Deck 2: Ethical Theory and Business

Question 1

Which of the following statements is true of ethical theories?

A)Most ethical theories place utmost importance to matters of personal opinion, individual desires, preferences, and wants.
B)Ethical theories are very abstract and disconnected from the realities of the everyday life.
C)Ethical theories not only guide our actions but also provide reasonable justification for prescribing behavior.
D)Most ethical theories hold that good and bad acts should be judged by their consequences.

Answer 1

Ethical theories not only guide our actions but also provide reasonable justification for prescribing behavior.

Question 2

Which of the following ethical traditions implies that a greedy person who does distasteful and selfish things will not lead a fulfilling and good human life?

A)Virtue ethics
B)Utilitarianism
C)Kantian categorical imperative
D)Psychological egoism

Answer 2

Virtue ethics

Question 3

Which of the following statements is true of utilitarian ethics?

A)It upholds adhering to a set of principles that may forbid an act that might otherwise provide overall good consequences.
B)It holds that the ethical significance of any action can be determined by looking at the consequences of that act.
C)It applies most appropriately to ethical personal behavior and decision making.
D)It believes in maximizing personal well-being and the achievement of hedonistic pleasures.

Answer 3

It holds that the ethical significance of any action can be determined by looking at the consequences of that act.

Question 4

Which proposition correctly describes the concept of a right?

A)Rights protect a person's wants.
B)There is really no distinction between a person's wants and interests. Rights protect both.
C)Rights protect a person's interests.
D)My rights never correspond to your duties and your duties never correspond to my rights.

Question 5

Which of the following statements is consistent with principle-based ethics?

A)Obligations, responsibilities, and commitments do not determine the correct approach to ethics.
B)Individuals have rights that should not be sacrificed in order to generate a net increase in the collective good.
C)Although certain acts are wrong, they should be performed for the overall happiness they may produce.
D)An act that produces the greatest beneficial consequences is the ethically right thing to do.

Question 6

Which of the following statements is true of Kant's categorical imperative?

A)Kant claimed that all human behavior is egoist, or intended for one's own self-interest.
B)Kant believed that lying could be made a universal law if it benefitted the majority of mankind.
C)Kant believed that child labor can be justified as it is a means for raising the standard of living in an impoverished country.
D)Kant claimed that ethics requires us to treat all people as ends and not only as means.

Question 7

Which of the following statements is true of virtue ethics?

A)Virtue ethics holds that ethical decisions are determined on the overall social consequences of an act.
B)Virtue ethics directs us to consider how various character traits can contribute to, or obstruct, a worthy and good human life.
C)Virtue ethics is especially focused on categorizing communities and organizations as good or bad.
D)Virtue ethics is based on the principle that some individuals should not benefit excessively at the expense of vulnerable others.

Question 8

Principle-based ethics is based on the concepts of promises, justice, fairness, rights, and duties.

Question 9

Child labor is a very common phenomenon with cases of employing children in the manufacturing of athletic shoes and clothing being the most well-publicized instances.

Question 10

Because utilitarianism focuses on consequences, producing the greatest happiness for the greatest number as the sole criterion for determining ethical right and wrong, no action is ever right or wrong in itself, in all cases, in every situation-even, perhaps, lying.

Question 11

Principle-based ethics, also called rights-based ethics, refers to the concept that the correct path to ethical decision making is determined by duties, such as obligations, commitments, and responsibilities, and not by consequences.

Question 12

Principle-based ethics might allow the sacrifice of individual rights if the overall good demanded it.

Question 13

According to Kant, any action's maxim that cannot be universalized is ethically wrong and should not be performed.

Question 14

One way to understand rights is to identify them with a person's wants. Rights protect these wants even though, objectively, they may conflict with what is really good for a person.

Question 15

The theory of virtue ethics focuses on a full and detailed description of those character traits that would constitute a good and human life. Egoism is simply not a factor in the ethical decision making of caring, empathetic, charitable, and sympathetic persons.

Question 16

The condition of plenty or surplus and competition allows everyone to get what they want; this is a condition of free market capitalism.

Question 17

There is a consensus among utilitarians on how to measure and determine the overall good.

Question 18

Historically, utilitarians place a very high value on individual freedom of choice, even though free individuals do not always choose what is good for them.

Question 19

According to principle-based ethics, individuals possess certain basic rights that should not be violated even if doing so would increase the overall good or social happiness.

Question 20

A version of utilitarian ethics invoking the tradition of Adam Smith claims that competitive markets are the best means for attaining utilitarian goals. This is "market" utilitarianism.

Question 21

Unlike utilitarians, policy makers are not concerned with the well-being of the whole community.

Question 22

In the context of principle-based ethics, rights and duties are correlated.

Question 23

Rights are sometimes described as "trumps" that override the collective will. Rights function to protect certain interests that are more important and central in human well-being than the mere happiness of others.

Question 24

Virtue ethics reminds us to examine how character traits are formed and conditioned.

Question 25

Virtue ethicists turn to such fields as psychology, education, organizational behavior, and sociology to gain insight about how to teach virtue.

Question 26

Human beings are no more naturally selfish and greedy than they are naturally kind and compassionate.

Question 27

Jeremy Bentham argued that only the absence of pain is intrinsically valuable.

Question 28

According to John Stuart Mill, people need to be educated and experienced in a variety of pleasures before they are competent to judge.

Question 29

Utilitarian ethics has played a prominent role in forming public policy and laws governing finance, employment, consumerism, and world trade.