Deck 8: Morality and the Good Life

Question 1

According to Kant,God cannot give us laws; he can only tell us what our reason is already capable of
justifying.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

According to Epicurus,all pleasures are equally good.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Someone who always acted just for her own self-interest would be likely to miss out on some important benefits,and lose some of the social and personal richness of human action.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

According to Aristotle,pleasure and success were necessary but not sufficient for a good life.

Question 5

Most people live as hedonists,most of the time.

Question 6

According to Nietzsche,the need and desire for pleasure outweighs all other needs and desires.

Question 7

Morality is primarily an aid in getting us what we want as individuals.

Question 8

In order for an act to be free of selfishness it has to be free of the desire for the approval of others.

Question 9

For Kant,our ability to be autonomous is really based on external authorities,such as laws.

Question 10

Answering the question "What is a good life?" supplies us with the reasons for accepting moral principles and rules.

Question 11

John Stuart Mill changed Bentham's principle of utility to allow for qualitative differences in pleasures in order to make utilitarianism more consistent with morality.

Question 12

Obeying categorical imperatives could turn out to be good for us.

Question 13

Aristotle thought that whatever served the well-being of the community could very well conflict with what was for the ultimate advantage of the individual.

Question 14

A life devoted to freedom could include pursuing pleasure,success and religious ends,although these would be of secondary value when compared to freedom.

Question 15

We use moral theories to help us justify and interpret moral principles and rules.

Question 16

According to Kant,a good will is a will which is moved just by moral principles and a sense of duty.

Question 17

One implication of Kant's moral philosophy is that morality must be the same everywhere.

Question 18

Someone who is an ethical egoist must also believe in psychological egoism.

Question 19

One should follow one's conscience whenever it tells one what to do.

Question 20

In considering the morality of a lie,for Jeremy Bentham the key question would not be "What would be the actual consequences of my lying in this situation?" but rather "What if everyone were to lie?"

Question 21

For Ancient Greeks,such as Aristotle,the good life

A) was a matter of attaining a feeling of well-being.
B) was inner satisfaction.
C) was a matter of attaining economic success.
D) was a public,social,objective life of achievement and good fortune.

Question 22

The feminine ethics of care bears some relationship to Immanuel Kant's moral philosophy.

Question 23

Some who believes that morality originates from a morally good God still faces the question whether one should follow God's laws just because they are God's commands or

A) whether we believe the laws are good because they are God's laws.
B) whether there is a moral law at all.
C) whether we can know God exists.
D) whether we recognize that God
Is good because his laws are good.

Question 24

Someone who argues that we should all tolerate another culture's values is defending at least one value as not being relative,and so is rejecting strict ethical relativism.

Question 25

Some successful people in their mid-forties or fifties have committed suicide,because

A) they were more interested in pleasure than success.
B) their success proved not to be what they wanted after all.
C) of the threat of failure.
D) objectively speaking,life is not worth living.

Question 26

"Do not impose on other people what you yourself do not desire" is

A) the Golden Rule
B) Confucius' Rule of Deference.
C) Ayn Rand's principle of ethical egoism.
D) the Principle of Utility.

Question 27

For Aristotle,honor was the key virtue,since it fuses the individual and community.

Question 28

In general,approaches to morality tend to focus either on rules and principles or on

A) character.
B) God's commandments.
C) what conscience tells us is right or wrong.
D) following our duty.

Question 29

Cultural relativists can believe or not believe that different people are right in their different beliefs.

Question 30

The famous story of Abraham Lincoln stopping to save some piglets is an illustration of the thesis of

A) ethical egoism.
B) ethical altruism.
C) psychological egoism.
D) psychological altruism.

Question 31

Commandments are categorical imperatives when

A) they offer conditions for acting.
B) they are without qualification,offering no reasons or conditions.
C) our consciences tell us they are categorical.
D) they are arbitrary.

Question 32

According to Aristotle,the key to the good life is to be found in

A) pursuing asceticism.
B) pursuing pleasure itself.
C) pursuing satisfying activities,not pleasure itself.
D) pursuing freedom.

Question 33

Nietzsche claimed that traditional morality was invented by the Ubermenschen,or "superhumans," in order to oppress the weak.

Question 34

Religious and artistic ascetics are alike in that they both

A) pursue pleasure for the sake of something else.
B) pursue pleasure for its own sake.
C) are hedonists.
D) seek success.

Question 35

Nietzsche believed that what we usually call morality can make us more creative,daring and inventive.

