Test Review Sheets

Test 1: The Problems of Ethics

Important Concepts: be able to characterize and give examples.

morals (descriptive ethics)		ethics (prescriptive)
metaethics		analytical ethics
normative ethics		moral
nonmoral		immoral
amoral		cultural relativism
ethical relativism		ethical absolutism
ethical nihilism		ethical skepticism
ethical subjectivism		necessary condition
sufficient condition		contributing condition

Important Distinctions: Be able to list differences and give examples.

1. morals and ethics
2. psychological and ethical relativism
3. ethical relativism and ethical absolutism
4. necessary and sufficient conditions
5. ethics and social practice

Important Essays: Be able to explain in depth.

1. What are the central questions of ethics?
2. What is an ethical or moral issue?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages to the various criteria of truth in ethical matters: authority, consensus gentium, legality, conscience, revelation, intuition, reason?
4. Why be moral? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the purported justification: ``it pays,'' common interest, and ``it's right.''
5. What are the main objections to ethical relativism?

Test 2: Determinism, Religion, Duty

Important Concepts: be able to characterize and give examples.

scientific (hard) determinism		soft determinism
predeterminism		fatalism
predestination		indeterminism
á priori chance		á posteriori chance
reason		faith
free will		Pascal's Wager
duty ethics		religious ethics
good will		intrinsic good
instrumental good		means and ends
categorical imperative		practical imperative
teleological suspension of ethical		maxim

Important Distinctions: be able to list differences and give examples.

1. Comte's three stages of progress: theological, metaphysical and scientific
2. free will and determinism
3. means and ends vs. instrumental and intrinsic goods
4. duty ethics and religious ethics
5. actions in accordance with duty and actions for the sake of duty
6. maxim and universal law
7. Kierkegaard's stages on life's way: æsthetic, ethical, and religious

Important Essays: Be able to explain in depth.

1. What are the four major discoveries in science according to Engels? How do these discoveries suggest scientific determinism?
2. Explain why Mill and Venn believe that human actions cannot be predicted. How do their philosophies of determinism differ?
3. What are Spinoza's objections to the doctrine of free will? Do these objections apply to James' genuine option theory of free will? Explain.
4. Explain by citing examples the relation between the practice of morals and the ethics of the Souix as described by Ohiyesa.
5. What does Kant mean by universalizing my maxim? Give an example of a maxim which cannot be universalized, and explain why it cannot be universalized.

Test 3: Self-Interest and Society

Important Concepts: be able to characterize and give examples.

eudaimonia		árete
doctrine of the mean		lower pleasure
higher pleasure		soft determinism
apatheia		hedonism
egoism		psychological egoism
ethical egoism		personal ethical egoism
universal ethical egoism		egotism
Socratic Paradox		cynicism
active awareness		social contract
utilitarianism		principle of asceticism

Important Distinctions: be able to list differences and give examples.

1. pleasure and happiness
2. Epicureanism and hedonism
3. Egoism and hedonism
4. psychological and ethical egoism
5. lower pleasure and higher pleasure
6. principles of sympathy and antipathy
7. master and slave morality

Important Essays: Be able to explain in depth.

1. What is the Socratic Paradox? What is paradoxical about it? How are the distinctions between intrumental and intrinsic goods and means and ends related to the paradox?
2. What are the main points of, and objections to, Epicureanism? What is the role of pleasure in Epicureanism?
3. What are the main points of and objections to Stoicism? What rôle does active awareness play in Stoic philosophy?
4. Explain some of the common confusions with examples concering the use of the terms ``self-interest,'' ``selfishness,'' and ``other-regarding motives.''
5. What are the main points of and criticisms of Aristotle's ethics? What is the rôle of pleasure in Aristotle's ethics?
6. Explain Bentham's hedonistic calculus.
7. Contrast the social contract accounts of Plato, Mandeville, and Nietzsche