Possible Exam Questions for Ethics Final

Note: The format for the final exam will be the same as for the midterm exam. There will be some quotes to identify, several questions to be answered quite briefly and one or two questions to be answered at greater length.

1. What does it mean to call an imperative “categorical”?

2. According to Kant there is only one Categorical Imperative (though it can be formulated in several different ways). In plain English, explain the meaning of the so-called “universal law formulation” of the Categorical Imperative.

3. How can the Categorical Imperative be used as a test for whether an action is morally right? (What steps should one go through to apply this test?) Do you think this is a good way to determine if an action is right or wrong?

4. What does Kant mean by saying that we should regard persons as “ends-in-themselves” and not merely as means? What do you think of this idea?

5. What reason does Norman give for thinking that Kant failed to “provide any good reason for adhering to an altruistic morality”? (Hint: it has to do with his distinction between three different senses of “universalizability”.) Do you think Norman is right?

6. How does J. S. Mill try to justify his view that some pleasures are qualitatively better than others? What do you think of this view?

7. How does Mill answer the objection that utilitarianism is impractical, because we don’t have time to calculate the effect of our actions on the general happiness? Does his answer succeed in rebutting the objection?

8. How does Mill try to “prove” the principle of utility? How successful do you think his proof is?

9. What objection to utilitarianism can be summarized by saying that it “ignores the separateness of persons”? (See Norman p. 185) What do you think of this objection?

10. What reason does Norman offer for thinking that Bradley’s ‘Hegelian’ ethics represents a significant advance over the theories of Kant and Mill? (See especially pp.117-118)

11. What is the difference between ‘slave morality’ and ‘noble morality’ according to Nietzsche?

12. According to Nietzsche what is the underlying motivation for ‘slave morality’?

13. What values does Nietzsche seem to endorse (at least tacitly) in his criticisms of previous moralities?

14. How can Freud, Marx, Nietzsche and feminist ethicists be seen as pursuing similar critiques of conventional morality?

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

16. According to Norman, emotivism and prescriptivism are two different forms of non-cognitivism. What is the difference between emotivism and prescriptivism, and what does it mean to call these theories ‘non-cognitivist’?

17. How according to Norman can we develop an objective account of human needs? Do you think that he succeeds in showing that his account is objective?

18. Norman says, “The version of moral realism which I have been presenting shows, if it succeeds, that there can be objective reasons for actions, objective reasons for living a certain kind of life. The practical choices we make are not just a matter of subjective preference; one kind of life is objectively better than another.” (P.222) Explain and evaluate his view.