Introduction to Ethics
Study Questions for the Final
Note: See midterm study questions for all material before the midterm.
General Review Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is the thesis of each article?
What are the main reasons that each author offers for their thesis?
Which objections does each author consider to his or her own position?
Which normative or metaethical theory does the author subscribe to?
Specific Questions
1. Why do Y and Z believe that the doctor is responsible for their deaths?
2. Why do Y and Z reject the principle that killing is worse that allowing to die? What role
does the concept of negative responsibility play in their argument?
3. What is the survival lottery? How does it work?
4. Why does Harris think that a morally enlightened society would institute a survival
lottery?
5. Why does Harris exclude smokers and heavy drinkers from the list of eligible donor
recipients?
6. What are the three main objections to the lottery that Harris addresses? How does he
respond to each?
7. Why does Singer think that humans don‟t have any special kind of value, which is
different from animals?
8. What is Singer‟s purpose in describing the two cases in the beginning of his article?
What is he trying to show with them?
9. Singer believes the current distinction in the value of human and non-human life is
arbitrary. What non-arbitrary distinctions does he believe are morally justifiable? (Make
sure to include the discussion of „capacities‟ in your response.) What role does the
example of the dog play in this argument?
10. What are some examples of “arbitrary” qualitative distinctions What makes them
arbitrary?
11. Why does Singer believe that our attitudes towards non-human animals is analogous to
the attitudes of a racist?
12. What are the three possible changes Singer considers making to our current attitudes?
Which does he think is the best and why?
13. In what way are consequentialists and Kantians absolutists in their approach to ethics?
14. What is the Kantian notion of a “maxim”?
15. What is the principle of universalizability and how does Kant employ it in his ethical
system?
16. Why does Kant believe that we are obligated to adhere to the principle of
universalizability?
17. What is the difference between a categorical imperative and a hypothetical imperative?
18. Kant believes that morality must be composed of categorical imperatives. Which of the
authors that we have studied would agree and which of them would disagree?
19. What is the principle of humanity?
20. How do the Kantian and the Consequentialist differ in their attitudes towards slavery?
21. Why do humans have intrinsic value for Kant? Why are we prohibited from treating
human beings as “mere means”?
22. Why does the existence of „moral luck‟ raise problems for the Kantian?
23. How would the consequentialist and the Kantian differ in their views on negative
responsibility?
24. How are certain systems of morality (like Kant‟s) affected by the issue of free will? In
other words, how do the topics of autonomy and moral luck affect how we understand
morality?
25. What are the three ways that moral luck can affect us?
26. What does Strawson mean by “luck swallows everything”?
27. What is the „basic argument‟ against moral responsibility?
28. What role does the capacity to self-determine your character (who you are) play in the
basic argument?
29. How does Strawson respond to the objection that people can choose to change their
character?
30. According to Strawson, why do we believe we‟re morally responsible even if in fact we
are not?
31. How are the retributive emotions related to our beliefs about moral responsibility? Do
we need to believe in moral responsibility in order to feel these emotions?
32. What makes W.D. Ross‟ ethical system non-absolutist? How does it differ from the
Kantian and Consequentialist approach? Consider how all three would handle the case
of the ax murderer.
33. How does Ross‟s theory differ from the utilitarian‟s? Consider how both would regard a
situation in which one is forced to break a promise for the greater good.
34. What is a prima facie duty for Ross? What are some examples of Ross‟ prima facie
duties?
35. What, for Ross, are “the data of ethics”? According to Ross, how is ethical inquiry
similar to scientific inquiry? How are they different?
36. What does Ross believe to be the “foundation on which [we] must build” ethics? Why?
37. Why is Ross‟ system is criticized as being unsystematic? How does he respond?
38. Why is the system criticized as unable to handle moral disagreements?
39. Why does Ross use the “beauty analogy” to defend his moral theory? Why objection is
he responding to with this analogy?
40. What is the distinction between an “ethics of doing” and an “ethics of being”? How does
virtue ethics differ from the approaches we‟ve studied earlier?
