PhD Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy: Morality and The Moral Life 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Bernard Williams's critique of utilitarianism centers on the claim that it violates:
- The greatest happiness principle
- Personal integrity and agent-relative commitments (Correct answer)
- The universalizability of moral rules
- The social contract between citizens
Correct answer: Personal integrity and agent-relative commitments
Williams argued that utilitarianism alienates agents from their deepest projects and commitments, undermining personal integrity.
Question 2: What does it mean for a moral theory to be 'agent-neutral'?
- It applies only to impartial spectators, not ordinary agents
- The reasons it generates are the same for every agent regardless of their personal relationships (Correct answer)
- It prioritizes the agent's own welfare above all others
- It treats all cultures as morally equivalent
Correct answer: The reasons it generates are the same for every agent regardless of their personal relationships
Agent-neutral theories give every agent the same reason structure (e.g., 'reduce suffering wherever it occurs'), unlike agent-relative theories that give different reasons to different agents.
Question 3: Philippa Foot's naturalistic virtue ethics grounds moral norms in:
- Social consensus and convention
- The natural teleology and life-form of a species (Correct answer)
- God's commands revealed through scripture
- The hypothetical contract of rational agents
Correct answer: The natural teleology and life-form of a species
Foot argued in Natural Goodness that moral virtues are grounded in what constitutes a good specimen of a human being, analogously to natural goodness in plants and animals.
Question 4: According to contractualism (T.M. Scanlon), an act is morally wrong if:
- It produces less happiness than available alternatives
- It violates a principle no one could reasonably reject (Correct answer)
- It conflicts with the agent's virtuous character
- It transgresses a divine commandment
Correct answer: It violates a principle no one could reasonably reject
Scanlon's contractualism holds that wrongness consists in acting on principles that others, motivated to find mutually justifiable terms, could reasonably reject.
Question 5: The philosophical problem of 'dirty hands' in political ethics refers to:
- Corruption caused by prolonged exposure to power
- The situation where doing what is morally right in politics may require committing a moral wrong (Correct answer)
- The problem of identifying corrupt politicians
- Moral disagreement within democratic legislatures
Correct answer: The situation where doing what is morally right in politics may require committing a moral wrong
Dirty hands cases (discussed by Michael Walzer) involve political leaders who must commit genuine moral wrongs (e.g., torture) to achieve morally important ends.
Question 6: Moral particularism (Jonathan Dancy) holds that:
- General moral principles are the foundation of all correct moral judgments
- Moral reasons are context-dependent and a feature that is reason-giving in one case may not be in another (Correct answer)
- Moral knowledge is only possible through intuition
- Only particular consequences, not rules, determine moral value
Correct answer: Moral reasons are context-dependent and a feature that is reason-giving in one case may not be in another
Dancy's particularism denies that there are universal moral principles; instead, the moral relevance of any feature varies across situations.
Question 7: The 'separateness of persons' objection to utilitarianism, associated with Rawls and Nozick, argues that utilitarianism:
- Fails to account for future generations
- Illegitimately aggregates welfare across individuals, ignoring their distinctness (Correct answer)
- Cannot explain why justice matters more than happiness
- Wrongly treats all pleasures as commensurable
Correct answer: Illegitimately aggregates welfare across individuals, ignoring their distinctness
Critics argue that by summing welfare across persons, utilitarianism treats society as a single individual and ignores that sacrifices imposed on one person cannot be compensated by gains to another.
PhD Doctor of Philosophy Philosophy: Morality and The Moral Life 5
Bernard Williams's critique of utilitarianism centers on the claim that it violates: