Deck 6: Duties, Virtues and Rights

Question 1

Is it always morally wrong for engineers to lie to their clients?

Answer 1

No Answer.

Question 2

How would a virtue ethicist analyze the Ford Pinto case (see Chapter 9)?

Answer 2

No Answer.

Question 3

What is the difference between rule utilitarianism and Kantian duty ethics?

Answer 3

No Answer.

Question 4

Robert Nozick asked: "If I own a can of tomato juice and spill it in the sea . . . , do I thereby own the sea, or have I foolishly dissipated my tomato juice?" What is in your opinion the best answer to this question, and why is it important?

Question 5

Imagine that you walk by a pond in which a three-year-old girl is about to drown. You are the only person around; unless you rescue the girl she will die. How would a Kantian analyze this situation, and what would Robert Nozick say?

Question 6

Consider an engineer who decides not to overcharge his client even though he could get away with it because he does not want to risk developing a reputation for dishonesty. Kant might consider this decision not to overcharge the client as an example of a(n)

A) act that conforms to the demands of duty but which is not from a respect for duty.
B) act done from a universalizable maxim.
C) act that maximizes consequences.
D) example of psychological egoism.

Question 7

Which of the following best encapsulates Kant's view on the source of goodness?

A) Nothing is good but an act done from altruistic motives.
B) Acts draw their moral goodness from the goal of the agent.
C) Acts draw their goodness from the outcomes.
D) Nothing is good in itself but a good will.

Question 8

Which would of the following is an example of a hypothetical imperative?

A) I am tired of looking at your room. Clean it now!
B) If you are late one more time, I am going to order you to run a mile!
C) If you want pudding, eat your meat!
D) Never steal!

Question 9

Which of the following is an example of a maxim in Kant's sense?

A) Never lie!
B) Staying home from class because it is raining outside
C) Going hunting every December
D) Returning a library book

Question 10

When conducting the universalizability test, Kant asks us to consider

A) the consequences if everyone performed our act and whether they would be bad or not.
B) our maxim for our act as though it were a law of nature and evaluate the consequences.
C) whether anyone in the universe could act on our maxim.
D) our maxim for our act as though it were a law of nature and see if the act could still achieve the purpose of the maxim or whether it would necessarily fail.

Question 11

How might Kant explain how we distinguish between perfect duties and imperfect duties?

A) No one has a duty to perfection.
B) Ought implies can.
C) Perfect duties are required by the moral law; imperfect duties are purely supererogatory.
D) An imperfect duty is one in which the maxim as universal law could be conceived without contradiction, but which we could never rationally will.

Question 12

Kant's formula of humanity is best expressed as:

A) Never use others as a means; always treat them as ends.
B) Love thy neighbor as thyself.
C) Always treat humanity as an end in itself and never as a mere means.
D) Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Question 13

Which of the following best describes the virtue ethics approach of Aristotle, Aquinas, and Confucius?

A) Virtues give on the ability to fulfill one's moral duty.
B) Living virtuously maximizes utility.
C) Virtues are not so much defined by particular acts but by the dispositions that cause us to live well.
D) Virtues provide an efficient means to happiness for an egoist.

Question 14

Which of the following is objection to virtue ethics covered in the reading?

A) Virtues are only conditionally good; they require the presence of a good will.
B) Virtues are about a good life as a whole and good character and have little guidance for particular decisions.
C) Living a life of virtue often requires self-sacrifice.
D) Virtuous people are unlikely to make decisions necessary to maximize consequences.

Question 15

Which of the following would be an example of a positive right?

A) Property rights that constrain other from using one's property
B) The right to life
C) The right to free speech
D) The right to clean drinking water

Question 16

What determines an act's rightness or wrongness according to virtue ethicists is the character traits or act dispositions of the agent who performs the act. Consequences and intentions are relevant only in so far as

A) virtuous agents have reason to care about them.
B) they can be derived from the Categorical Imperative.
C) they lead to the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
D) None of the above

Question 17

For Aristotle, Aquinas, and Confucius, ethics is not primarily about distinguishing right acts from wrong ones. The most important ethical question for them is

A) to ensure that we do not violate anyone's rights.
B) to ensure that no person is treated as a mere means to an end.
C) how we ought to live. What is a good human life?
D) None of the above.

Question 18

One of Dr. Peterson's many habits is to drink a cup of filter coffee every morning. This habit neither a virtue nor a vice because virtues are character traits that

A) bring about positive consequences for society and drinking coffee in the morning does not have any consequences for society.
B) are firmly entrenched in an agent's personality and drinking coffee in the morning is not part of Dr. Peterson's personality.
C) make the agent better off in the long run and drinking coffee in the morning does not make Dr. Peterson better or worse off in the long run.
D) None of the above

Question 19

The mixing theory of labor is the idea that

A) information cannot be owned by anyone.
B) everyone has a right to privacy, unless something more valuable can be created by mixing labor with something that is not already owned by others.
C) you own yourself and become the owner of whatever you create by mixing your labor with something that is not already owned by others.
D) intellectual property rights must always be respected.

Question 20

Robert Nozick wrote: "If I own a can of tomato juice and spill it in the sea . . . do I thereby own the sea, or have I foolishly dissipated my tomato juice?" This is meant to be an objection to

A) the strong anthropocentric view.
B) the biocentric view.
C) utilitarianism.
D) the mixing theory of labor.

Question 21

What is the difference between Aristotle's notion of eudaimonia and the classic utilitarian notion of happiness?

A) There is no difference. These are different terms for the same idea.
B) The utilitarian notion happiness is exclusively focused on pleasure; Aristotle would insist that pleasure is one of many components of human happiness.
C) The utilitarian notion happiness is exclusively focused on preference satisfaction; Aristotle would insist that happiness is exclusively focused on pleasure.
D) Aristotle insisted that our intellectual virtues affect our happiness, but utilitarians reject the idea that intellectual skills can have an effect on our happiness.

Question 22

Kant proposed the following argument for duty ethics: "Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good, without qualification, except a good will." This argument is problematic because

A) Kant was a well-known supporter of utilitarianism.
B) the conclusion is a factual statement, not a moral one.
C) acts performed with a good will sometimes have catastrophic consequences.
D) None of the above

Question 23

Imagine that you walk by a pond in which a three-year-old girl is about to drown. You are the only person around and unless you rescue the girl she will die. A world in which all children in distress are left to die by passers-by is conceivable. However, you cannot rationally will that all of us were to live in such a world. You, therefore,

A) have a strong utilitarian reason to rescue the girls if you can do so without danger to yourself.
B) have an imperfect Kantian duty to rescue the drowning girl.
C) act virtuously if you rescue the girl, because this is the generous and courageous thing to do.
D) All of the above

Question 24

Kant thinks it might sometimes be permissible to treat a person as a means to an end, but he insists that it is wrong to treat persons as mere means to an end. We can avoid treating persons as mere means to an end by

A) paying for all services we use (such as taxi rides).
B) not saying or doing anything that can make the other person feel upset.
C) respecting their autonomy and human dignity.
D) None of the above

Question 25

Kant was not a rule-utilitarian. Why not? It is irrelevant whether the sum total of well-being would increase when a maxim is universalized; what matters is whether

A) it is conceivable that the maxim is universalized, or if one can rationally will that the maxim is universalized.
B) a virtuous agent would accept the maxim.
C) it is legally permissible to accept the maxim.
D) All of the above