41. Why isn‟t ethics like mathematics for Aristotle, and why is this difference important for
the virtue ethicist.
42. What is eudaimonia? Why is it so important for the virtue ethicist?
43. What are the two components of a virtuous action?
44. What role does emotion and motivation play in virtue ethics? Compare to other
normative theories?
45. What is the “golden mean” and how does it enable us to identify the virtues?
46. Why is moral education so important for the virtue ethicist?
47. Why is moral diversity a potential problem for the virtue ethicist?
48. What are the empirical assumptions of the virtue ethics approach?
49. What is situationism?
50. Why is situationism considered a threat to virtue ethics?
51. How do the Asch conformity experiment, the Milgram experiment, and the Stanford
Prison Experiment support the case for situationism?
52. What are some examples of how individuals took on the persona of the role to which they
were assigned (guard, prisoner, parole officer, prison superintendent) in the Stanford
prison experiment? How do these stories relate to issues in virtue ethics and free will?
53. What is the fundamental attribution error? Why is it relevant to the situationist‟s thesis?
54. Why might a virtue ethicist embrace Zimbardo‟s final thoughts in the interview?
55. How does Bennett define sympathy? How does he define morality? Come up with your
own example of a conflict between sympathy and morality.
56. Describe Huck Finn‟s and Himmler‟s conflict. According to Bennett, what do these
conflicts tell us about moral decision-making?
57. How do Edwards, Himmler, and Huck resolve their conflicts between sympathy and
morality?
58. What, according to Bennett, is the danger of always relying on our sympathy? How
might the situationist‟s thesis support Bennett‟s worry?
59. How does Bennett suggest we should resolve the conflict between morality and
sympathy? Why might the situationist thesis pose a problem for this resolution?
60. According to Judith Jarvis Thomson (JJT henceforth), what is the most common
argument for the wrongness of abortion? What premise do defenders of abortion usually
target? Which premise does JJT target in her article?
61. How does the case of the violinist seem to undermine the target premise?
62. According to JJT, what does the “right to life” really amount to? Why is understanding
the right to life properly important for her argument?
63. What is JJT‟s conclusion? If she is right, what implications would the conclusion have
for the abortion debate?
64. Marquis, like JJT, does not want to focus on the question of whether of the fetus is a
person. Why not?
65. Marquis attempts to determine what makes killing wrong in general. Why does he think
we need the answer to that question before we can determine whether killing a fetus is
wrong?
66. What, according to Marquis, makes killing wrong in general?
67. How does he use the answer to question 66 in his argument that abortion is immoral?
68. Why is it crucial for Marquis that the argument does not also show contraception to be
immoral?
69. What is difference between normative ethics and metaethics?
70. Describe what the moral realist, relativist, and nihilist believe about the status of moral
judgments.
71. Describe the view that Midgley characterizes as moral isolationism.
72. Why, according to moral isolationists, do moral isolationists believe that we must be
tolerant of other moral systems and what difficulty does that raise for the theory?
73. Why does Midgley believe that moral isolationism will lead to total moral skepticism?
74. What is the social intuitionist model of moral judgment? How does it differ from the
rationalist model? Is Haidt offering a descriptive theory or a normative theory?
75. What does Haidt mean when he says that “reason is the press secretary of the emotions”?
76. How does the case of Julie and Mark support the case for Haidt‟s model?
77. How does the trolley problem with Chip Ellsworth III and Tyrone Payton support the
model?
78. What, according to Haidt, are the four (or five) pillars or foundations of morality?
79. How does Haidt explain persistent disagreements between liberals and conservatives?
80. How might Haidt‟s theory help conservatives and liberals understand each other better?
81. Why might the moral foundation theory offer support for moral relativism, at least about
certain key moral questions?
82. What are the two distinctive features of moral practice, according to Smith?
83. What role does the concept of a reason play in Smith‟s understanding of a moral fact?
84. What, according to Smith, constitutes a moral fact?
85. What is required in order for it to be plausible that there are moral facts?
86. How might Haidt‟s moral foundation theory raise difficulties for Smith‟s version of
moral realism?