Review Sheet for the Ethics Final Exam
The following is a good list to guide your review of important terms, concepts and topics relating
to the moral theories and moral issues that we covered in the first half of this semester. You will
want to make sure to be able to apply and connect our seven moral theories to the moral issues.
By connect, we mean that you should be able to formulate a basic argument either for and/or
against a particular position on a moral issue using a particular moral theory. This ability to
connect will be informed from your foundation in the moral theories and your readings of
various articles in the text.
Each problem on the midterm is generally worth 1 or 2 points including (but not limited to)
True/False, Listing, Fill in the Blank, Multiple Choice, Multiple Select Matching and one essay
question worth 10 points. The entire exam is worth 100 pts.
Moral Theories
General Terms (pp. 2-6)
Intrinsic value
Extrinsic value
Moral Theory
Theoretical aim
Practical aim
Value-based moral theories
Duty-based moral theories “deontological”
Consequentialism
Important ideas on page 7
Utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham & John Stuart Mill) – Principle of Utility (welfare)
Hedonistic Utilitarianism (pleasure and pain)
Perfectionist Consequentialism (human perfection in knowledge and achievement)
Act Consequentialism
Rule Consequentialism (two levels of evaluation, p. 9, acceptance value)
Natural Law Theory
Idea that certain actions are “natural” while others are “unnatural”
St. Thomas Aquinas (objective true moral principles grounded in human nature)
Four basic intrinsic goods p. 12
Core basis for determining moral actions
Doctrine of Double Effect
Intrinsic permissibility
Necessity
Nonintentionality
Proportionality
Kantian Moral Theory
Golden Rule
Immanuel Kant
Hypothetical Imperatives
Categorical Imperatives
Humanity Formulation (respect, treats persons as ends and not merely as means)
Universal Law Formulation (maxim)
Application of UL with two tests p. 19
Realm of Ends
Rights-Based Moral Theory
Basic idea of a right
Rights Holders and Rights Addressee
Content of a Right
Strength of a Right
Rights Infringement
Rights Violations
Negative Right
Positive Right
Moral, Human and Legal Rights
Basic Rights
J.L. Mackie
Application of Rights-Based Moral Theory (moral judgment, rights-focused approaches)
Virtue Ethics
Plato and Aristotle
Virtuous Agent
Virtues and Vices (p. 26)
Application of Virtue Ethics
Ethics of Prima Facie Duty
W.D. Ross
Robert Audi
Four basic intrinsic goods (p. 27)
Ten basic prima facie duties (value-based, duties of special obligation)
Dual hybrid nature of Prima Facie (both consequential and deontological)
No super principle discussion (p. 28)
Social Contract Theory
Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Gauthier, Scanlon and John Rawls
Hypothetical agents
Original position
Mutual agreement under a “veil of ignorance”
Principle of Greatest Equal Liberty
Difference Principle
Application to the distribution of wealth
Justice as fairness and rightness as fairness
Contractualism
Moral Issues
Chapter 9: Ethical Treatment of Animals
Direct Moral Standing
Indirect Moral Standing
Ethical Agents
Ethical Patients
Speciesism/Anthropocentrism
Bentham’s statement on the interests of animals (387-388)
Moral Progress
Sentience: Capacity to feel pain
Vegetarianism
Chapter 10: Abortion
Zygote
Embryo
Fetus
Viability
Sentience
“marks” of direct moral standing
Reasons to seek abortion: therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarian, socioeconomic, personal
Pro-choice, pro-life
Conservative, liberal, moderate
1973 Roe v. Wade: guaranteed legality of abortion through first two trimesters
1992: Planned Parenthood v. Casey: established viability instead of trimesters
2003: Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
Good Samaritan, Bad Samaritan, Minimally Decent Samaritan, Splendid/Very Good
Samaritan (Thomsen 443-444)
Chapter 11: Cloning and Genetic Enhancement
Stem Cells
Therapeutic cloning
Reproductive cloning
Genetic Enhancement
Eugenics
SCNT (Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer)
IVF (in vitro fertilization)
Chapter 12: The Death Penalty
Legal Punishment Definition
Retributive Theory of Punishment
Principle of Proportionality
Retentionists
Negative consequences of death penalty
Abolitionists
Chapter 13: War, Terrorism and Torture
War, Cold War & Hot War
Preemptive & Preventative War
Terrorism
Torture
Terrorist Torture
Interrogational Torture
1984 UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatments or Punishments
Moral Nihilism
Antiwar Pacifism
Jus ad Bellum
Legitimate authority
Just cause
Last resort
Prospect of success
Political proportionality
Chapter 13: War, Terrorism and Torture (continued…)
Jus in Bello
Military necessity
Discrimination
Military proportionality
Applying the Doctrine of Double Effect
(Intrinsic proportionality, necessity, nonintentionality, proportionality)
Self-Defense
Rights approach
Kantian Theory approach
Epistemology
Ticking Time Bomb Scenario
Chapter 14: World Hunger and Poverty
Kantian duty to beneficence
1.4 billion of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty, 2008
Questions in response to the duty of beneficence: Scope, Content, and Strength
Thomas Robert Malthus and the Neo-Malthusians
Garrett Hardin’s view
Peter Singer’s view
Ethics of Prima Facie duty when duties conflict
Lifeboat ethics analogy
Chapter 15: The Environment, Consumption and Climate Change
Direct Moral Standing
ANWR debate
Four approaches to the question of Direct Moral Standing
Anthropocentrism
Sentientism
Biocentrism
Ecocentrism (ecosystem)
Four approaches as they relate to being inclusive of nonhuman beings
(living and nonliving)
Atomism
Holism
Ecoholism
Environmental ethic
Tom Regan’s characterization (two parts)
IPCC report projections for the 21st Century
Four Categories of Concern
1. Agriculture, Forestry and Ecosystems
2. Water Resources
3. Human Health
4. Industry, Settlement and Society
Examples of the impact of climate change