Ethics Exam 1

Front 1

What is ethics?

Back 1

The philosophical study of morality

Front 2

What is morality?

Back 2

Beliefs concerning right and wrong, good and bad

Front 3

What does it mean to be instrumentally (or extrinsically) valuable?

Back 3

Valuable as a means to something else

Front 4

What does it mean to be intrinsically valuable?

Back 4

Valuable in itself, for its own sake

Front 5

What is normative ethics?

Back 5

The study of the moral principles, rules, or theories that guide actions

Front 6

What is metaethics?

Back 6

The study of the meaning and logical structure of moral beliefs

Front 7

What is applied ethics?

Back 7

The application of moral norms to specific moral issues or cases

Front 8

What is the Preeminence of Reason?

Back 8

Ethics involves, even requires, critical reasoning

Front 9

What are the elements of ethics?

Back 9

* The Preeminence of Reason
* The Universal Perspective
* The Principle of Impartiality
* The Dominance of Moral Norms

Front 10

What is The Universal Perspective?

Back 10

Ethics requires that moral judgments follow the principle of universalizability

Front 11

What is the principle of universalizability?

Back 11

The idea that a moral statement applying in one situation must apply in all other situations that are relevantly similar

Front 12

What is The Principle of Impartiality?

Back 12

The welfare and interests of each individual should be given the same weight as all others

Front 13

What is descriptive ethics?

Back 13

The scientific study of moral beliefs and practices

Front 14

What are the three major divisions of ethics?

Back 14

- normative ethics

- metaethics

- applied ethics

Front 15

Many great religious thinkers have relied on reason to understand the truths of morality. True or false?

Back 15

True

Front 16

Ethics gives us a royal road to moral truth. True or false?

Back 16

False

Front 17

Embracing without question the moral beliefs of your culture can undermine your personal freedom. True or false?

Back 17

True

Front 18

What is The Dominance of Moral Norms?

Back 18

When moral norms conflict with nonmoral norms, moral considerations win

Front 19

What are the risks of not doing ethics?

Back 19

- loss of personal freedom

- confused or mistaken views

- stunted intellectual and moral growth

Front 20

What is the divine command theory?

Back 20

Right actions are those willed by God

Front 21

All major religious thinkers have accepted the divine command theory. True or false?

Back 21

False

Front 22

Morality is both accessible and meaningful to us whether we are religious or not. True or false?

Back 22

True

Front 23

Religious believers have no need to do ethics or moral reasoning. True or false?

Back 23

False

Front 24

What is subjective relativism?

Back 24

The view that an action is right if one approves of it

Front 25

What are the implications of subjective relativism?

Back 25

- Everyone is morally infallible

- Genuine moral disagreement between individuals is nearly impossible

- Moral judgments are a matter of preference (“taste”)

Front 26

What is cultural relativism?

Back 26

The view that an action is morally right if one’s culture approves of it

Front 27

What are the implications of cultural relativism?

Back 27

- cultures are morally infallible

- cultural values cannot be criticized from outside the culture

- social reformers within a culture are, by definition, morally wrong

- moral progress is virtually impossible

- if you have a disagreement with your culture about the rightness of an action, you automatically lose

Front 28

What is the most common argument for cultural relativism?

Back 28

1. People’s judgments about right and wrong differ from culture to culture

2. If people’s judgments about right and wrong differ from culture to culture, then right and wrong are relative to culture and there are no objective moral principles

3. Therefore, right and wrong are relative to culture and there are no objective moral principles

Front 29

What is the most common critique of cultural relativism?

Back 29

People may differ in their moral judgments, not because they accept different moral principles but because they have divergent nonmoral beliefs

Front 30

According to cultural relativism, intolerance cannot be justified as easily as tolerance. True or false?

Back 30

False

Front 31

Rejecting cultural relativism (embracing moral objectivism) does not entail intolerance. True or false?

Back 31

True

Front 32

What is ethical objectivism?

Back 32

Some moral judgments are universal (valid for everyone)

Front 33

What are the implications of ethical objectivism?

Back 33

- moral disagreements can be resolved using reasoning

- moral judgments and actions can be evaluated according to objective standards

Front 34

For a cultural relativist, when two people in the same culture disagree on a moral issue, what are they really disagreeing about?

