Deck 12: Normative Theories, Part 2

Question 1

Which of the following best describes the natural law theory of ethics?

A) Natural law theory is the view that God has commanded us to follow certain rules and we are under a natural obligation to obey those commands.
B) Natural law theory is the view that human nature determines what is good for humans and morality consists in pursuing and promoting those things in appropriate ways.
C) Natural law theory is the view that morality consists in obeying human nature and avoiding unnatural acts.
D) Natural law theory is the view that there are certain rules or laws that would arise in the state of nature and morality consists in obeying those laws.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is the natural law theory of ethics?

A) The view that morality consists in obeying laws that cannot reasonably be rejected because they arise from human nature.
B) The view that morality consists in following our natural impulses, which are seen as coming directly from God.
C) The view that morality consists in a set of laws that can be discovered either through divine revelation or through careful study of the natural world.
D) The view that morality consists in promoting things that are good for humans, which can be identified through consideration of human nature.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

How does natural law theory differ from most forms of consequentialism?

A) Whereas consequentialists tend to reduce all goods to a single good, such as pleasure, natural law theorists say that there are many different goods.
B) Unlike consequentialists, natural law theorists usually argue there are constraints on how we may pursue or promote good outcomes.
C) Both (a) and (b).
D) Neither (a) nor (b).

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the follow does Thomas Aquinas NOT mention as a good in his natural law theory of ethics?

A) Knowledge.
B) Society.
C) Wealth.
D) Reasonable action.

Question 5

What role does practical reasoning play in natural law theories of ethics?

A) It enables us to recognize limitations on how we may pursue or promote good things.
B) It helps us see which things are good and which are bad.
C) It allows us to figure out which rules would be in the social contract.
D) It is used to identify the means to whichever ends we select.

Question 6

Which of the following is mentioned in Chapter 12 as an example of a principle of practical reasoning in natural law theory?

A) You should give up the right to harm others if they give up the right to harm you.
B) You should not pursue one good by destroying another good.
C) You should treat others always as ends in themselves.
D) You should seek to promote the good of your society.

Question 7

What role does God play in many versions of natural law theory?

A) God revealed the natural law to humanity through scripture and divine revelation.
B) God plays no important role in natural law theory, since it is about laws derived from nature.
C) God created human nature, laying out the blueprint for how humans ought to act.
D) God rewards those who live according to human nature, providing motivation to act morally.

Question 8

What is contractarianism?

A) The view that there is no objective morality, but only explicit or implicit agreements within social groups about how members of those groups should act.
B) The view that morality consists in a set of rules that follow directly from human nature.
C) The view that morality arises from a hypothetical social contract in which people agree to a certain set of rules because it is best for each person if everyone follows those rules.
D) The view that morality is a social construct created by the powerful to maintain law and order in a society.

Question 9

Define contractarianism.

A) Contractarianism is the ethical theory according to which the rules of morality are rules that people in a state of nature would accept to make everyone better off.
B) Contractarianism is the ethical theory according to which morality is primarily about following rules that specify each person's obligations.
C) Contractarianism is the ethical theory according to which each person should act in his or her own self-interest, so long as no one else can reasonably object to his or her action.
D) Contractarianism is the ethical theory according to which the rules of morality are rules that people have consented to obey through their continued participation in a society.

Question 10

What is the "social contract" in contractarianism theories of ethics?

A) A hypothetical agreement specifying the role-based obligations for different members of society.
B) A hypothetical agreement among people in an imaginary state of nature that defines the rules of morality.
C) An actual agreement that people implicitly endorse by continuing to live in a particular society.
D) An actual agreement that was signed in the distant past on which a society bases its moral rules.

Question 11

What is the "state of nature" in contractarian theories of ethics?

A) A society in which everyone follows their natural instincts.
B) The state of society in which hunter-gatherers live.
C) An imaginary situation in which people live together without a social contract.
D) A perfectly organized society in which everyone's natural needs are fulfilled.

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT one of the assumptions commonly made about the state of nature in contractarian theories of ethics?

