Q&A Hero

Q: Virtue ethics puts primary emphasis on being a good person and living a good life, whereas duty-based moral systems a. emphasize a life of happiness and flourishing. b. emphasize happiness through correct living. c. pay much less attention to following rules of conduct. d. pay much less attention to virtuous character and living a good life.

Q: Critics have taken virtue ethics to task for alleged problems in a. its focus on character and motivation. c. adapting the views of Aristotle. b. the usefulness of the theory in guidance. d. the requirement of coherence.

Q: Virtue ethics claims that the right action is the one performed by the virtuous person and that the virtuous person is the one who performs the right action. But some philosophers say that this way of framing the matter amounts to a. arguing with no premises. b. arguing from the obvious to the less than obvious. c. arguing in a circle. d. arguing too strongly.

Q: It seems that a person can be benevolent, honest, and loyal but still treat a stranger unjustly. This shows that a. the rightness of actions necessarily depends on the content of ones character. b. the rightness of actions does not necessarily depend on the content of ones character. c. most people are without virtues. d. having the right virtues can prevent moral error.

Q: Therefore, speech codes should be eliminated. Which of the statements above would be accepted by both supporters and opponents of speech codes? a. Statement 1 c. Statement 3 b. Statement 2 d. Statement 4

Q: According to critics of virtue ethics, one may be virtuous (kind, just, and honest) and still not know a. which actions are morally permissible. b. what the consequences of ones actions will be. c. whether virtue is good. d. whether virtues are worth cultivating.

Q: The ________ view says that morally permissible sex does not require marriage, but it does entail more than just the informed, freely given consent of the people involved, like an emotional connection.

Q: Hate speech is not merely unpleasant or offensive, because it can leave a. people unsatisfied with democracy. c. perpetrators feeling guilty. b. physical impacts on its targets. d. traces on the social conscience.

Q: Suppose a ninety-year-old man is dying of cancer and is in excruciating pain that no medicine can relieve. He asks to be given a lethal injection. According to the doctrine of double effect, giving the injection is not morally permissible.

Q: ________ is a term that refers to rape as well as nonpenetrative sexual acts such as attempted rape and unwanted groping of sexual parts.

Q: According to Kants theory, duties that absolutely must be followed without fail are known as ________.

Q: Some observers of the sexual assault phenomenon on campuses think that a lot of the blame for it should be laid on campus ________ culture, as todays college students are thought to reject the notion of traditional dates, opting instead to pursue no-strings-attached sexual encounters disconnected from the messiness of romantic commitments.

Q: The idea that we must always treat people (including ourselves) as ends in themselves, never merely as things of instrumental value, is known as the ________ principle.

Q: The right to express your opinions or ideas without burdensome restraints from government or society is called a. the right to bear arms. c. the freedom of religion. b. free speech. d. speech codes.

Q: The moral theory that says the morally right action is the one that follows the dictates of nature is known as ________.

Q: Which philosopher said that free and unfettered debate is vital for the pursuit of truth? a. Immanuel Kant c. John Stuart Mill b. Thomas Aquinas d. Plato

Q: The doctrine of ________ is the principle that performing a good action may be permissible even if it has bad effects, but performing a bad action for the purpose of achieving good effects is never permissible.

Q: Free speech scholars Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman explain the tendency of college students to favor disciplinary action for those who use offensive language by pointing out that a. this generation of students is especially sensitive to harm caused by bullying and hateful speech. b. todays college students are more attracted to authoritarian rule. c. this generation of college students has lost the capacity to care about freedom. d. college students are naturally swayed by emotion.

Q: Aristotle distinguishes between a. intellectual virtues and moral virtues. b. intellectual virtues and political virtues. c. temporal virtues and earthly virtues. d. moral virtues and happiness virtues.

Q: Courts have often ruled against the use of speech codes at colleges and universities because the codes were found to be a. too permissive regarding offensive comments made in the classroom and thus ineffective. b. so narrow that they didnt prohibit any forms of speech and thus were ineffective. c. too vague to be useful and so broad that they identified obviously protected speech as banned speech. d. beyond the authority of college administrators.

