Nuances between the prepositions "при" and "с" in "при таком отношении к учебе" vs "с таким отношением к учебе"

Question

Как ни странно, но даже при таком отношении к учебе, я умудрился сдать все экзамены за второе учебное полугодие.

{vs}: Как ни странно, но даже с таким отношением к учебе, я умудрился сдать все экзамены за второе учебное полугодие.

From an English speaker's perspective, it is tempting to opt for the preposition "с" to express the idea of "with such attitude towards ...". In this context, French, Italian and German also use the with prepositions: "avec/con/mit".

I wonder if it is more common in Russian to choose the preposition "при". How are these two nuanced?

Answer 1

If с is with, then при is given. “При”, the more official-sounding of the two, just states some condition, while “с” implies closer ties to the speaker.

The sentences given sound 99% equivalent because “отношение к учебе” is internal to the student anyway. But compare:

Не могу работать при таком свете — anyone could say this to complain about the workplace being poorly lit.

Не могу работать с таким светом — while this usage could be synonymous with the above in principle, this heavily implies that light is an essential part of the work, e. g. a photographer could say this.