University of Kansas, Fall 2003
Philosophy 672: History of Ethics
Ben Eggleston—eggleston@ku.edu
Test—Aristotle
Please answer 100 points’ worth of the following questions during this class
period. Don’t answer every question; if you do, I’ll ignore your answer to the
last 10-point one. In answering these questions don’t use books, notes, or other
people.
- (20 points:) What is Aristotle’s function argument? Specifically, what is
the conclusion it is meant to prove, and what is the reasoning leading to that
conclusion?
- (10 points:) How does the cultivation of a virtue of character in a person
depend on action and habit?
- (10 points:) What did Aristotle mean when he said that anyone with a
certain virtue wants to act as that virtue requires?
- (20 points:) Some people think that a moral theory is supposed to indicate
what an agent’s duties are, given a non-moral specification of all of the
facts of the situation that the agent is in. How might a person who thinks
this think that Aristotle’s ethics is circular, and thus a failure; and
what would Aristotle’s response to this objection be?
- (20 points:) What are the three kinds of specific (as opposed to general)
justice that Aristotle discusses? For each of them (one by one), what is
Aristotle’s main idea or central principle?
- (20 points:) What are the main points that Aristotle makes in regard to
prudence? How is it different from, and yet related to, wisdom?
- (10 points:) What is the difference between incontinence and intemperance?
Which one is worse, and why?