Q: For Aristotle, a person living a life of reason is living a life of a. excess. c. struggle. b. virtue. d. strict adherence to moral rules.

Q: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot forbid or punish any speech unless it is an instance of a. comments offensive to religious figures or people holding public office. b. speech aimed at expressing negative opinions about democracy or capitalism. c. harmful insults about vulnerable populations. d. libel, incitement to lawlessness, obscenity, harassment, serious threats, or fighting words.

Q: According to Aristotle, the greatest good for humans is a. virtue law. c. virtuosity. b. the Golden Mean. d. eudaimonia.

Q: Research shows that sex before marriage is almost universal among Americans.

Q: Many philosophers insist that the teleological character of nature has never been supported by logical argument or empirical science because a. the church has disagreed with science. b. scientists have been uninterested in teleology. c. natural law theory is internally illogical. d. nature is not teleological at all, but instead random and purposeless.

Q: The terms rape and sexual assault are synonymous with one another and can be used interchangeably.

Q: The absolutism of natural law theory (that is, the fact that some actions are always wrong [or right] regardless of circumstances) would not bother a. Aquinas. c. an act-utilitarian. b. Mill. d. an ethical egoist.

Q: Moral questions surface about sexual assaults on college campuses having primarily to do with (1) whether and how justice is served after a sexual assault occurs, and (2) whether the requirement of consent is met in any kind of sexual encounter.

Q: In natural law theory, the emphasis on reason makes morality independent of a. logic. c. history and common practice. b. psychology. d. religion and belief in God.

Q: According to the Roman Catholic version of natural law theory, sexual activity inconsistent with procreation is prohibited. An example of such forbidden behavior is frequent sex between a man and a woman married to each other.

Q: Kant says that some duties generated by the categorical imperative are absolute. They are perfect duties. So, regarding the perfect duty not to lie, Kant would insist that lying is permitted if the only way to prevent the deaths of several innocent people is to lie.

Q: According to Alan Goldman, sexual desire is desire for contact with another persons body and for the pleasure that such contact produces.

Q: According to Kant, it is morally permissible to treat a server in a restaurant as a means to the end of buying food.

Q: Consider this argument: Sexual experiences express and affirm moral values, and the right kind of sex expresses and affirms the right kind of values. This view is advocated by conventionalists.

Q: A pregnant woman has cancer and will die unless she receives chemotherapy to destroy the tumors. If she takes the chemotherapy to destroy the tumors, the fetus will die. According to the doctrine of double effect, it is not morally permissible for her to do so.

Q: A utilitarian is likely to sanction many kinds of sexual activity provided that such activities do not use people as a means to an end.

Q: Natural law theorists claim that humans naturally incline toward procreation, which implies that the use of contraceptives is always wrong.

Q: Many conventionalists favor censoring ________, which is defined as sexually explicit images or text meant to cause sexual excitement or arousal.

Q: According to natural law theory, it would be morally permissible to abort a womans fetus to save her life.

Q: Applying the second formulation of the categorical imperative to the act of lying to a friend on important matters would show that the action is impermissible because a. performing the action would treat the friend merely as a means to an end. b. performing the action would treat the friend as an end, not as a means. c. the action cannot be performed. d. the action leads to impermissible consequences.

Q: Alan Goldman and Igor Primoratz affirm that sexual behavior a. cannot be immoral merely because it is sexual. b. can never be immoral. c. is always moral. d. cannot be labeled.

Q: Like many moral theories, Kants system fails to a. articulate its main features. b. provide principles for action. c. provide an effective means for resolving major conflicts of duties. d. take personal autonomy into account.

Q: Many who argue against homosexuality appeal to an idea that is central to natural law theorymainly that a. human beings are at liberty to dispose of their anatomy and physiology as they see fit. b. people are not obligated to stay as nature made them. c. the way nature is tells us nothing about how we ought to be. d. the way nature is tells us how humans ought to be.

