Deck 13: Critical Thinking in Morality

Question 1

A set of beliefs and theories that help us make sense of a wide range of issues in life is known as a…

A) Theory
B) Worldview
C) Premise
D) Morality

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The view that moral statements are not statements at all is called…

A) Relativism
B) Ethical egoism
C) Absolutism
D) Emotivism

Answer 2

D

Question 3

A statement asserting that an action is right or wrong (moral or immoral) or that something (such as a person or motive) is good or bad is a…

A) Moral statement
B) Amoral statement
C) Nonmoral statement
D) Motivating statement

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The best approach to identifying implicit premises in a moral argument is to treat the arguments as…

A) Inductive
B) Invalid
C) Cogent
D) Deductive

Question 5

One way to evaluate a moral premise is to try to…

A) Think of counterexamples to it
B) Think of an alternative premise
C) Rephrase the premise
D) Ignore counterexamples to it

Question 6

This moral argument-"Torturing prisoners of war is a case of intentional mistreatment. Therefore, prisoners of war should not be tortured."-fails because…

A) The premise is false
B) It lacks a moral premise
C) The conclusion is false
D) It lacks a moral conclusion

Question 7

A moral theory that offers no help in real-life situations is said to be…

A) Impractical
B) Fruitless
C) Practically irrational
D) Unworkable

Question 8

According to the text, to identify the best moral theory, we must compare competing theories and evaluate them using the…

A) Accepted moral norms
B) Moral criteria of adequacy
C) Scientific criteria of adequacy
D) Next best theory

Question 9

One of three criteria for judging the worth of moral theories is consistency with…

A) Social norms
B) All moral theories
C) Considered scientific judgments
D) Considered moral judgments

Question 10

Moral and nonmoral statements…

A) Cannot be used together in the same argument
B) Are standard queries
C) Make up inductive premises
D) Make up a standard moral argument

Question 11

A moral theory tries to explain…

A) A moral agent's motivations
B) What society defines as acceptable
C) What people believe
D) What makes an action right or what makes a person good

Question 12

Considered moral judgments are those judgments that…

A) Are endorsed by conscience
B) The majority of people accept
C) We accept after we reason about them carefully
D) We accept because of our upbringing

Question 13

The moral theory according to which what makes an action right is that it promotes one's own best interests is called…

A) Subjective relativism
B) Psychological egoism
C) Ethical egoism
D) Consequentialism

Question 14

According to moral philosophers, one problematic implication of subjective relativism is that it…

A) Encourages immoral behavior
B) Promotes intolerance
C) Undermines moral responsibility
D) Makes moral disagreement nearly impossible

Question 15

Gauging the truth of moral premises mostly involves examining the support they get from…

A) Traditional beliefs
B) Other moral principles, moral theories, and considered moral judgments
C) The divine command theory
D) Subjective or cultural relativism

Question 16

The data that moral theories try to explain are…

A) Our feelings about a moral issue
B) The moral principles we were taught as children
C) Our considered moral judgments
D) Other moral theories

Question 17

According to moral philosophers, the preferred relationship between moral facts and theory is known as…

A) Reflective equilibrium
B) Nonmoral equilibrium
C) External consistency
D) Dynamic reflection

Question 18

The moral theory according to which what makes an action right is that it maximizes overall happiness, everyone considered, is called…

A) Divine command theory
B) Ethical egoism
C) Utilitarianism
D) Kantian ethics

Question 19

For many moral philosophers, the biggest problem that utilitarianism faces is that it…

A) Is unworkable
B) Conflicts with many of our considered moral judgments
C) Cannot be proven
D) Promotes hedonism

Question 20

The moral theory according to which morality is about conforming our actions to universal moral rules derived from reason is called…

A) Divine command theory
B) Ethical egoism
C) Utilitarianism
D) Kantian ethics

Question 21

What is the basic structure of a moral argument?

Question 22

According to the text, what are some problematic implications of subjective relativism?

Question 23

What is the central difference between utilitarianism and Kant's theory?

Question 24

What does it mean for a moral theory to be consistent with our experience of the moral life?

Question 25

According to the text, what is one way to determine whether a general moral principle is true?