Question 36

Hedonism is the view that says the good life involves

A) living successfully.
B) getting as much pleasure out of life as you possibly can.
C) living an ascetical life.
D) living a life of freedom.

Question 37

The major problem with specific visions of the good life,pleasure,success,asceticism,power,religion,etc.is that

A) none of these visions expresses what Hegel called "Spirit."
B) they are difficult ideals to achieve.
C) the good life seems to be something more general than any single one-sided goal.
D) the good life is the life of the mind,not the body.

Question 38

After Bill helped the elderly gentleman with his bags,he wondered if he wasn't simply being selfish,since he felt good afterwards about what he did.Psychological egoism would be true of Bill's actions only if

A) Bill had the desire to help only because they made Bill feel good.
B) Bill felt good after helping.
C) by not acting Bill's conscience would have bothered him later.
D) Bill acted out of his own desire to help.

Question 39

One problem with Ayn Rand's ethical egoism is that it assumes

A) one can act in one's self-interest.
B) one ought to act in one's own self-interest.
C) if an act is for the benefit of others,then it cannot be to one's own benefit as well.
D) if an act is for the benefit of others,then it can be to one's own benefit as well.

Question 40

When Nietzsche says that a good life requires power,he understands power to be

A) the capacity to grow,create and expand one's consciousness.
B) the political power acquired through political revolution.
C) economic power.
D) religious power.

Question 41

What is autonomy?

Question 42

Kant argues that the laws of God are justified

A) because they are from God,who is perfect.
B) whenever they agree with our beliefs about right and wrong.
C) because they are rational.
D) because,as Kierkegaard says,they transcend ethics.

Question 43

Suppose that Mary is a committed Ethical Relativist who happens to disapprove of female circumcision in Africa.One implication of her viewpoint is that

A) she must give up her pluralism.
B) she cannot disapprove of female circumcision.
C) she cannot really say female circumcision is objectively wrong.
D) she does not demonstrate moral absolutism.

Question 44

According to Kant's moral theory,actions are to be judged by their

A) actual short term consequences.
B) intentions.
C) actual long term consequences.
D) emotional effects on you.

Question 45

Distinguish psychological and ethical egoism.

Question 46

When John Stuart Mill says "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied," he is implying

A) that Socrates wasn't a very happy person.
B) that Socrates should have enjoyed himself more.
C) that all pleasures are equal.
D) that some pleasures are better than others.

Question 47

When Nietzsche said that "God is dead," he meant that

A) belief in God is no longer the center of the lives of people.
B) atheism must be true.
C) atheism is now true,although it once was false.
D) while it's true that God exists,we have fallen away from true belief.

Question 48

Utilitarianism differs from duty-based morality because it says actions are right

A) when they produce the most happiness for the greatest number of people.
B) when they arise from useful intentions.
C) when they make the actor happy.
D) when they express a virtuous character.

Question 49

Contrast hedonism and asceticism.

Question 50

What is ethics?

Question 51

How does Aristotle understand happiness?

Question 52

The authority of duty-based morality

A) arises from God.
B) arises from one's family.
C) arises from society.
D) arises from a variety of internal and external sources,family,religious,secular and social.

Question 53

What is the principle of utility?

Question 54

Nietzsche believed that the true beneficiaries of traditional Judeo-Christian morality were

A) strong,noble,creative individuals.
B) weak,ignoble individuals.
C) members of the master race.
D) everyone alive.

Question 55

Carol Gilligan claimed to show that women tend to think of ethics in terms of

A) right and wrong answers.
B) personal moral responsibility.
C) abstract moral principles.
D) irrational emotional perceptions.

Question 56

List six of Aristotle's virtues.

Question 57

You are thinking of borrowing some money,and promising to pay it back,though you know you can't keep your promise.For Kant,such an action would be

A) wrong,because it wouldn't be possible for this to be a general policy,where everyone acted similarly.
B) wrong,even though it would be possible for this to be a general policy,where everyone acted similarly.
C) wrong,because it might backfire on you in the future.
D) justifiable,so long as you were honest with yourself about what you are doing.

Question 58

People who are Cultural Relativists believe that

A) whatever a culture or a society holds to be right is therefore right,at least for them.
B) different people around the world (and
Even in the same society),in fact,hold different values and believe in different moral codes.
C) what's true for one is,in fact,false for another.
D) moral absolutism must be true.

Question 59

Aristotle's virtues seem to share the common thread of being

A) concerned with the sexual mores of individuals.
B) absolute duties.
C) concerned with the strengthening the community.
D) concerned with maximizing happiness for the greatest number.

Question 60

What does it mean for a principle to be universalizable?