Q: Consider this comment from the philosopher C. D. Broad regarding Kants means-ends principle: If we isolate a man who is a carrier of typhoid, we are treating him merely as a cause of infection to others. But, if we refuse to isolate him, we are treating other people merely as means to his comfort and culture. This example suggests that a. our duties not to use people merely as a means can conflict, and Kant provides no counsel on how to resolve such dilemmas. b. our duties not to use people merely as a means can sometimes be difficult to discern, but they never actually conflict. c. our duties not to use people merely as a means are imperfect duties. d. our duties are always clear upon further reflection.

Q: Biologists report that homosexual behavior among nonhuman animals is a. nonexistent. c. widespread. b. extremely rare. d. found only in primates.

Q: A serious criticism of Kants theory is that it a. ignores the possibility that God exists. b. allows too much subjectivity in moral decision making. c. relies too much on consequences. d. is too specific about how to state a rule describing an action.

Q: Many human activities are statistically out of the norm (such as skydiving and eating snails), and for that reason they are sometimes deemed unnatural. From this fact it follows that unnatural activities are a. necessarily immoral. c. morally suspect. b. departures from evolutionary change. d. not necessarily immoral.

Q: Kants theory emphasizes three of moralitys most important features; the three are a. universality, impartiality, and the consequences of actions. b. respect for persons, absolutism, and subjectivity. c. self-interest, moral consensus, and moral authority. d. universality, impartiality, and respect for persons.

Q: One conventionalist argument asserts that homosexualitys misuse of bodily parts leads to a. unhappiness. c. dishonesty. b. sin. d. disillusionment.

Q: According to Aquinas, the first precept of natural law theory is a. do what is in your own best interests. b. good is to be done and promoted, and evil is to be avoided. c. avoid harm to others and yourself. d. good and evil are to be defined by religion.

Q: The moderate view says that sex is morally acceptable only between one man and one woman who are married to each other by legal authority.

Q: Aquinas says that judging the rightness of actions is a matter of a. determining what consequences result from actions. b. consulting our feelings and seeing which way our emotive consciousness points. c. consulting church authorities. d. consulting reason and considering rational grounds for moral beliefs.

Q: A 2008 study showed that teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence, and they are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do. If we assume that the goal of such pledges is to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, what would a utilitarian determine should be done? a. These pledges should be discouraged. b. These pledges should be encouraged. c. It does not matter one way or the other whether the pledges continue. d. These pledges are unnatural.

Q: Applying the first formulation of the categorical imperative to the act of lying to a friend would show that the action is impermissible because a. the actions maxim cannot be universalized. b. performing the action would treat the friend as an end, not as a means. c. performing the action would treat the friend as a means to an end. d. the actions maxim can be universalized.

Q: The doctrine that says that morality arises from an agreement that self-interested and rational people abide by in order to secure a degree of peace, prosperity, and safety is called ________.

Q: Alan Goldman says that the conventional view of sexuality is that sexual behavior must have a morally significant goal, such as procreation. But he argues that a. sex is directed towards goals but not toward conventional goals. b. sex is not a means to some other goal. c. sex should be directed toward communicating ideas or expressing love. d. sex is a spiritual journey.

Q: According to Hobbes, when there is a breakdown in the real world of the forces that preserve law and order, such as times of revolution, war, natural disaster, famine, and civil unrest, the human race returns to the ________, which is horrifying and gruesome.

Q: The central question in the morality of sex is, a. What arguments can be marshaled against the conventional view of sex? b. Is sexual behavior detrimental to human evolution? c. What kind of sexual behavior is morally permissible and under what circumstances? d. Is society as a whole becoming more liberal or more conservative in views about sexual behavior?

Q: ________, an influential social contract theorist, attempted to determine what moral principles a society would accept if they were arrived at through a hypothetical give-and-take that was as fair and impartial as possible.

