PhD Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy: Morality and The Moral Life 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: According to Kant's Formula of Humanity, one must always treat rational beings:
- According to their social utility
- As ends in themselves and never merely as means (Correct answer)
- In proportion to their moral virtue
- As the greatest happiness principle demands
Correct answer: As ends in themselves and never merely as means
The Formula of Humanity requires that we never use persons solely as instruments for our ends but always also respect their inherent rational dignity.
Question 2: Supererogatory acts are those that are:
- Morally required under all circumstances
- Praiseworthy but beyond the call of moral duty (Correct answer)
- Morally forbidden but commonly excused
- Defined as duties within virtue ethics
Correct answer: Praiseworthy but beyond the call of moral duty
Supererogatory actions go beyond what morality demands—they are morally good but their omission is not a moral failure.
Question 3: G.E. Moore's 'open question argument' was designed to refute:
- Moral skepticism
- Ethical naturalism (Correct answer)
- Divine command theory
- Social contract theory
Correct answer: Ethical naturalism
Moore argued that for any natural property F, it remains an open question whether 'what is F is good,' showing goodness cannot be identified with any natural property.
Question 4: In Nietzsche's ethics, the 'master morality' values which of the following above all?
- Pity, humility, and self-denial
- Power, nobility, and self-affirmation (Correct answer)
- Obedience to divine commands
- Universal benevolence and impartiality
Correct answer: Power, nobility, and self-affirmation
Nietzsche's master morality is characterized by strength, creativity, and self-affirmation, in contrast to the resentment-based slave morality he associated with Christianity.
Question 5: Which position holds that moral properties are identical to or reducible to natural properties discoverable by science?
- Non-cognitivism
- Moral constructivism
- Ethical naturalism (Correct answer)
- Moral intuitionism
Correct answer: Ethical naturalism
Ethical naturalism claims that moral facts are a subset of natural facts and can in principle be studied by empirical methods.
Question 6: The 'experience machine' thought experiment by Robert Nozick is intended to challenge which view?
- Deontological ethics
- Hedonistic utilitarianism (Correct answer)
- Virtue ethics
- Contractarianism
Correct answer: Hedonistic utilitarianism
Nozick's experience machine argues that if pleasure were all that matters, we would plug in, but since most people wouldn't, hedonistic utilitarianism must be incomplete.
Question 7: In applied ethics, the principle of double effect permits harmful side effects of an action when:
- The harm is greater than the intended good
- The agent intends only the good effect and harm is merely foreseen, not intended (Correct answer)
- The majority benefits from the action
- The agent lacks the power to prevent the harm
Correct answer: The agent intends only the good effect and harm is merely foreseen, not intended
The doctrine of double effect allows an action with bad side effects if the bad effect is foreseen but not intended and the good effect is proportionate.
PhD Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy: Morality and The Moral Life 4
According to Kant's Formula of Humanity, one must always treat rational beings: