Those who opine lose their impunity when the circumstances in which th

Question

Aristotle RC 99 - Passage 71     
   Those who opine lose their impunity when the circumstances in which they pontificate are such that generate from their expression a positive instigation of some mischievous act. An opinion that corn dealers are starvers of the poor, or that owning private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn dealer, or when handed about among the same mob in the form of a placard. Acts, of whatever kind, which without justifiable cause do harm to others, may be, and in the more important cases are absolutely required to be, controlled by the unfavorable sentiments, and, when needful, by the active interference of mankind. The liberty of the individual must be thus far limited; he must not make himself a nuisance to other people. But if he refrains from molesting others in matters that concern them, and merely acts according to his own inclination and judgment in matters which concern himself he should be allowed, without molestation, to carry his opinions into practice at his own cost. As it is useful that while mankind are imperfect there should be different opinions, so it is that there should be different experiments of living, that free scope should be given to varieties of character, short of injury to others, and that the worth of different modes of life should be proved practically, when anyone thinks fit to try them. Where not the person‘s own character but the traditions and customs of other people are the rule of conduct, there is wanting one of the principal ingredients of individual and social progress.

It would be absurd to pretend that people ought to live as if nothing whatever had been known in the world before they came into it; as if experience had as yet done nothing toward showing that one mode of existence, or of conduct, is preferable to another. Nobody denies that people should be so taught and trained in youth as to know and benefit by the ascertained results of human experience. But it is the privilege and proper condition of a human being, arrived at the maturity of his faculties, to use and interpret experience in his own way. It is for him to find out what part of recorded experience is properly applicable to his own circumstances and character. The traditions and customs of other people are, to a certain extent, evidence of what their experience has taught them—presumptive evidence, and as such, have a claim to his deference—but, in the first place, their experience may be too narrow, or they may have not interpreted it rightly. Secondly, their interpretation of experience may be correct, but unsuited to him. Customs are made for customary circumstances and customary characters, and his circumstances or his character may be uncustomary. Thirdly, though the customs be both good as customs and suitable to him, yet to  conform to custom merely as custom  does not educate him or develop in him any of the qualities which are the distinctive endowments of a human being. He gains no practice either in discerning or desiring what is best.   1 
 B 
 1. Based on information in the passage, with which of the following statements about opinions would the author most likely NOT disagree?

A. Different opinions exist because people are imperfect.
B. An opinion can be relatively harmless in one context and dangerous in another.
C. Opinions directed specifically against fellow human beings should be punished.
D. All expressions of opinion should really be considered actions.
E. An opinion always has an additional unintended effect

2 
 B 
 2. The author holds that one should not necessarily defer to the traditions and customs of other people. The author supports his position by arguing that:

I. traditions and customs are usually the result of misinterpreted experiences.
II. customs are based on experiences in the past, which are different from modern experiences.
III. customs can stifle one‘s individual development.

A. II only
B. III only
C. I and III only
D. II and III only
E. None

3 
 C 
 3. The existence of which of the following phenomena would most strongly challenge the author‘s argument about ― "conforming to custom merely as custom" ?

A. A class in morality taught at a parochial high school
B. An important discovery made by a researcher who uses unconventional methods
C. A culture in which it is traditional to let children make their own decisions
D. A custom that involves celebrating a noteworthy historical event
E. a culture in which only the senior most person takes the important decisions

Patronus · Accepted Answer

Summary:
A person can give opinions in a non-pompous way as long as it does not harm others. 
When you live in a region where customs are prevalent, then you should learn from the experiences before giving opinions. 
3 ways how customs adds to each individual unique experience.

1. Based on information in the passage, with which of the following statements about opinions would the author most likely NOT disagree?
 
A. Different opinions exist because people are imperfect.
 1st para, 6th sentence: "As it is useful that while mankind are imperfect there should be different opinions..." does not imply BECAUSE "people are imperfect" there are "different opinions"
 
B. An opinion can be relatively harmless in one context and dangerous in another.
 1st para, 2nd sentence: "An opinion that corn dealers are starvers of the poor, or that owning private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn dealer, or when handed about among the same mob in the form of a placard" This is an example ditto of what is describe in option B. CORRECT. 
 
C. Opinions directed specifically against fellow human beings should be punished.
 1st para, 3rd sentence: "Acts, of whatever kind, which without justifiable cause do harm to others, may be, and in the more important cases are absolutely required to be, controlled by the unfavourable sentiments, and, when needful,  by the active interference of mankind ." The underlined portion only goes far that "when needful, active interference of mankind" can be used. It does not go as far to say it SHOULD be punished. 
 
D. All expressions of opinion should really be considered actions.
 The whole of 1st para explains scenarios where expressions of opinions could be considered or non-considered actions (the ones which cause harm to others)
 
E. An opinion always has an additional unintended effect
 No support for this anywhere

2. The author holds that one should not necessarily defer to the traditions and customs of other people. The author supports his position by arguing that:

I. traditions and customs are usually the result of misinterpreted experiences. 
 2nd para, 3rd line: "The traditions and customs of other people are,... evidence of what their experience has taught them...but, in the first place, their experience may be too narrow, or they may have not interpreted it rightly. " 
So the passage says that people MIGHT have had narrow experience, and MIGHT have not interpreted it rightly. So the use of "usually" in I is not justified.  
II. customs are based on experiences in the past, which are different from modern experiences.
 No support for past/ present in the 2nd part of the passage.
 III. customs can stifle one‘s individual development.
 2nd para, last line: "does not educate him or develop in him any of the qualities which are the distinctive endowments of a human being. He gains no practice either in discerning or desiring what is best." III is simply a concise way of what is said in the passage.
 