Q: The conventionalist and the liberal take opposing views on the moral permissibility of a. marriage. c. homosexuality. b. love. d. domestic life.

Q: In a recent public opinion poll, ________ percent of respondents said they believe that it is morally acceptable for a man and woman to have sex before marriage. a. 90 c. 25 b. 66 d. 40

Q: The notion that as long as basic moral standards are respected, any sexual activity engaged in by informed, consenting adults is permissible is known as the ________ view. a. hedonistic c. liberal b. conventional d. moderate

Q: A categorical imperative tells us a. what to do if we have certain desires. b. that we should always perform our imperfect duties. c. that we should do something in all situations regardless of our wants and needs. d. what our hypothetical duties are.

Q: Kissing someone without first obtaining consent is an example of a. rape. c. both rape and sexual assault. b. sexual assault. d. neither rape nor sexual assault.

Q: Kant believes that every action implies a. a hypothetical moral agent. c. a general rule, or maxim. b. an imperfect duty. d. a conditional law.

Q: Suppose a married couple openly engages in consensual extramarital sexual activity with other people. According to Thomas Mappess Kantian view of sexuality, the sexual behavior of this couple would be a. permissible overall except for oral sex. b. impermissible. c. permissible. d. permissible overall except for the use of contraception.

Q: The difference between hypothetical and categorical imperatives is that a. hypothetical imperatives are universal, whereas categorical imperatives are not. b. hypothetical imperatives are rational and categorical imperatives are conditional. c. hypothetical imperatives are absolutist, whereas categorical imperatives are not. d. hypothetical imperatives are conditional, whereas categorical imperatives are unconditional.

Q: An unmarried man and woman have frequent sex and engage in activities that most of society would label unconventional, unnatural, and deviant. Their sexual behavior results in the greatest net good for all concerned. A utilitarian would therefore say that their sexual activities are a. permissible except for deviant sex. b. permissible except for activities labeled unnatural. c. impermissible. d. permissible.

Q: Kant would say that using a person to achieve some end, such as hiring someone to paint your house, is not necessarily wrong because a. every situation is different. b. exceptions are made for people who are not our friends. c. there is no moral difference between treating persons as a means and treating them merely, or only, as a means. d. there is a moral difference between treating persons as a means and treating them merely, or only, as a means.

Q: One of the criticisms of social contract theory is that its doubtful that those who are supposed to be parties to the contract have actually given a. due attention to morality. b. any thought to whether Hobbes was correct. c. any consideration to those who are not party to the contract. d. their consent to the terms of the contract.

Q: To the classic utilitarian, ________ is the only intrinsic good.

Q: In his explanation of weak affirmative action, Louis P. Pojman argues, There is no more moral requirement to guarantee that 12 percent of professors are Black than to guarantee that 85 percent of the players in the National Basketball Association are White. He is here trying to show that weak affirmative action aims for equal opportunity, not equal results.

Q: John Stuart Mill called the utilitarian principle, by which all actions can be judged, the ________ principle.

Q: Some critics of social contract theory argue that few people have ever actually consented to the terms of a social contract. Some defenders of social contract theory reply that people are much more likely to have given their a. verbal consent. c. fictional consent. b. implicit consent. d. refusal to consent.

Q: According to Carl Cohen, No matter who the beneficiaries may be or who the victims, preference on the basis of race is morally wrong. It was wrong in the distant past and in the recent past; it is wrong now; and it will always be wrong. Cohens position rejects strong affirmative action policies on nonconsequentialist grounds.

Q: Rule-egoism says that to determine the right action you must apply the egoistic principle to individual acts.

Q: Some philosophers, called race ________, agree with race skeptics that biological race is a myth but are reluctant to jettison the social construct.

Q: Psychological egoism is a moral theory.

Q: ________ is the belief that some races are inferior in significant respects or otherwise deserving of dislike or hostility.

Q: Utilitarianism is a moral theory for promoting human welfare.