Possible Exam Questions for the second Ethical Inquiry Exam (on August 5)

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. Some questions may be presented as multiple choice questions.

1. Some writers argue that racial and class disparities in sentencing make the death penalty unfair. Others argue that these disparities (though wrong) have no bearing on the justice of the death penalty. Explain. What do you think?

2. 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?

3. 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?

4. Why does Rawls think that people choosing principles of justice behind a ‘veil of ignorance’ would choose his principles and not the principle of utility or libertarian principles or a principle requiring perfect equality?

5. 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?

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

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

8. 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?

9. How does Susan Sherwin distinguish between ‘feminine ethics’ and ‘feminist ethics’?

10. How might one explain the difference between a ‘feminine’ and a ‘feminist’ approach to the issue of abortion?

11. Do you think that an “ethic of care” is needed to correct the male bias of mainstream ethical theory? (Why or why not?)

12. Explain the basic idea of virtue theory in your own words. What, according to Rachels, is an important flaw or error in this theory?

13. What do you think about the claim that at least some of the virtues are universal, in the sense that they are needed for a good life regardless of your cultural context?

14. According to Raymond Gastil, pornography and obscenity can produce a kind of ‘moral harm’. How so? Does he have a point?

15. What is the difference between liberal and natural law approaches to explaining what is wrong with ‘perverted’ sex, according to Alan Soble. Which approach seems better to you? Why?

16. What do you think of the idea that homosexual acts between consenting adults are wrong because they are unnatural?