Possible Exam Questions for the second Ethical Inquiry Exam (on July 19)

Note: I will choose several questions from this list to be answered quite briefly and one or two questions to be answered at greater length. You will be able to consult your textbooks but not any notes or handouts or other papers.

1. Briefly, what is the retributive theory of punishment? What do you think about this theory?

2. How does a utilitarian approach to the problem of capital punishment differ from a Kantian approach? Which do you think is better?

3. Why does Primoratz think that death is the only morally appropriate penalty for murder?

4. Hugo Adam Bedau says, “the lesson taught by capital punishment is not what its retributivist defenders infer from their theory. Far from being a symbol of justice, it is a symbol of brutality and stupidity.” What reasons does he give for this view? How good are these reasons?

5. How does Ernest van den Haag try to rebut the claim that we should abolish capital punishment because it is not being applied fairly (to use his terminology, it is “maldistributed”)? Does his rebuttal succeed?

6. Anthony Amsterdam presents evidence to show that the death penalty is applied in a racially discriminatory way. What conclusion does he think we should draw from this fact? Why does he think the Supreme Court was wrong to say that this evidence was irrelevant in the McClesky case?

7. Explain the basic idea of social contract theory in your own words. What, according to Rachels, is an important flaw or error in this theory? What do you think about this approach to ethics?

8. Why does Rawls think that we should imagine that people are choosing principles of justice behind a ‘veil of ignorance’? Do you think he is right to argue that a decision made ‘behind the veil’ is more fair than one made with full knowledge?

9. How (i.e., by what argument) would a libertarian like Hospers try to show that affluent people have no obligation to help poor people meet their basic needs? What do you think of this argument?

10. Why does Trudy Govier think that a “permissive” (unconditional) welfare policy is more just than a “Puritan” (conditional) policy? Is she right?

The following questions refer to material we will not discuss until after the exam. I will take that fact into account when grading your answers.

11. Why does Mary Ann Warren think that human fetuses are not, morally speaking, human beings? Is she right?

12. Don Marquis claims to have developed an argument that “purports to show, as well as any argument in ethics can show, that abortion is, except possibly in rare cases, seriously immoral, that it is in the same moral category as killing an innocent adult human being.” How does this argument go? Is it sound?