A) People are self-interested in the sense that they don't care how well most other people are doing.
B) People can distinguish good from bad through reflecting on human nature.
C) People are rational.
D) People can benefit from cooperating with one another.

Question 13

Which of the following do contractarians assume about people in a state of nature?

A) People would all be better off if everyone agreed to a set of rules that enable them to cooperate more effectively.
B) People can reflect on their human nature to recognize what things are worth pursuing or promoting.
C) People do not have any interactions with one another until a social contract is established.
D) People would not abide by a social contract without the threat of punishment in the afterlife for violating that contract.

Question 14

What is contractualism?

A) The view that morality consists of rules laid in the social contract that would be agreed to by self-interested people in the state of nature.
B) The view that morality consists of rules that would be specified in any social contract devised by rational people.
C) The view that morality consists of rules that would be agreed to within a small group of people who knew each other personally.
D) The view that morality consists of rules to which no one could reasonably object as the basis for living together in society.

Question 15

According to Chapter 12, how does contractarianism differ from contractualism?

A) Contractarianism only establishes basic moral rules, such as rules against harming others, whereas contractualism also includes more detailed rules.
B) Contractarianism assumes that human nature is bad, whereas contractualism assumes that human nature is good.
C) Contractarianism assumes that everyone is self-interested, whereas contractualism does not.
D) Contractarianism assumes that people in the state of nature could benefit by cooperating with each other, whereas contractualism does not.

Question 16

What is the ethics of care?

A) A normative theory that models morality on caring interpersonal relationships, such as the relationship between a parent and a child.
B) A variation on contractarianism in which the social contract is an agreement not between completely independent persons but between family units.
C) A normative theory on which there are no abstract principles of morality, but each person should simply act on feelings of empathy.
D) A feminist version of deontology in which obligations are specified in ways that do not disadvantage women.

Question 17

What does it mean to "care" for someone, according to care ethicists?

A) Caring for someone requires taking a positive view of the fulfillment of that person's needs and interests.
B) Caring for someone involves both caring about the person and skillfully taking care of his or her needs and promoting his or her interests.
C) Caring for someone amounts to ensuring that the person's needs are satisfied.
D) Caring for someone involves sacrificing one's own well-being for the sake of that person.

Question 18

Which of the following is required to care for someone, according to the ethics of care?

A) Acting in ways that fulfill the person's needs, promote his or her interests, and nurture his or her development.
B) Being emotionally concerned for the person's well-being.
C) Both (a) and (b).
D) Neither (a) nor (b).

Question 19

What role does emotion play in the ethics of care?

A) Emotion is the only guide to moral action.
B) Emotions help guide us in making skillful decisions about how to care for particular people in particular situations.
C) Emotions interfere with our judgment about what others need.
D) Emotion provides the motivation to act on the principles of morality.

Question 20

Which of the following best explains the tension between the ethics of care and the idea of justice, according to Chapter 12?

A) The ethics of care implies that we only have duties to people with whom we currently have personal relationships, whereas justice imposes duties toward distant strangers.
B) The ethics of care often requires that we treat strangers unjustly to benefit our own friends and family as much as possible.
C) The tension between care and justice is an illusion because caring for others requires treating everyone equally.
D) The ethics of care emphasizes personal relationships and prioritizing some people's needs over others, whereas justice depends on impartiality and treating everyone equally.

Question 21

Which of the following is NOT identified in Chapter 12 as one of the three central concepts of Confucian ethics?

A) Rén (benevolence).
B) Wú wéi (doing without trying).
C) Yì (integrity or righteousness).
D) Lǐ (ritual propriety).

Question 22

Which of the following best captures the more specific sense of rén in Confucian ethics?

A) Being prone to shame and so acting virtuously to avoid feeling ashamed in front of other people.
B) Adherence to the "negative golden rule" of not doing to others what you would not want them to do to you.
C) Promoting others' interests, including their interests in behaving virtuously, and refraining from acting in hurtful ways.
D) Treating others fairly by giving them what is owed to them according to the rules of your society.

Question 23

Which of the following best captures the more general sense of rén in Confucian ethics?

