Deck 12: War, Terrorism, and Torture

Question 1

A war that involves actual fighting is known as

A) a hot war.
B) a cold war.
C) a war simpliciter.
D) none of the above

Answer 1

A

Question 2

A war over ideological differences carried out by methods short of sustained overt military action and usually without breaking off diplomatic relations is known as

A) a war simpliciter.
B) a hot war.
C) a cold war.
D) none of the above

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The view that moral considerations do not apply to war is known as

A) jus ad bellum.
B) antiwar pacifism.
C) just war theory.
D) moral nihilism.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The view according to which wars are always (or at least nearly always) morally wrong is known as

A) just war theory.
B) antiwar pacifism.
C) moral nihilism.
D) jus ad bellum.

Question 5

Just war theory's principle of military necessity belongs to

A) jus in bello.
B) jus ad bellum.
C) moral nihilism.
D) all of the above

Question 6

Thomas Nagel call the two kinds of moral considerations he discusses in "War and Massacre"

A) consequentialist and dignity-based
B) forward-looking and backward-looking
C) utilitarian and absolutist
D) All of the above

Question 7

Nagel thinks that the core of the absolutist position is that

A) human persons have a right to life.
B) it is permissible to harm as a foreseen but unintended consequence of action.
C) the ends justify the means.
D) the hostility should be directed at its true object.

Question 8

Nagel clarifies that absolutism is the view that we should

A) prevent murder at all costs
B) avoid murder at all costs
C) only sometimes prevent murder
D) only sometimes avoid murder

Question 9

Since Nagel thinks there can be genuine moral dilemmas, he denies the moral principle that

A) can implies should.
B) can implies ought.
C) ought implies can.
D) ought implies should.

Question 10

Which of the following is not one of the four main excuses for terrorism that Michael Walzer discusses?

A) Terrorism is a form of freedom of speech.
B) Terrorism is a last resort.
C) Terrorism benefits oppressed groups.
D) All political activity is terroristic.

Question 11

According to Walzer, "in the absence of political support, terrorism may indeed be the one available strategy, but it is hard to see how its evils can then be excused" because

A) the absence of political support implies that the terrorists do not represent the weak.
B) terrorism can never be the only available strategy.
C) evils, by definition, cannot be excused.
D) none of the above

Question 12

In responding to terrorism, says Walzer, it is particularly important that

A) we make an effort to convince the terrorists that they are acting wrongly.
B) we avoid harming terrorists to the same extent that we would avoid harming innocent civilians.
C) we attack the lower-ranking terrorists first.
D) we do not repeat the wrongs of terrorism in the process.

Question 13

The only way to break out of the "terrorist cycle," says Walzer, is to

A) attack quickly, swiftly, and with full force.
B) use the same tactics the terrorists use.
C) avoid playing the terrorism game.
D) use psychological rather than military tactics.

Question 14

The "double standard" with which states and nonstate entities are judged, according to Andrew Valls, is that

A) violence by nonstate entities is more easily accepted than state violence.
B) state violence is treated differently from nonmilitary action by the state (e.g., economic sanctions).
C) state violence is more easily accepted than violence by nonstate entities.
D) state violence is evaluated via just war theory, but violence by nonstate entities is evaluated via consequentialism.

Question 15

In his definition of terrorism, Valls defines "violence" as

A) including only bodily harm to persons.
B) including bodily harm to persons and the destruction of property.
C) including only the destruction of property.
D) none of the above

Question 16

According to Valls, a just cause for political violence is usually

A) Defensive..
B) Offensive.
C) Territorial.
D) economically motivated.

Question 17

In his discussion of discrimination in war, Valls suggests that

A) there is no difference between combatants and noncombatants.
B) the difference between combatants and noncombatants is a matter of degree.
C) the difference between combatants and noncombatants is categorical and clear.
D) "terrorism" should be defined as indiscriminate violence.

Question 18

What kind of consequentialist theory does Dershowitz think can justify terrorism in certain extreme particular cases?

A) act-based deontology
B) rule-based hedonism
C) rule utilitarianism
D) act utilitarianism

Question 19

Which of the following is a method of torture that Dershowitz believes is appropriate in those cases where torture is permissible?

A) having a sterilized needle shoved under the victim's fingernails
B) electrocution at nonlethal levels
C) submerging the victim in water so he or she feels as if he or she is drowning
D) none of the above; Dershowitz thinks torture is wrong in all cases

Question 20

Which of the following is a view that Dershowitz argues for?

A) Torture is permissible in the "ticking bomb" case.
B) No democratic society should allow public officials to engage in illegal actions "off the books."
C) "Torture warrants" should be part of a legal system regulating the practice of torture.
D) all of the above

Question 21

Dershowitz discusses the hypothetical case where the hijacked planes of 9/11 must be shot down to argue that important decisions like these

A) often have to be made quickly and without immediate authorization.
B) should be made with visibility and accountability by the highest-level officials.
C) have no objective answer.
D) none of the above

Question 22

Marcia Baron argues that the artificiality of ticking bomb cases is problematic because

A) the artificial assumptions are, in fact, empirical claims that are central to the debate
B) all artificial thought experiments are philosophically useless.
C) it leads us to believe that torture is always permissible.
D) all of the above

Question 23

Baron cites a summary of Ali Soufan's Senate testimony to suggest that

A) torture works in only limited situations.
B) endorsing a single act of torture requires endorsing torture as a practice.
C) successful interrogation may not require torture.
D) torture is always wrong without exception.

