Deck 1: Ethics and the Examined Life

Question 1

Which of the following is a consequence of the principle of universalizability?

A) If harming someone is wrong in a particular situation, then harming someone would be wrong for anyone in a relevantly similar situation.
B) If harming someone is wrong in a particular situation, then harming someone would be wrong in all situations.
C) The moral rules implied by your behavior apply to everyone, even in dissimilar situations.
D) A person's morality is dictated by his or her culture-wide morality.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of these illustrates the need for moral reasoning when applying religious moral codes?

A) My religious moral code includes a general rule not to kill, but sometimes killing might be the only way to defend myself.
B) My religious moral code includes a general rule not to lie, but some people lie frequently.
C) My religious moral code has many rules that are not relevant to me.
D) My religious moral code is difficult to follow because it is very strict and demanding.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Not thinking too deeply or too systematically about ethical concerns

A) isolates you from other people.
B) undermines your personal freedom.
C) ensures that no moral dilemmas arise.
D) helps guide you to moral truth.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What does normative ethics study?

A) theories that explain why people behave as they do
B) normative standards in different disciplines
C) the meaning and logical structure of moral beliefs
D) principles, rules, or theories that guide our actions and judgments

Question 5

What is a major difference between descriptive ethics and normative ethics?

A) Normative ethics concerns moral beliefs, whereas descriptive ethics concerns moral behaviors.
B) Normative ethics implies that some people's moral beliefs are incorrect, whereas descriptive ethics does not.
C) Descriptive ethics cannot be done properly before doing normative ethics.
D) Descriptive ethics is not a scientific topic of study, whereas normative ethics is.

Question 6

Morality refers to beliefs about

A) praise and punishment.
B) right and wrong, good and bad.
C) legal and moral standards.
D) typical behavior in one's society.

Question 7

Which of these questions belongs to metaethics?

A) What moral beliefs do cultures embody?
B) What does it mean for an action to be right?
C) What theories of ethics do individuals endorse?
D) What is the meaning of life from a moral perspective?

Question 8

Which field or topic would include tasks such as accurately describing the moral codes and ethical standards of colonial America?

A) normative ethics
B) applied ethics
C) descriptive ethics
D) instrumental ethics

Question 9

Which statement would the author most likely agree with, based on what he states in this chapter?

A) If your moral beliefs depend on your religious views, it is important to be able to convince others of your religious views before presenting your moral beliefs.
B) Because we live with people who have different religious views, we need standards for moral reasoning that do not depend on any particular religious views.
C) Religious believers tend not to think about morality as much as nonbelievers do.
D) Religious believers tend to have more detailed moral beliefs than nonbelievers do.

Question 10

Believing that you can establish all your moral beliefs by consulting your feelings is an example of

A) subjectivism.
B) objectivism.
C) reliabilism.
D) critical scrutiny.

Question 11

Which of the following correctly applies the principle of impartiality?

A) A mass murderer deserves the same treatment as a heart surgeon.
B) You cannot fairly punish one member of a group unless you punish all of them.
C) All moral judgments must be made on a case-by-case basis, setting aside all personal biases.
D) Everyone deserves the same treatment, unless there is a morally relevant reason to
Favor someone.

Question 12

In arguing against the divine command theory, many critics insist that

A) God has the power to will actions to be morally permissible.
B) if an action is right only because God wills it, then all actions are right.
C) if an action is right only because God wills it, then many evil actions would be right
If God willed them.
D) if an action is right only because God wills it, then many evil actions would be right for believers but wrong for nonbelievers.

Question 13

Which of these best describes the purpose of the book's discussion of ethics and religion?

A) to convince religious believers of the value of doing ethics
B) to convince the reader that religious moral codes and theories are unacceptable
C) to convince the reader to question everything about morality
D) to convince religious believers that ethics is a replacement for religious beliefs

Question 14

When religious adherents claim that murder is wrong because God says that it is, they are implicitly espousing the

A) legal theory of divine justice.
B) greatest happiness principle.
C) religious demand theory.
D) divine command theory.

Question 15

Applied ethics is the

A) application of normative ethics to metaethics.
B) application of society's rules to one's own life.
C) study of the principles and rules that everyone accepts.
D) application of moral norms to specific moral issues or cases.

Question 16

Which field concerns questions such as "Was this abortion permissible?" or "Was this instance of mercy killing immoral?"

A) applied ethics
B) metaethics
C) normative ethics
D) descriptive ethics

Question 17

Why does Leibniz, the great theistic philosopher, reject the divine command theory?

A) because it implies God is beyond our understanding
B) because it implies God is unworthy of worship
C) because it implies a utilitarian conception of morality
D) because it implies God plays no role in morality

Question 18

The dominance of moral norms suggests that if a speed limit on a highway conflicts with a person's moral duty to rush a dying man to the hospital, then

A) the moral duty would be as weighty as the legal duty.
B) neither the legal duty nor the moral duty would apply.
C) the moral duty would take precedence over the legal duty.
D) the moral duty would sanction any method whatsoever of getting the dying man to the hospital.

Question 19

The preeminence of reason refers to the

A) times when our emotions overwhelm our reason.
B) gap between our feelings and our reason.
C) overriding importance of critical reasoning in ethics.
D) guidance that conscience gives to our reason.

Question 20

Which of the following is the overall point of the author's discussion of "doing ethics"?

A) Doing ethics is difficult, but not doing it is foolish.
B) Doing ethics requires many years of careful study.
C) Most people should rely on wiser authorities to do ethics for them.
D) Doing ethics is unavoidable for everyone.

Question 21

According to the author, if one's religious moral code gives conflicting advice on whether it is permissible to drink alcohol, then moral philosophy cannot provide any guidance because the conflict can only be resolved by interpreting religious texts.

Question 22

When you strictly follow the moral rules passed down to you from others, you are doing ethics.

Question 23

An example of moral reasoning is avoiding actions whenever you feel disgusted by them.

Question 24

If money is instrumentally valuable, then having a paying job is also instrumentally valuable.

Question 25

All divisions of ethics concern both values and obligations. These two topics are similar in that they both concern things that we care about-things that we can favor or oppose.