University of Kansas, Spring 2003
Philosophy 161: Introduction to Ethics, Honors
Ben Eggleston—eggleston@ku.edu

Test Questions—Normative Ethics

The test will be given in class on Wednesday, April 9. Please bring a blue book in which to write your answers.

The test will consist of 100 points’ worth of the following questions: three 20-point questions and four 10-point questions. There may also be a bonus question or two, not listed here.

  1. (20 points:) What is the method by which normative-ethical theories are usually judged or evaluated? Give an example of how this method might be used to defend some particular theory, and how it might be used to criticize some particular theory.
  2. (20 points:) What is ethical egoism? How is it different from, and how is it similar to, psychological egoism?
  3. (10 points:) What is wrong with the argument that attempts to prove that ethical egoism is true by claiming that non-egoistic behavior is self-defeating?
  4. (10 points:) In what way might ethical egoism be said to fail to resolve conflicts of interest?
  5. (10 points:) What is the difference between consequentialism and welfarism? How could one be a consequentialist without being a welfarist, and how could one be a welfarist without being a consequentialist?
  6. (20 points:) What is the difference between welfarism and hedonism? In what way does the (fictional) experience machine give rise to an objection to hedonism? How could one be a welfarist without being a hedonist?
  7. (10 points:) What is an example of the things sometimes called backward-looking reasons to which consequentialism accords no moral importance?
  8. (20 points:) What is the defense of utilitarianism that Rachels describes that rejects the validity of the standard method by which normative-ethical theories are usually judged or evaluated?
  9. (10 points:) What is the difference between a categorical imperative and a hypothetical one?
  10. (20 points:) What is the categorical imperative? What thought process would be involved in applying it to a specific moral problem, such as whether to make a false promise or not?
  11. (10 points:) On what basis might one claim that, despite Kant’s own avowals regarding the implications of his theory, the categorical imperative does not prohibit lying in all cases?
  12. (20 points:) What is the second formulation of the categorical imperative? What does Kant mean in calling this another “formulation” of “the” categorical imperative? How is the fact that Kant says that this is another formulation of the categorical imperative not sufficient to make it true that this is another formulation of the categorical imperative?
  13. (20 points:) What is the prisoner’s dilemma (not the specific story from which it gets its name, but its general features). Explain what is meant by the claim that the point of morality is to solve problems that have the form of the prisoner’s dilemma.
  14. (10 points:) What, according to social-contract theory, are the rules of morality?
  15. (10 points): What are two considerations in support of the social-contract theory of morality?
  16. (20 points:) What are the two standard responses than can be offered to claims (such as Kohlberg’s) that women’s essential differences from men makes them less capable than men of thinking rationally about morality? On which response is feminist ethics based?
  17. (10 points:) What is an example of a moral problem or moral issue in regard to which the ethics of care seems superior to traditional normative-ethical theories? What is an example of a moral problem or moral issue in regard to which the ethics of care seems inferior to traditional normative-ethical theories?
  18. (10 points:) What is the relationship between the ethics of care and virtue ethics? How could one be a virtue ethicist without endorsing the ethics of care?
  19. (20 points:) What is the fundamental difference between virtue ethics and traditional normative-ethical theories?
  20. (10 points:) What, according to a virtue ethicist, makes a character trait a virtue?
  21. (10 points:) On what basis might virtue ethics be accused of being “incomplete”?