Question 24

One problem with treating the ticking bomb case as involving only a single instance of torture, according to Baron, is that

A) justifying one instance of torture requires justifying the practice of torture.
B) it is virtually impossible for torture to be limited to just one instance.
C) both A and B
D) neither A nor B

Question 25

Baron admits that the versions of the ticking bomb hypothetical she discusses are "stunningly stupid," but she claims this is actually evidence of

A) the stupidity of most traditional philosophical examples.
B) a general lack of intelligence among people with advanced degrees.
C) the wrongness of torture.
D) the readiness on the part of many intelligent people to see torture as the best solution to deal with terrorism.

Question 26

Examples of hot wars include World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War.

Question 27

Jus in bello is that part of just war theory that sets forth moral requirements for going to war.

Question 28

Just war pacifism is a form of antiwar pacifism according to which, because of the stringent requirements of just war theory, the massive use of lethal force is almost always morally wrong.

Question 29

Thomas Nagel accepts the difference between doing and allowing.

Question 30

Nagel defends an unqualified form of absolutism which denies utilitarian moral reasons

Question 31

Nagel thinks that in cases of conflict between utilitarian and absolutist moral reasons, absolutist reasons should always win out.

Question 32

Nagel endorses the doctrine of double effect as part of his absolutist position

Question 33

On the form of absolutism Nagel defends, pacifism is the only permissible course of action in warfare.

Question 34

Nagel defends the view that both utilitarian and absolutist moral considerations are an important part of moral reasoning.

Question 35

Michael Walzer thinks that, if terrorists complain of oppression, addressing that oppression would
only confirm the effectiveness of their tactics.

Question 36

Walzer argues that the fourth excuse he discusses (that terrorism is a proper response to aggression) relies on an overly cynical view of political life.

Question 37

Walzer argues that terrorism is rarely, if ever, truly a last resort.

Question 38

Andrew Valls dismisses some definitions of terrorism because they entail that terrorism is intrinsically wrong or morally unjustifiable.

Question 39

According to Valls, the right to self-determination can justify political violence for states but not for nonstate actors.

Question 40

Valls claims that if states can justifiably discriminate between combatants and noncombatants when using political violence, then so can nonstate entities.

Question 41

According to Dershowitz, act utilitarianism could even justify some acts of terrorism.

Question 42

Dershowitz argues that a warrant requirement for torture would not reduce instances of torture.

Question 43

In Dershowitz's view, all cases of torture should be illegal, though the law should allow for the exoneration of individuals who can morally justify their actions.

Question 44

The point of ticking bomb cases, according to Marcia Baron, is to weaken absolutist commitments against torture.

Question 45

Baron discusses her hypothetical case of catastrophe-preventing rape to show that rape is also a form of torture.

Question 46

The textbook defines a(n) _________ as a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nation.

Question 47

The textbook defines terrorism as the use of threat or violence against innocent people to elicit terror in them or in some other group of people to further a(n) _________ objective.

Question 48

The textbook defines _________ as activities involving the infliction of intense pain on a victim with the aim of punishing, coercing, or deriving sadistic satisfaction.

Question 49

Thomas Nagel defines _________ as the view that good should be maximized and evil minimized.

Question 50

Nagel thinks that absolutism does not entail that one ignore the _________ of one's actions.

Question 51

According to Nagel's version of absolutism, hostility towards someone can be justified as part of absolutism when it is, among other things, _________ at it's true object

Question 52

Nagel thinks that there are genuine moral _________ when utilitarian and absolutist considerations conflict

Question 53

On Michael Walzer's view, there is no _________ for terrorism.

Question 54

According to Walzer, the idea that all politics is really terrorism betrays our _________ about political life

Question 55

According to Walzer, the third excuse (that terrorism is effective on behalf of oppressed groups) is essentially a consequentialist argument and thus provides a(n) _________ of terrorism rather than an excuse.

Question 56

The best ways of responding to terrorism, says Walzer, involve retaliation and _________.

Question 57

Regarding the link between terrorism and repression, Walzer claims, "Oppression is not so much the cause of terrorism as terrorism is one of the primary _________ of oppression."

Question 58

Andrew Valls defines _________ as violence committed by nonstate actors against persons or property for political purposes.

Question 59

Valls argues that if the right to _________ gives states just cause for going to war (e.g., to defend against an aggressors attack), then this same right can give nonstate entities just case for political violence

Question 60

Valls mentions the distinction between using violence to target innocent civilians and using violence merely with the knowledge that innocent civilians would be harmed as a side effect. This distinction corresponds to the principle of _________, and Valls argues that if the principle is rejected, then terrorism and war will seem even more similar.

Question 61

Dershowitz argues that "tolerating an off-the-book system of secret torture can . . . establish a dangerous _________."

Question 62

Dershowitz mentions three values that are pitted against each other when considering torture, the first of which is the safety and security of a nation's _________.

Question 63

In his discussion of the "ticking bomb" case, Dershowitz focuses on the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy _________.

Question 64

Marcia Baron says, "The ticking time bomb hypothetical is marred by the very feature that is supposed to make it so compelling: that there is no _________ to lose."

Question 65

Baron argues that catastrophe-preventing torture is treated differently from catastrophe-preventing rape because "we are still bedeviled into thinking that torture is generally _________."