A. II only
 B. III only 
C. I and III only
D. II and III only
E. None

3. The existence of which of the following phenomena would most strongly  challenge  the author‘s argument about ―"conforming to custom merely as custom"? 
 Just to re-iterate, the passage, in its last line said that to conform to custom merely as custom does not educate him or develop a person. He gains no practice either in discerning or desiring what is best. 
We have to challenge (weaken) the conclusion by saying that conforming to custom DOES educate/develop a person and he DOES gain practice in distinguishing what is best for him.

A. A class in morality taught at a parochial high school
 No talk about how "a class in morality" can help a person distinguish what is best for him. 
 B. An important discovery made by a researcher who uses unconventional methods
 It is a discovery, so it does not even fall as a "custom" which as the passage says needs to be trained in youth, and inculcated through experience. 
 C. A culture in which it is traditional to let children make their own decisions
 Well, if a culture allows little kids to make decisions for themselves then it has transferred the onus of making the decision of good or bad from parents to kids. CORRECT
 D. A custom that involves celebrating a noteworthy historical event
 Celebrating an event may be a part of custom, however, it does not help in understanding how it helps to distinguish good from bad.
 E. a culture in which only the senior most person takes the important decisions
 Well this is a strengthener!

jeetparicha85 · Answer

An excellent passage for practice and getting those RC shoes on, but I highly doubt (and its my personal opinion) if such passages actually help in GMAT prep. First of all, per my prep experience, GMAT almost never confuses readers with so many hard-to-make-sense words. And secondly, RC tests just what the name suggest, Reading comprehension. It almost never tests vocabulary. Yeah, questions pertaining to words in the context of the passage are certainly asked, but in a manner used in this passage.

I was excited about this project and had assumed that it was definitely going to help me in my GMAT prep, but from the very first passage, and I am sorry to say this, I feel the passage deviates slightly from what the GMAT tests.

I was excited about this project and had assumed that it was definitely going to help me in my GMAT prep, but from the very first passage, and I am sorry to say this, I feel the passage deviates slightly from what the GMAT tests.

Gnpth · Answer

It asks us to negate the author's argument. From the marked words, The author is arguing that conforming to custom for custom‘s sake stifles development. We need to find an answer where it doesn't restrain. So Answer choice C does that. Hence that's the correct answer. Hope it helps

crazykaushik · Answer

Hi, I have got all the answers correct and here is my version of explanation:-

1.) As the question here writes "author most likely NOT disagree", we may consider it as "author would agree to some extent". So, we need to find the answer which is implicit in the passage and author agrees. If we analyze the first para, it explains a scenarios where someone's opinion can incur punishment and also explains that if someone makes judgement that only concerns himself, then he should be allowed to, i.e. should not be punished. So, these two explanation shows that opinion can be harmless or dangerous in different scenarios, hence option B.

2.) This is explained in the second paragraph. Author explains "The traditions and customs of other people are, to a certain extent, evidence of what their experience has taught them" and then says "their interpretation of experience may be correct, but unsuited to him". This means, the author wants to convey the message that tradition and customs may be unsuited to someone and can stifle individual's development. Hence option B i.e. III argument is correct. Other two are nowhere mentioned in the passage.

3.) If we read the whole line containing "conforming to custom merely as custom", the author here tries to explain that the "conform to custom merely as custom does not educate him or develop in him any of the qualities". So, to answer the question, we need to find an option which indicates that customs help in development of some qualities. Option C says that a certain culture allows children to make their own decision, and hence we can derive that that culture contribute to the development of certain qualities. So, option C challenges the author argument and hence C is the correct answer.

Rudranket · Answer

Anu26

Question says what is that with which author is MOST likely to agree?

Evaluation option a ) Since passage says 'while mankind are imperfect there   should be   different opinions' whereas option confirms the fact. 
Author states obligation and not fact.
So a) is not 100% correct.

Evaluation option C ) Too extreme. Author asks for human intervention which does not mean punishment.

UJs · Answer

This is why option A & C is incorrect in Q:1

A. Different opinions exist because people are imperfect.
B. An opinion can be relatively harmless in one context and dangerous in another.
C. Opinions directed specifically against fellow human beings should be punished.

for A: read this part of passage
carry his opinions into practice at his own cost. As it is useful that while mankind are imperfect there should be different opinions, so it is that there should be different experiments of living, that free scope should be given to varieties of character..

Author is using "people are imperfect" phrase as one of the reason that they should explore, experiment and make their own opinions, yes new opinions exist because of that , but author never says that its the only reason for Different opinions. too Extreme

for C: read this part of passage
An opinion that corn dealers are starvers of the poor, or that owning private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn dealer

As highlighted above in one case opinions against fellow be left unmolested in other case punished. too Extreme

quiafacere · Answer

GMATNinja  can ypu help explain Q1?

Those who opine lose their impunity when the circumstances in which th

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Those who opine lose their impunity when the circumstances in which th

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