Back 34

Whether their society endorses a particular view

Front 35

Suppose a culture approves of beheading young women for merely holding hands with a man. According to cultural relativism, the beheadings are what?

Back 35

Objectively justified

Front 36

Cultural relativism may be nearly impossible to apply to moral issues because of what fact about people in societies?

Back 36

There is no objective way for us to choose which society we belong to

Front 37

What is critical reasoning (critical thinking)?

Back 37

The careful, systematic evaluation of statements and arguments

Front 38

What is a statement (claim)?

Back 38

The assertion that something is either true or false

Front 39

What is an argument?

Back 39

A group of statements, one of which is supposed to be supported by the rest

Front 40

What is a conclusion?

Back 40

A statement that is being supported by other statements

Front 41

What is a premise?

Back 41

A supporting statement

Front 42

What is the intent of an argument?

Back 42

To prove something

Front 43

What is the most reliable way to identify an argument?

Back 43

Find the conclusion first

Front 44

What is moral reasoning?

Back 44

Ordinary critical reasoning applied to moral arguments

Front 45

What are the conclusion indicators?

Back 45

- consequently

- hence

- it follows that

- thus

- so

- it must be that

- as a result

Front 46

What are the premise indicators?

Back 46

- because

- since

- for

- given that

- due to the fact that

- for the reason that

- the reason being

- assuming that

- as indicated by

Front 47

What is a deductive argument?

Back 47

An argument that is supposed to give logically conclusive support to its conclusion

Front 48

What is an inductive argument?

Back 48

An argument that is supposed to give probable support to its conclusion

Front 49

What makes an argument valid?

Back 49

When it gives logically conclusive support to its conclusion

Front 50

What makes an argument invalid?

Back 50

When it does not give logically conclusive support to its conclusion

Front 51

What makes an argument sound?

Back 51

When it's a valid argument with true premises

Front 52

What makes an argument strong?

Back 52

When it gives probable support to its conclusion

Front 53

What makes an argument weak?

Back 53

When it does not give probable support to its conclusion

Front 54

What makes an argument cogent?

Back 54

When it's a strong argument with true premises

Front 55

In an argument, if the premises are true, the conclusion must be what (true or false)?

Back 55

True

Front 56

What does an affirming the antecedent argument look like?

Back 56

If p, then q.

p.

Therefore, q.

Front 57

Is an affirming the antecedent argument valid or invalid?

Back 57

Valid

Front 58

What does a denying the consequent argument look like?

Back 58

If p, then q.

Not q.

Therefore, not p.

Front 59

Is a denying the consequent argument valid or invalid?

Back 59

Valid

Front 60

What does a denying the antecedent argument look like?

Back 60

If p, then q.

Not p.

Therefore, not q.

Front 61

Is a denying the antecedent argument valid or invalid?

Back 61

Invalid

Front 62

What does an affirming the consequent argument look like?

Back 62

If p, then q.

q.

Therefore, p.

Front 63

Is an affirming the consequent argument valid or invalid?

Back 63

Invalid

Front 64

What does a hypothetical syllogism argument look like?

Back 64

If p, then q.

If q, then r.

Therefore, if p, then r.

Front 65

Is a hypothetical syllogism argument valid or invalid?

Back 65

Valid

Front 66

What is a moral statement?

Back 66

A statement affirming that an action is right or wrong, or that a person’s motive or character is good or bad

Front 67

Every moral argument should have at least what?

Back 67

A moral statement as a premise and a nonmoral statement as a premise

Front 68

How does one test a moral premise?

Back 68

Using counterexamples

Front 69

What are the fallacies common in moral reasoning?

Back 69

- Equivocation
- Slippery Slope
- Appeal to Ignorance
- Straw Man
- Appeal to the Person
- Hasty Generalization

Front 70

What is the fallacy used in the following passage known as?
Passage: "Liberals believe in abortion on demand, which means that killing a baby is permissible any time at all. At conception, in the second trimester, at infancy—any of these would be appropriate times to kill a baby, says the liberal."

Back 70

Straw man