Deck 6: The Search for the Just Society

Question 1

The American Declaration of Independence represented a rejection of John Locke's political theory.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Thomas Aquinas advocated the natural law theory.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Robert Paul Wolff argues that governmental authority and individual autonomy are compatible.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

As defined by your text,a right is a justified claim to something.

Question 5

The social contract theory is opposed to the forming of governments.

Question 6

John Rawls believed that those in society who had the most natural gifts should have the most advantages.

Question 7

Mohandas Gandhi argued that violence was necessary to overcome an unjust government.

Question 8

Marx held to a deterministic view of history.

Question 9

Thomas Hobbes was an advocate of the social contract theory.

Question 10

Martin Luther King,Jr.points out that examples of civil disobedience can be found in the Bible and throughout history.

Question 11

Classical liberalism was a theory that emphasized individual freedom.

Question 12

"The veil of ignorance" is John Rawls's term for the situation of those who lack philosophical reason.

Question 13

The belief that the government has no legitimate authority,even though it may be necessary to tolerate government for practical reasons,is called

A) naive anarchism.
B) theoretical anarchism.
C) militant anarchism.
D) Platonic anarchism.

Question 14

Plato believed that a democracy was the most just form of government.

Question 15

According to your text,"civil disobedience" refers to any violation of the law.

Question 16

John Stuart Mill argued that the government should never restrict your individual freedom except to prevent harm to others.

Question 17

The issue of the justification of the government's authority has to do with whether the government has the power to enforce its rules.

Question 18

John Stuart Mill claimed that concerns for justice are more fundamental than concerns for social utility.

Question 19

Anarchism is the position that there is no conceivable justification for government.

Question 20

In Karl Marx's terminology,"bourgeoisie" refers to the workers.

Question 21

Who said that life without government would be "solitary,poor,nasty,brutish,and short"?

A) Robert Paul Wolff
B) Thomas Hobbes
C) John Locke
D) John Stuart Mill

Question 22

When Hobbes and Locke speak of the "state of nature," they are referring to

A) an early version of the theory of evolution.
B) human life without government.
C) the existence of social structures among animals and insects.
D) the government's role in protecting the environment.

Question 23

According to John Stuart Mill,under what conditions would it be permissible to prohibit free speech?

A) when the idea expressed is clearly false
B) when the idea is offensive to society's morals
C) when an idea is likely to cause immediate harm
D) never-for freedom of speech can never be limited

Question 24

Socrates argues against civil disobedience by saying

A) one should never do evil in return for evil.
B) the laws of his society nurtured and educated him.
C) he is the victim of unjust men,not unjust laws.
D) all of the above

Question 25

Which of the following was an advocate of anarchism?

A) Robert Paul Wolff
B) Thomas Hobbes
C) John Locke
D) all the above

Question 26

Rawls believes that the principles that govern society will be just and fair if

A) they are based on people's ability to contribute to society.
B) we study previous societies to find the best ones.
C) we derive those principles from the natural law.
D) they are chosen behind a veil of ignorance.

Question 27

Karl Marx believed that the driving force in human behavior and history is

A) economics.
B) religion.
C) technology.
D) philosophy.

Question 28

Susan Moller Okin criticizes Rawls for

A) attempting to redesign social institutions that seem to be working just fine.
B) being concerned with the social and economic structure of society and not its moral character.
C) basing his theory on the absurd notion of the original position.
D) failing to appreciate the significance of gender in his theory of justice.

Question 29

Which one of the following is a concept in John Rawls's philosophy that is similar to the concept of the "state of nature"?

A) the original position
B) the natural law
C) social utility
D) natural rights

Question 30

According to Marx,the three components in the process of history are

A) illusion,disillusionment,acceptance.
B) the religious stage,the scientific stage,communism.
C) state of nature,social contract,government.
D) thesis,antithesis,synthesis.

Question 31

Which of the following philosophers was very influential on Marx?

A) Plato
B) John Locke
C) John Rawls
D) Georg Hegel

Question 32

When Thomas Aquinas speaks about the "natural law," he is referring to

A) the collection of physical laws such as gravity.
B) morality that is based on culture and human conventions.
C) an objective moral law that is discovered through reason and experience.
D) those behaviors that are natural to animals but which are opposed to human morality.

Question 33

A society's obligation to protect individual rights,according to John Stuart Mill,is based on

A) the fact that these rights are given to us by God.
B) the demands of general utility.
C) the social contract.
D) the laws of nature.

