actions is their conduciveness to enjoyment.    1 
 1. What is the main purpose of the author in writing the passage?

(A) To define a term by giving examples 
(B) To put forward a point of view and explain its implication 
(C) To describe several interpretations of a belief 
(D) To present an unusual interpretation of a well-known fact 
(E) To evaluate two competing beliefs

2 
 2. The author of the passage would agree with each of the following EXCEPT:

(A) Pleasure always leads to happiness.
(B) Pleasure can be of different types.
(C) Enjoyment is no different from pleasure.
(D) Unmixed enjoyment cannot strictly be called enjoyment.
(E) The sole purpose of life is the quest for happiness.

3 
 3. The passage provides information in support of which of the following assertions?

(A) An act of crime cannot be considered an immoral act if a person derives enjoyment from that act.
(B) The terms ‘enjoyment’ and ‘happiness’ can never be used interchangeably.
(C) Alloyed pleasure is not pleasure in the actual sense of the word. 
(D) The morality of actions cannot solely be judged by their perceived enjoyment.
(E) The excellence of all rules of life depends on their morality.

RC Butler 2022  -  Practice Two RC Passages Everyday.   
Passage # 146 Date: 11-Apr-2022
 This question is a part of RC Butler 2022 .  Click here for Details

VKat · Answer

Hello Team,

I have query regarding question no.1.
Option B : To put forward a point of view and explain its implication.

I got the first part but did not get the second part - explaining its implication..

What does implication actually means in context of RCs.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

1. What is the main purpose of the author in writing the passage?

Explanation

Elimination might be a good way to answer this question.  (B)  looks the best because the first line of the passage gives the author’s point of view and the last line gives its implication with respect to morality of actions.

(A)  This is out because the author does not define any term, nor does he give any examples of the same.

(C)  The passage does not talk about a belief or its several interpretations.

(D)  There is nothing to suggest that there is anything unusual in the passage.

(E)  No such competing beliefs are mentioned in the passage.

Answer: B

purvikhandelwal1 · Answer

Hi  Sajjad1994 ,

Can you explain solutions to Q2 and 3? Didn’t get these right.

Thank you:-)

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

2. The author of the passage would agree with each of the following EXCEPT:

Difficulty Level:   Hard

Explanation

The first line of the passage clearly states that pleasure and enjoyment are the same but that these two terms are not the same as ‘happiness’. Also, nowhere does the passage suggest that pleasure and happiness are linked. Hence, the author will not agree with  (A)  which is the correct answer.

(B)  The passage describes several types of pleasure such as sensual, emotional, imaginative, etc.

(C)  The opening line of the passage states that enjoyment and pleasure are the same.

(D)  The line ‘It may be unmixed and undisturbed, in which case, however short of duration or coarse in quality, it may in strictness be called happiness’ clearly implies that this is true.

(E)  This is the main purpose of the passage.

Answer: A

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

3. The passage provides information in support of which of the following assertions?

Difficulty Level:   Hard

Explanation

The last line of the passage states that the morality of actions can be judged by whether they give one pleasure or not; so if an act gives one pleasure, it cannot be considered immoral. Hence,  (A)  should be the correct answer.

(B)  According to the passage, there are certain situations in which these two terms can be used interchangeably.

(C)  Opposite. The passage actually says this for unalloyed or unmixed pleasure.

(D)  Opposite. The last line of the passage states the same.

(E)  According to the passage, the excellence of all rules of life depends on whether they can provide enjoyment (and not morality) or not.

Answer: A

HaticePoyraz · Answer

Hi,

Could you explain the option E in detail? Because the author states that happiness is not the synonym of pleasure/enjoyment and the author believes that The sole purpose of life is the quest for pleasure, not happiness - I guess -.

akshitab2912 · Answer

Sajjad1994  : wrt to Q2 - where is it mentioned that the sole purpose of the life is happiness - the author clearly says that the sole purpose of the life is enjoyment/pleasure (which is different from happiness) - so Option E don't you think is just as relevant an answer?

ashutosh_73 · Answer

Hi  carcass  I request your help in Q2.

I was stuck between two options. Both didn't seem to have direct or indirect support from the passage, but i found (E) more easy to eliminate.

Only time the passage mentions ''happiness'' is here: It may be unmixed and undisturbed, in which case, however short of duration or coarse in quality,  it may in strictness be called happiness

From the above statement i understand that happiness is a subset of enjoyment. If so, how can we say that ''sole purpose of life is quest for happiness''

(A) Pleasure always leads to happiness.
(E) The sole purpose of life is the quest for happiness.

carcass · Answer

The sole use and sole object of existence is enjoyment or pleasure, which two words will here be treated as synonymous; happiness, also, though not quite identical in meaning, being occasionally substituted for them.

enjoyment= pleasure

both = pleasure

however, not always the above statement for happiness

pleasure = happiness

pleasure  different   happiness

Enjoyment, it must be observed, is of various kinds, measures, and degrees. It may be sensual, or emotional, or imaginative, or intellectual, or moral. It may be momentary or eternal; intoxicating delight or sober  satisfaction. It may be unmixed and undisturbed, in which case, however short of duration or coarse in quality, it may in strictness be called happiness;

The whole value of life plainly consists of the enjoyment, present or future, which life affords, or is capable of affording or securing.

From the above equalities and statements

(A) Pleasure always leads to happiness.

(B) Pleasure can be of different types.

Yes: sensual , emotional and blah blah blah

(C) Enjoyment is no different from pleasure.

Yes

(D) Unmixed enjoyment cannot strictly be called enjoyment.

yes. it can be unmixed or not

(E) The sole purpose of life is the quest for happiness.

Yes. last sentence I reported: the whole value of life

A is no where stated in the passage and therefore is the correct answer

I hope this helps

crdbacon · Answer

How can you say that  A   is out because author does not give terms? The whole passage is literally explaining terms, like non-stop

Ishaan30 · Answer

Hello VKat,
The implication being talked about in the passage is the implication that test of morals is conducive to the enjoyment. After a lot of discussion, the passage implies it regarding the point of view.
Hope that helps.
Regards

injamulhaque · Answer

Q3, Option (E):

“The excellence of all rules of life depends on their morality.”

The passage explicitly says: “The excellence of rules of life, or of conduct... would seem to be but another name for their morality.”

This is a direct textual support, not an inference stretch.

✅ Therefore, the stronger, text-supported answer is (E), not (A).
If an answer key says (A), it’s either:

A flawed key, or

From a version of the question where the wording was different (e.g., “enjoyment” meant “universal enjoyment,” which wasn’t clarified in the options).

The sole use and sole object of existence is enjoyment or pleasure,

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GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

The sole use and sole object of existence is enjoyment or pleasure,

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