Deck 1: Moral Philosophy and Moral Reasoning

Question 1

Ruth Benedict discusses how changes in a culture's understanding of "normal" can affect our understanding about what is morally acceptable.Briefly discuss how what we conceive of as murder might not be wrong in another culture.

Answer 1

Answers will vary.A sufficient response should/might include discussion of killing during war,expectations about the saliency of apparently random attributes (such as the day of the week on which one is born),and/or the inherent worth of life.

Question 2

The idea that morality operates with rules like the truths of arithmetic is called

A) objectivity.
B) subjectivity.
C) math theory.
D) truth theory.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

A recurring example in the chapter is the practice in some cultures of genital cutting.Utilizing the meta-ethical concepts in the book,present your own argument for or against finding the practice morally acceptable.

Answer 3

Answers will vary.A sufficient response should/might develop the tension between a respect for cultural beliefs and concern for those in the culture,an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of cultural relativism,and the confrontation of the diversity of thoughts within a culture.

Question 4

The fictional detective Sherlock Holmes is known for his ability to describe where someone has been by looking at the sort of mud on a visitor's shoes.He has compiled information on what sorts of soil are prevalent in various areas of London.Holmes is thus able to infer from the presence of mud that someone has been to a specific location with that variety of soil.This is best understood to be which of the following sorts of reasoning?

A) intuition
B) deduction
C) analogy
D) abduction

Question 5

Briefly explain the difference between liberalism,as understood in this chapter,and cultural relativism.

Question 6

Imagine a disagreement between two people over the legacy of Charles Lindbergh.The first believes that Lindbergh is a hero and highlights the bravery and ingenuity needed for Lindbergh to become the first person to fly an airplane solo across the Atlantic.The second believes that Lindbergh cannot be a hero because of his anti-Semitic beliefs and promotion of American eugenics.Discuss how their different moral intuitions rely on different understandings of the nature of morality.

Question 7

Plato used an analogy of the perfection of geometric figures as compared to physical objects to explain the difference between an ideal good and our experiences of goods.Drawing on Plato's ideas,explain how we can have the idea of "good" without experiencing a perfect good.

Question 8

The study of morality can help you do which of the following?

A) improve reading ability
B) pick out a possible action that will lead to having good character
C) understand different cultures
D) know the theories that shaped Western historical development

Question 9

Imagine that humans encounter a new species with the ability to reason but with little of the life experiences that humans have.Which of the following philosophers' ideas would have the MOST to say about this situation?

A) Aristotle
B) David Hume
C) John Stuart Mill
D) William Godwin

Question 10

Phillippa Foot's example of a runaway tram (trolley)is used to do which of the following?

A) test the implications of a moral theory
B) examine if it is morally acceptable to kill another
C) provide guidance to mass transit workers
D) refute the position given by Archbishop Fénelon

Question 11

Imagine a disagreement between Bob and Jerry over the tastefulness of serving roast beef at a dinner party with vegetarians.If Jerry claims that it was the tastiest meal he has had in some time,he is using which of the following fallacies?

A) appeal to authority
B) hasty generalization
C) circularity
D) equivocation

Question 12

A discussion of whether it is morally acceptable to use drone bombs on suspected terrorists would be an example of which type of ethics?

A) normative
B) meta
C) applied
D) consequentialist

Question 13

A group of college students is sitting around discussing what it is about the nature of cheating that makes cheating on an exam wrong.These students are engaging in what sort of ethics?

A) applied ethics
B) deontology
C) normative ethics
D) meta-ethics

Question 14

Imagine an advertisement for a medication that includes the following claim: "This pill is an effective sleeping aid because of its sleep-inducing value." What sort of fallacy is the ad using?

A) equivocation
B) false dichotomy
C) division
D) circularity

Question 15

Which philosopher held that happiness was the primary goal of human life?

A) Friedrich Nietzsche
B) Immanuel Kant
C) Jeremy Bentham
D) Aristotle

Question 16

An argument is a formal method of logic.

Question 17

Which of the following is the best description of validity?

A) When the premises are true,the conclusion must be true.
B) The argument has a true conclusion.
C) There is a lot of evidence to support the truth of the conclusion.
D) The premises are true.