A) Acting with perfect virtue in all of your interactions with other people.
B) Acting perfectly fairly in all of your interactions with other people.
C) Always caring for others in your interactions with them.
D) Always following social customs in your interactions with others.

Question 24

What does lǐ refer to in Confucian ethics?

A) Integrity or righteousness arising from a fear of feeling ashamed at acting wrongly.
B) Traditional forms of behavior, including both official rituals and everyday interactions.
C) Social customs about how you greet other people, especially those of higher or lower social status.
D) The four cardinal virtues of Confucian ethics.

Question 25

What role does lǐ play in Confucian ethics, according to Chapter 12?

A) Fear of feeling lǐ deters the virtuous person from acting immorally.
B) Lǐ is a stepping stone toward true virtue.
C) Consistently performing lǐ correctly trains you to become virtuous.
D) Performing lǐ correctly and with the right feeling is a way to express one's virtue.

Question 26

What role do the "five relationships" play in Confucian ethics, according to Chapter 12?

A) They specify the people to whom one should act benevolently.
B) They specify who counts as part of one's immediate family for the purposes of filial obligations.
C) They help determine who can expect loyalty from whom in Chinese society.
D) They help determine the obligations that people have to one another and how they fulfill those obligations.

Question 27

Which of the following Western normative theories is Confucian ethics most similar to?

A) Consequentialism.
B) Deontology.
C) Virtue ethics.
D) Contractarianism.

Question 28

Which of the following best describes the ethics of ubuntu?

A) Morality consists entirely in a set of obligations each person owes to his or her family and community members.
B) The moral life is a life devoted to benevolence, integrity, and courtesy.
C) The morally best choice in any situation is the one that promotes the best consequences for the agent's community.
D) Living the morally best life you can involves realizing your humanity by promoting social harmony in your society.

Question 29

What is the ethics of ubuntu?

A) A philosophical elaboration of the ethical principles articulated in the Akan culture of Ghana, emphasizing social harmony, group solidarity, and clan membership.
B) A philosophical reconstruction of some ethical ideas common to sub-Saharan Africa, emphasizing social harmony, social identity, and group solidarity.
C) A way of understanding traditional ideas about morality found in sub-Saharan Africa, emphasizing benevolence, integrity, and respect for local customs.
D) A recent adaptation of the ethics of care by African philosophers who argue that feminist conceptions of care reflect traditional African moral concerns.

Question 30

What are the two key elements of promoting social harmony in the ethics of ubuntu?

A) Shared identity and solidarity.
B) Solidarity and good will.
C) Honor and shared identity.
D) Honesty and good will.

Question 31

What does it mean, according to Chapter 12, for a society to have a sense of shared identity?

A) That its members recognize themselves as descendants of some common ancestor who share a common language and culture.
B) That its members think of themselves as different from the members of other neighboring societies.
C) That its members regard themselves as having obligations to one another.
D) That its members regard themselves as sharing values and projects and having obligations to one another in virtue of their membership in the society.

Question 32

Which of the following would NOT count as a way of promoting a sense of shared identity in your community, according to Chapter 12?

A) Participating in the rituals and traditions of your community.
B) Encouraging others to live up to their obligations to the community.
C) Telling a community member who doesn't care about the community's traditions to follow his heart and ignore the traditions.
D) Volunteering to help clean up a local park.

Question 33

According to Chapter 12, what does it mean to have "good will" in the ethics of ubuntu?

A) It means acting skillfully to care for others' needs and interests.
B) It means doing to others as you would want them to do to you.
C) It means treating other people's needs as giving you a strong reason to act.
D) It means valuing your community members, and especially your family members, more highly than other people.

Question 34

How does the emphasis on social harmony in the ethics of ubuntu influence African responses to wrongdoing, according to Chapter 12?

A) Because social harmony is so important, the ethics of ubuntu requires that people who threaten social harmony must be punished harshly.
B) Because punishment is divisive, the ethics of ubuntu urges that wrongdoers reconcile with their victims to restore social harmony.
C) Because punishment is disruptive, it is justified in the ethics of ubuntu only because it deters other people from undermining social harmony in the future.
D) Because social harmony is so well established in societies that observe the ethics of ubuntu, wrongdoing is so rare that there is no established way of dealing with it.

