Deck 2: Subjectivism, Relativism, and Emotivism

Question 1

Suppose your culture endorses the view that all wars are wrong.It follows from cultural relativism that your culture:

A)cannot be mistaken about the morality of war.
B)must disagree with other cultures about the morality of war.
C)is fallible in moral matters.
D)is rarely mistaken about moral matters.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

For the emotivist,the moral utterance "Lying is wrong" signifies something like:

A)"Lying-boo, hiss!"
B)"Lying may be wrong."
C)"Lying is immoral!"
D)"Lying has occurred!"

Answer 2

A

Question 3

For a cultural relativist,when two people in the same culture disagree on a moral issue,what they are really disagreeing about is:

A)the strength of the arguments presented.
B)nonmoral issues.
C)objective moral truth.
D)whether their society endorses a particular view.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Cultural relativism implies that the civil rights leader and social reformer Martin Luther King Jr.was:

A)a product of his culture.
B)wrong about his moral reforms.
C)neither right nor wrong about his moral reforms.
D)objectively right but relativistically wrong.

Question 5

Cultural relativism implies that the abolition of slavery:

A)represents moral progress.
B)may or may not represent moral progress.
C)can be explained.
D)cannot be regarded as moral progress.

Question 6

Some relativists think that disagreements among cultures about the morality of "female circumcision" are evidence for:

A)cultural relativism.
B)cultural objectivism.
C)cultural emotivism.
D)cultural subjectivism.

Question 7

Both objectivists and cultural relativists agree that:

A)the truth of moral judgments depends on whether one's culture approves of them.
B)moral judgments differ from culture to culture.
C)moral judgments do not differ from culture to culture.
D)the truth of moral judgments does not depend on whether one's culture approves of them.

Question 8

Subjective relativism implies that when Jane says,"I think abortion is wrong," and John replies,"I think abortion is permissible," Jane and John are:

A)having a moral disagreement.
B)really saying the same thing.
C)not having a moral disagreement.
D)not entirely serious.

Question 9

Noncognitivism is the view that:

A)moral judgments are almost never true.
B)moral judgments are statements.
C)moral judgments are not statements that can be true or false.
D)moral theories can be true or false.

Question 10

Cognitivism is the view that moral statements:

A)are neither true nor false.
B)can be true or false.
C)cannot be understood.
D)have nonmoral properties.

Question 11

Objectivists argue that the diversity of moral judgments across cultures may indicate NOT that there's disagreement about moral beliefs,but that:

A)the moral beliefs do not matter.
B)there are divergent nonmoral beliefs.
C)nonmoral beliefs do not differ.
D)disagreement is not possible.

Question 12

Subjective relativism implies that in the rendering of any moral opinion,each person is:

A)incapable of moral judgments.
B)incapable of being in error.
C)morally fallible.
D)infallible on some moral judgments.

Question 13

Suppose a culture approves of beheading young women for merely holding hands with a man.According to cultural relativism,the beheadings are:

A)neither justified nor unjustified.
B)morally unjustified.
C)morally justified.
D)objectively justified.

Question 14

Objectivists point out there is no necessary connection between tolerance and:

A)world peace.
B)intolerance.
C)cultural relativism.
D)cultural realism.

Question 15

Subjective relativism is the doctrine that:

A)an action is morally right if one approves of it.
B)an action is morally right if one's culture approves of it.
C)actions are judged by objective standards.
D)an action is morally right even if no one approves of it.

Question 16

According to the relativist's main argument,if Culture X and Culture Y disagree about the morality of physician-assisted suicide,that shows that:

A)right and wrong are not relative to cultures.
B)physician-assisted suicide is permissible.
C)either Culture X or Culture Y must be correct.
D)no view can be objectively correct.

Question 17

Objectivism says that:

A)some moral norms are universal.
B)all moral norms are universal.
C)moral norms must be applied in the same way in every culture.
D)universal moral norms must be applied only within a given culture.

Question 18

Objectivism is the view that:

A)moral principles are rigid rules that have no exceptions.
B)there are no objective moral principles.
C)some moral principles are valid for everyone.
D)moral utterances are neither true nor false.

Question 19

Cultural relativism may be nearly impossible to apply to moral issues because:

A)we belong to just one society.
B)it is not possible to belong to more than one society.
C)the term society has no meaning.
D)there is no way for us to choose which society we belong to.

Question 20

The conclusion of the most common argument for cultural relativism says that:

A)people's judgments about right and wrong differ from culture to culture.
B)right and wrong are relative to culture, but there are also objective moral principles.
C)right and wrong are relative to one's approval or disapproval.
D)right and wrong are relative to culture, and there are no objective moral principles.

Question 21

Our commonsense moral experiences suggest that:

A)nothing is morally good or bad in itself.
B)some things are morally good and some things are morally bad.
C)our commonsense moral intuition is always correct.
D)good and bad things happen for no reason.

Question 22

Emotivists can admit that thousands of innocent people were killed at the behest of Osama bin Laden and that Ted Bundy killed more than 100 women,but they cannot say that in these events:

A)evil occurred.
B)killings took place.
C)people caused the events.
D)bin Laden and Bundy acted violently.

Question 23

According to emotivism,to offer reasons for a moral judgment is to:

A)provide moral reasons that can influence someone's acceptance of a moral claim.
B)provide reasons that have a logical or cognitive connection to a moral judgment.
C)provide moral facts that can influence someone's attitude.
D)provide nonmoral facts that can influence someone's attitude.

Question 24

Emotivism implies that:

A)moral goodness and badness describe real properties.
B)there is no such thing as moral goodness and badness.
C)moral goodness and badness are often a feature of pain.
D)moral goodness and badness are rarely a feature of pain.

Question 25

A common criticism of emotivism is that:

A)the emotivist's notion of disagreement is plausible but wrong.
B)the emotivist's notion of disagreement is radically different from our ordinary view.
C)the emotivist's notion of disagreement is too much like the idea of disengagement.
D)emotivism cannot be distinguished from other metaethical theories.