Deck 12: Critical Thinking in Morality and the Law

Question 1

A moral _______ asserts that an action is right or wrong or that something, such as a person or motive, is good or bad.

A) theory
B) statement
C) principle
D) premise

Answer 1

statement

Question 2

In a standard moral argument, it is not possible to establish the conclusion without a moral

A) theory.
B) worldview.
C) premise.
D) deduction.

Answer 2

premise.

Question 3

A moral _______ attempts to explain what makes an action right or what makes a person or motive good.

A) theory
B) statement
C) principle
D) premise

Answer 3

theory

Question 4

Situations in which moral duties, or principles, conflict are called moral

A) conflicts.
B) problems.
C) dilemmas.
D) disputes.

Question 5

The theory that what makes an action right is approval from one's culture is known as

A) cultural egoism.
B) emotivism.
C) subjective relativism.
D) social relativism.

Question 6

According to the moral criteria of adequacy, a good moral theory is consistent with the data, conservative, and

A) simple.
B) fruitful.
C) testable.
D) workable.

Question 7

The view that what makes an action right is that it promotes one's own best interest is known as

A) utilitarianism.
B) rule-utilitarianism.
C) ethical egoism.
D) divine command theory.

Question 8

What is one important criterion for judging worldviews?

A) internal consistency
B) consistency with society's rules
C) consistency with our innermost feelings
D) consistency with the opinions of others

Question 9

Social relativism implies that it is impossible to disagree with one's culture and be

A) consistent.
B) right.
C) fallible.
D) understood.

Question 10

Our moral experience involves

A) never having true moral disagreements.
B) not thinking about moral issues.
C) making moral judgments and having moral disagreements.
D) always acting morally.

Question 11

According to traditional utilitarianism, the morality of an action depends on its

A) motivations.
B) consequences.
C) maxim.
D) conformity with moral rules.

Question 12

According to traditional utilitarianism, what makes an action right is that it

A) is approved of by one's culture.
B) maximizes reflective equilibrium.
C) conforms to deontological rules.
D) maximizes overall happiness, everyone considered.

Question 13

One criticism commonly made against utilitarianism is that it conflicts with

A) overall utility.
B) our considered moral judgments.
C) our self-interest.
D) our sense of maximum utility.

Question 14

According to subjective relativism, there are no such things as

A) objective moral values.
B) good or bad actions
C) subjective moral principles.
D) moral rules.

Question 15

According to Kantian ethics, actions are right only if they are consistent with

A) God's commands.
B) self-interest.
C) universal happiness.
D) universal moral rules.

Question 16

According to Kant, all moral duties can be inferred from one moral principle called the

A) principle of utility.
B) categorical imperative.
C) principle of benevolence.
D) principle of autonomy.

Question 17

Critics of Kant argue that our considered moral judgments conflict with his claim that moral rules are

A) absolute.
B) rational.
C) relative.
D) derived from God.

Question 18

The sentence "Cloning humans is unnatural" is a _______ statement.

A) moral
B) nonmoral
C) religious
D) relativistic

Question 19

The sentence "Jane often does charitable work" is a _______ statement.

A) nonmoral
B) moral
C) religious
D) utilitarian

Question 20

Critics of the divine command theory argue that if actions are morally right only because God says so, then morality is

A) relative.
B) unworkable.
C) arbitrary.
D) inconsistent.

Question 21

According to the text, moral agents should strive to achieve a "reflective equilibrium" between facts and theory.

Question 22

Our moral experience might involve making moral judgments, but it does not include having moral disagreements.

Question 23

In Kantian ethics, moral duties are derived from the will of God.

Question 24

A crucial criterion for judging a worldview is internal consistency.

Question 25

Descriptive statements assert that something is right or wrong, good or bad.

Question 26

In a moral argument, we can infer what should be or ought to be (in the conclusion) from statements about what is.

Question 27

Both plausible scientific theories and plausible moral theories should be conservative.

Question 28

According to traditional utilitarianism, if two actions produce exactly the same amount of overall happiness, they cannot both be morally right.

Question 29

If the theories that make up our worldview are inconsistent with one another, that doesn't mean there is anything necessarily wrong with our worldview.

Question 30

According to Kant, there is no such thing as an exceptionless moral duty.

Question 31

We all have a worldview, and our notions about morality are an important part of it.

Question 32

Moral arguments differ from nonmoral ones in that they contain no nonmoral premises.

Question 33

Unlike in nonmoral arguments, the premises in moral arguments are always explicit.

Question 34

Everyone has a moral theory.

Question 35

Traditional utilitarianism was founded by John Stuart Mill.

Question 36

Plausible moral theories must be consistent with our experience of the moral life.

Question 37

Good worldviews will, as a minimum requirement, consist of good theories.

Question 38

According to the moral criteria of adequacy, moral theories must be consistent with cultural norms.

Question 39

Moral theories are the ultimate authority and sole referee in moral reasoning.

Question 40

Moral judgments are decisions about the morality of specific classes of actions or of the goodness of people and their motives.

Question 41

What is the basic structure of a moral argument?

Question 42

What is the difference between a moral and a nonmoral premise?

Question 43

What is the best way to identify implicit premises in moral arguments?

Question 44

What are some problematic implications of subjective relativism and social relativism?

Question 45

What is a moral theory? How are moral theories similar to scientific theories? How are they different?

Question 46

How are moral theories evaluated? How is the evaluation of moral theories similar to the evaluation of scientific theories? How is it different?

Question 47

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

Question 48

What is a moral dilemma? Why are moral dilemmas a problem for Kantian ethics especially?

Question 49

Explain traditional utilitarianism and then evaluate it using the moral criteria of adequacy.

Question 50

In general, what four steps should be involved in resolving a moral dilemma?