Question 61

What is morality?
What gives its principles and rules authority in our lives?
Write an essay in which you discuss the chief features of morality,and four of the major approaches to the justification of moral principles and rules: Morality as the commands of God; Duty-defined morality (especially Kant); Consequentialism (especially utilitarianism); and Aristotle's virtue ethics.
Which of these theoretical approaches do you favor and why?

Question 62

The dominant tradition in Western philosophy has tended to assign a privileged role to a detached version of reason,denigrating the body and emotion,while overlooking how this point of view is itself patriarchal and culturally biased.
Western feminist philosophers have offered broad critiques of this tradition and its patriarchal (or masculinist)assumptions.
Write an essay detailing this perspective,focusing first on the feminist critique of patriarchal assumptions about sex and gender.
Then look at how feminists challenge cultural assumptions about three of the following issues:nature; the body and reason; gender,moral reasoning and emotion; science,and language.

Question 63

Write an essay answering the question "What is a good life?"
Your essay should address how this question relates to questions of morality,and what sorts of issues the question addresses.
You should describe five of the following conceptions of the good life: Hedonism,Success,Asceticism,Freedom,Power and Creativity,Religion and Happiness.
Do you find any of these conceptions more compelling than others?
Why?

Question 64

What is master morality?

Question 65

Applied ethics or moral philosophy is the employment of moral reasoning,often aided by moral theories,to solve real-life ethical and moral problems.Focusing on one of the contemporary moral issues listed below,or on a different moral issue of your choice,write an essay in applied ethics.
First,define what the issue is:
What is at stake?
Who is affected?
Second,take the measure of your own "intuitions," that is,what do you think the best solution might be?
To help you dig deeper into your intuitions,ask yourself: "Why do I think this is important?"
Third,apply three of the moral theories in attempt to resolve to the issue you have picked:
Duty-defined morality (use one formulation of Kant's categorical imperative); Conseqeuntialism; and Aristotle's ethics of virtue.
Be sure you explain each approach before you apply it.
Fourth,discuss the results of this application:
Do the theories converge on a single solution to the issue?
Which of the theories makes the most sense to you as you apply it,given your intuitions,and why?
What conclusions do you draw?
Issues:Torture; The Death Penalty; Euthanasia; Affirmative Action; the Legalization of Drugs; Performance enhancement drugs (e.g.,steroids,doping,cognitive enhancers).

Question 66

Develop a fictional dialogue in which two characters argue over the nature of morality.
The two characters should construct arguments and offer criticisms of one another's arguments.They can agree to disagree,or find some areas of agreement.
The dialogue should address: psychological and ethical egoism; duty-based and consequentialist theories of morality; cultural and ethical relativism; and Nietzsche's attack on morality.

Question 67

Distinguish between cultural relativism and ethical relativism.

Question 68

Have you ever visited a different country,or spent time in a different sub-culture,within this country?
Did you notice that people from different cultures or sub-cultures have different preconceptions about morality and other values?
What was that experience like?
What did you notice about the differences in values,or how values were interpreted?
Write an essay in which you describe this experience,and then interpret its significance in terms of the issue of relativism,both cultural and ethical.
You should clarify the difference between cultural and ethical relativism,and explore the senses in which cultural relativism is true.
Are there any cross-cultural values that shape people's lives?
Why,even if cultural relativism is true,is ethical relativism not necessarily true?
What are the arguments for and against ethical relativism?
Use the concepts in chapter eight as your staring point.

Question 69

Nietzsche's "attack on "morality" resonates with a lot of people who find the traditional rules and principles of morality to be too confining.
Write an essay in which you first explain Nietzsche's critique of traditional ("Slave")morality,and his argument for a new "super-human" ("Master")morality.
The second part of your essay should critically discuss Nietzsche's argument,especially his claim that traditional morality arises out of resentment,and thatmorality is life-denying and an obstacle to creativity.
Do you agree?
Is there a way of being moral that does not involve the "slave" mentality?
Can one be moral and live artistically and creatively?
How might morality and creativity be interrelated?

Question 70

The view that all of our choices and actions,even those that seem altruistic,are selfish,is the thesis of psychological egoism.
Write an essay explaining and criticizing this thesis,and defending the possibility of altruism.
Begin your essay with a story that apparently illustrates psychological egoism-either the Abraham Lincoln story or another story of your own-and then construct an argument for why the egoistic interpretation of this story isn't necessarily true.
Then discuss how psychological egoism differs from ethical egoism,and why ethical egoism isn't true.
You can use materials from chapter eight,but also your own ideas.