Question 34

Which of the following was an advocate of a meritocracy?

A) Plato.
B) Thomas Aquinas.
C) John Stuart Mill.
D) John Rawls.

Question 35

In Plato's ideal society,those who had the most freedom and personal wealth were

A) the workers.
B) the auxiliaries.
C) the priests.
D) the rulers.

Question 36

According to Marx,the process of history in which a new era arises from the tension of opposing forces is called

A) historical indeterminism.
B) gradualism.
C) dialectic.
D) historical existentialism.

Question 37

Mohandas Gandhi used civil disobedience for which of the following causes?

A) to have the right to practice his religion
B) to free India from British rule
C) to provide just wages for the factory workers
D) to be able to freely travel outside his country

Question 38

Rawls's "difference principle" states that

A) there should be no differences in people's economic rewards.
B) society should not control the distribution of wealth.
C) social and economic inequalities should be arranged to result in the greatest benefit to the least advantaged.
D) social and economic differences are acceptable as long as they result from differences in people's natural abilities.

Question 39

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke agreed that

A) the government must have absolute power in order to avoid chaos.
B) a government derives its authority from God.
C) the social contract gives a government its authority.
D) prior to government we do not have any rights.

Question 40

In the Crito,Socrates' friends said that he should break the law in which one of the following ways?

A) refusing to pay unjust taxes
B) escaping from prison
C) refusing to worship the state's gods
D) disobeying the court order not to teach philosophy

Question 41

According to Thomas Aquinas,what is the natural law and what role does it play in his theory of justice?

Question 42

Which of the following is being quoted in this passage? "All social values-liberty and opportunity,income and wealth,and the bases of self-respect-are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any,or all,of these values is to everyone's advantage."

A) John Stuart Mill
B) John Rawls
C) Plato
D) Thomas Aquinas

Question 43

Discuss Robert Paul Wolff's reasons for saying that the commands of the government are never legitimate.Why does he go on to say that it is sometimes necessary to comply with the law? Give your own assessment of his arguments against governmental authority.

Question 44

Explain the principles John Stuart Mill uses to decide when we should be free to do as we please and when the government is justified in controlling our actions.Provide examples of each situation.Do the same for the issue of individual freedom of speech versus government control of speech.Why does Mill think that these principles are best?

Question 45

What is capitalism and why was Marx so opposed to it? What does he think is the future of capitalism?

Question 46

Which of the following said that "the primary obligation of man is autonomy,the refusal to be ruled"?

A) Plato
B) Mohandas Gandhi
C) Robert Paul Wolff
D) John Stuart Mill

Question 47

Discuss the five arguments that are commonly used to defend the permissibility of civil disobedience.Which argument do you think is the strongest? Which argument is the weakest?

Question 48

Which one of the following principles did Martin Luther King,Jr.advocate?

A) One who breaks an unjust law must be willing to pay the penalty.
B) Violent resistance to an unjust law is morally justified.
C) You cannot use the law to enforce morality.
D) Instead of trying to change the laws,we should try to change people's hearts.

Question 49

Pretend that you are Socrates.Explain to your friends why you should not escape from prison,even though your sentence was unjust.Next,stepping outside of the role of Socrates,give your own evaluation of his arguments.

Question 50

Which two authors quoted Augustine's principle that "an unjust law is no law at all"?

A) Plato and Mohandas Gandhi
B) John Rawls and Susan Moller Okin
C) Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
D) Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther King,Jr.

Question 51

Which of the following said,"The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas"?

A) Robert Paul Wolff
B) John Stuart Mill
C) Martin Luther King,Jr.
D) Karl Marx

Question 52

Why is Plato opposed to democracy? What sort of system does he think should be followed instead? In your answer,discuss the three classes in his ideal society,how they differ,and what respective functions they serve.

Question 53

Explain Karl Marx's theory of history.Include in your discussion the answers to the following questions: What is the fundamental,driving force in history? What role does philosophy play or not play in history? Why does Marx believe that the direction of history is predictable?

Question 54

Discuss the four arguments that are commonly used to argue against civil disobedience.Which argument do you think is the strongest? Which argument is the weakest?

Question 55

Explain John Rawls's notions of the "original position" and the "veil of ignorance." What role do they play in deciding what is the most just form of government? Explain the two principles of justice that he advocates.

Question 56

According to your text and the essays of Gandhi and King,what are the differences between criminal disobedience and civil disobedience? Why do they think we should obey some laws and not others?