Ethicist: People who avoid alcoholic beverages simply because they regard them as a luxury beyond their financial means should not be praised for their abstinence. Similarly, those who avoid alcohol simply because they lack the desire to partake should not be praised, unless this disinclination has somehow resulted from an arduous process of disciplining oneself to refrain from acting indiscriminately on one' s desires. Which one of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the ethicist's claims?
A: A person is praiseworthy for a particular behavior only if, in order to adopt that behavior, the person at some point had to overcome a desire to do something that she or he felt able to afford to do.
B: The apportionment of praise and blame should be commensurate with the arduousness or ease of the lives of those who receive praise or blame.
C: Whether behavior should be regarded as praiseworthy is a function of both its consequences and the social context in which the agent acts.
D: A person should be blamed for an action only if that action was not motivated by a desire to be virtuous or if the person did not have to overcome any obstacles in order to perform that action.
Choose A, B, C or D as your solution.
A