Question 35

The natural law theory of ethics is often associated with the Catholic tradition.

Question 36

According to natural law theory, we can discover what is good and bad by reflecting on human nature.

Question 37

According to natural law theory, acting on your natural instincts is right and acting against them is wrong.

Question 38

Natural law theories of ethics say that people should promote good things and avoid bad things within limits established by practical reason.

Question 39

Because natural law theory bases morality in human nature, God never plays a role in natural law theories of ethics.

Question 40

Contractarianism is the view that morality consists of rules that would be agreed to in a state of nature to make everyone better off.

Question 41

Contractarians believe that the moral rules of each society must be based on an actual social contract, such as the U.S. Constitution or the Magna Carta.

Question 42

According to Chapter 12, contractarians often assume that in the state of nature, people are self-interested, rational, and able to benefit from cooperating with one another.

Question 43

According to contractarianism, the rules of morality are the rules necessary for people to enjoy the benefits of social cooperation.

Question 44

Contractualism is the view that social contract consists of rules for living together that no one could reasonably reject.

Question 45

The ethics of care models morality on caring personal relationships rather than contractual relationships between independent people.

Question 46

According to the ethics of care, caring for another person is strictly a matter of satisfying his or her needs and desires.

Question 47

The ethics of care emphasizes caring for others in terms of both taking care of them and caring about them.

Question 48

Care ethicists believe that empathy and emotional intelligence are essential to figuring out what the right thing to do in any given situation.

Question 49

Care ethicists all reject impartial justice as a requirement of morality.

Question 50

A central virtue in Confucian ethics is rén, which is often translated as "benevolence" or "goodness."

Question 51

According to Chapter 12, the three central ideas of Confucian ethics are rén, yì, and lǐ.

Question 52

The Confucian idea of lǐ applies only to official government ceremonies and religious rituals.

Question 53

In Confucian ethics, ordinary interactions with other people offer a chance for you to express your virtue.

Question 54

Confucian ethics is a form of deontology in which all obligations are role-based obligations related to one of four hierarchical relationships.

Question 55

The ethics of ubuntu focuses on realizing one's humanity by promoting social harmony in one's community.

Question 56

In the ethics of ubuntu, promoting social harmony involves honoring a sense of shared identity and promoting good will or solidarity within one's society.

Question 57

In the ethics of ubuntu, a community has a sense of shared identity if it shares the same values.

Question 58

In the ethics of ubuntu, having solidarity with members of your community is primarily a matter of feeling good when your community members prosper.

Question 59

In your own words, explain the natural law theory of ethics.

Question 60

What role does human nature play in natural law theories of ethics?

Question 61

What role does practical reasoning play in natural law theories of ethics?

Question 62

What is the state of nature? What assumptions do contractarians typically make about the state of nature? Why are those assumptions important for contractarianism?

Question 63

What kinds of rules are in the social contract, according to contractarians? Why are those the rules to which people would agree in the state of nature?

Question 64

In your own words, explain contractualism. How does it differ from contractarianism?

Question 65

In your own words, explain the ethics of care.

Question 66

What role does empathy play in ethics, according to the ethics of care?

Question 67

Why do some people think that the ideal of justice is incompatible with the ethics of care? What do you think is the best way to reconcile care and justice? Why?

Question 68

Explain the Confucian ideas of rén, yì, and lǐ in your own words.

Question 69

In Confucian ethics, rén has both a general and a specific meaning. Explain each meaning in your own words.

Question 70

In your own words, explain how the observance of lǐ provides a way to express one's virtue.

Question 71

In your own words, explain the ethics of ubuntu.

Question 72

Explain the ideas of shared identity and solidarity in the ethics of ubuntu.

Question 73

According to Chapter 12, the ethics of ubuntu often conflicts with traditional Western normative theories because of its emphasis on social harmony. Give one example of a case in which the ethics of ubuntu would conflict with a specific Western normative theory and explain why the two theories conflict.