Essay on moral laws
_ 1. According to Kant, moral laws are
a. Necessary and apply to all rational beings
b. Grounded in God’s commands
c. Are culturally relative
d. Contingent and apply to all human beings
___ 2. According to Kant, the moral worth of an act depends on
a. The moral character of the agent who performs it
b. The consequences of the action
c. The maxim that is acted on
d. All of the above
___ 3. A utilitarian is someone who
a. Believes that rights are derived from moral laws
b. Ignores the consequences of an action in determining the morality
c. Judges goodness based on whether something promotes social good
d. Says that reason compels people to accept certain universal maxims
___ 4. What all existentialists have in common, according to Sartre, is the view that:
a. God does not exist, and so everything is permitted
b. All humans share a common nature
c. Existence precedes essence
d. Essence precedes existence
___ 5. According to Sartre, the existentialist finds the fact that God does not exist:
a. Liberating
b. Clarifying
c. Very distressing
d. Unimportant
___6. Which writer was a major proponent of the theory of utilitarianism?
a. Jeremy Bentham
b. Immanuel Kant
c. Karl Marx
d. John Rawls
___ 7. Utility can be defined as:
a. Usefulness, in opposition to pleasure
b. Fulfillment of animalistic desires
c. Pleasure and the absence of pain
d. A constant state of rapturous excitement
___ 8. Utilitarianism dictates that actions are morally good
a. When they promote the actor’s interests and well-being
b. When they promote general happiness
c. When they are performed by a virtuous person
d. When they reflect the following of a just principle, regardless of the consequences
___ 9. In response to the criticism that there is not enough time to calculate which actions will produce the most good, Mill replies
a. That people should take more time to deliberate on their actions
b. That this is a necessary limitation of all ethical theories
c. That people know the results that actions tend to produce, and they don’t have to retest every action by first principles every time they perform it
d. That upon reading his essay, people will have all the guidance they need
___10. John Stuart Mill lived most of his life in the following country:
a. France
b. Germany
c. England
d. Russia
___11. A utilitarian is someone who:
a. Believes that rights are derived from natural law
b. Ignores the consequences of actions in determining their morality
c. Judges goodness based on whether something promotes social good
d. Says that reason compels people to accept certain universal maxims
___ 12. “Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except
a. Gifts of fortune
b. Happiness
c. A good will
d. Power and riches
___13. “Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become
a. A source of pleasure
b. A possible law
c. A universal law
d. A means only
___ 14. “So act as to treat humanity, whether in ______________, in every case as an end withal, never as means only.”
a. Following your duty or
b. Thine own person or in that of any other
c. That of any other but not in thine own person,
d. Becoming a universal law
___ 15. Of the man reduced to despair Kant advises
a. The man should take care of responsibilities and then kill himself
b. The man should not kill himself
c. The man should seek the help of friends to get him through hard times
d. He should sacrifice himself to the greater good
___ 16. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill would agree about how to apply Utilitarianism EXCEPT
a. The consequence of an action determents it’s merit
b. The suffering of animals should be taken into account
c. The goal is to maximize overall happiness
d. The goal is to minimize overall suffering
___ 17. Kierkegaard deals with the “absurdity” of Christianity by
a. Saying that one must only believe that which one can prove by the scientific method
b. Saying that one can make something happen if one only believes
c. Saying that one must make a leap of faith
d. Saying that one should therefore become an atheist
___ 18. The highest stage of life, according to Kierkegaard is
a. The religious stage
b. The moral stage
c. The aesthetic state
d. The herd stage
___ 19. According to Nietzsche, the highest level a man can achieve is to become a
a. Good Christian
b. Ubermensch
c. Follower of the herd
d. None of the above
___ 20. The doctrine that what makes an action right is that God commands it to be done
a. Subjective relativism
b. absolutism
c. cultural relativism
d. Divine command theory
True/False
_______ 1. Kant claims that moral obligations are hypothetical imperatives
_______ 2. According to Kant, whether an act is morally right depends on the consequences of the act.
_______ 3. According to existentialist, we are not responsible for our actions.
______ 4. When asked to give ethical guidance to his student, Sartre simply claimed, “You’re free, choose, that is invent.”
______ 5. In Sartre’s view, the fact that God does not exist is cause for celebration.
_______6. Before his death, Jeremy Bentham willed that he should become an auto icon and attend board meetings of his university.
_______ 7. Nietzsche stated that when one goes to meet a woman one should “bring a whip”.
_______ 8. John Stuart Mill believed that women should have the same education as men.
______9. Kant taught that one is free to do whatever one wants to do to one’s body.
______10. Immanuel Kant supported suicide when one is without pleasure near the end of life.
Story Problems (answer two of them)
1. Joe and Bill are stuck on a desert island for several months. Joe, who is very wealthy, becomes very ill and it is clear he is going to die. Joe tells Bill, that before he left on the trip that ended in the crash that brought them to this island, that to avoid problems with his heirs, he took out a billion dollars of treasury bonds and put them in a locker at the airport. Joe gives Bill the key to the locker and gets him to promise that he will retrieve the bonds and give them to his son Sam, after taking out a million dollars for himself. Bill promises to follow his instructions. Joe dies and Bill returns to the US and he gets the bonds, but before he gives them to Sam he discovers that Sam is a drug addict and is presently also awaiting trial for distributing child porn. He also finds that Sam has been removed from Joe’s will. Instead of giving the bonds to Sam the will states that a research lab is on the verge of curing liver cancer.
What would Kant advise him to do?
What would Mill advise him to do?
2. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin represent Nietzsche’s “Superman”. How would you go about proving they were not “Supermen”?
3. Kant and Mill had very different views on personal autonomy. Which view is more in touch with the 21st century? Explain.
4.
NCTC PHIL1301 Exam Essays Fall 2015
Answer two of the following questions, type up your answer and turn it in the day of the exam.
1. Suppose you had the option of doubling the total amount of happiness in the world by either doubling the happiness of existing people or doubling the number of people in the world. Is there any reason to prefer one over the other? Are they utilitarian reasons?
2. Suppose you are a soldier peering down the sight of a bazooka at an enemy tank with six innocent civilians strapped to the outside. Should you fire your bazooka knowing that you will probably kill all the civilians but may not stop the tank? Why or why not?
3. Should we try to reform criminals by erasing their memories? Should we try to reform criminals by changing their character? Is one method preferable to the other? Why or why not?
4. Are split-brain patients really two people in one skull? Are there any physical experiments we could conduct to determine whether two people are present? Describe any such experiments.
5. Is there a reliable test for determining whether any purported work of sacred scripture is truly the word of God? What is it? Does any work of sacred scripture pass that test? Would members of other religions agree?
6. Southern ministers before the Civil War used the Bible to defend the institution of slavery. With existence of Old Testament laws defending slavery and Paul’s statements telling slaves to obey their masters, how could you combat the Southern ministers’ argument?
7. The ultimate virtual reality machine would present a world so real that we couldn’t tell that it was fake. Can you know that you’re not plugged into an ultimate virtual reality machine right now? If not, what difference does it make?
8. According to existentialists, when is a choice authentic?
