Exam 6: Nonconsequentialist Theories: Do Your Duty

The moral theory that says the morally right action is the one that follows the dictates of nature is known as ________.

A pregnant woman has cancer and will die unless she receives chemotherapy to destroy the tumors. If she takes the chemotherapy to destroy the tumors, the fetus will die. According to the doctrine of double effect, it is not morally permissible for her to do so.

Applying the second formulation of the categorical imperative to the act of lying to a friend on important matters would show that the action is impermissible because

The difference between hypothetical and categorical imperatives is that

Suppose a ninety-year-old man is dying of cancer and is in excruciating pain that no medicine can relieve. He asks to be given a lethal injection. According to the doctrine of double effect, giving the injection is not morally permissible.

In natural law theory, the emphasis on reason makes morality independent of

Aquinas says that judging the rightness of actions is a matter of

According to Kant's theory, duties that absolutely must be followed without fail are known as ________.

According to Kant, it is morally permissible to treat a server in a restaurant as a means to the end of buying food.

The doctrine of ________ is the principle that performing a good action may be permissible even if it has bad effects, but performing a bad action for the purpose of achieving good effects is never permissible.

A categorical imperative tells us

Applying the first formulation of the categorical imperative to the act of lying to a friend would show that the action is impermissible because

A serious criticism of Kant's theory is that it

Like many moral theories, Kant's system fails to

Many philosophers insist that the teleological character of nature has never been supported by logical argument or empirical science because

According to Aquinas, the first precept of natural law theory is

Natural law theorists claim that humans naturally incline toward procreation, which implies that the use of contraceptives is always wrong.

Kant's theory emphasizes three of morality's most important features; the three are

The absolutism of natural law theory (that is, the fact that some actions are always wrong [or right] regardless of circumstances) would not bother

The idea that we must always treat people (including ourselves) as ends in themselves, never merely as things of instrumental value, is known as the ________ principle.