University of Kansas, Fall 2002
Philosophy 672: History of Ethics
Ben Eggleston
Test Questions—Final Exam
The final exam will be given on Thursday, December 19, from 10:30 a.m. to 1
p.m., in the room where we have class, and will consist of 100 points’ worth of
the following questions. If you don’t want to take the exam in class, you may
turn in answers to any of these questions in advance, and when I grade the
answers that are written in class, I’ll grade the corresponding answers that you
turn in. Answers that you provide to questions that do not end up being on the
exam will not increase your grade, nor will the lack of such answers decrease
your grade. Note that, whether you answer each of the following questions or
not, you must number each of your answers, because when I grade your answers,
I’ll be looking for them one by one, as answers to specific questions, rather
than reading all of what you turn in from beginning to end. Your answers must be
typed and double-spaced, and they must be turned in to me at my office (3070
Wescoe Hall) by the beginning of the exam period (10:30 a.m. on Thursday,
December 19). You can slide your work under the door if I’m not in my office
when you come by to turn it in.
Whether you take the exam in class or not, if you want me to mail your
exam to you after I grade it, give me an envelope
with your address on it. If you don’t turn in an envelope to me, you can pick up
your graded exam from me any time until the end of January.
- (10 points:) Mill discusses two approaches to developing theories of
morality: intuitionism and inductivism. Which of these does he advocate (2
points), and what are his two chief distinct (although Mill does not
distinguish them very clearly himself) complaints about the other approach (8
points)?
- (10 points:) What is the difference between the tasks in which Mill is
engaged in chapters 3 and 4, respectively?
- (10 points:) Why is it wrong to say that hypothetical imperatives can be
distinguished from categorical ones by the presence of the word ‘if’ in them
(note: use examples to answer this part of the question), and what is the
right way in which to distinguish hypothetical imperatives from categorical
ones?
- (10 points:) What is the reasoning by which the first formulation of
Kant’s categorical imperative supposedly disallows making a false promise?
- (10 points:) What is the difference between Hume’s natural virtues and
Hume’s artificial virtues, and why is justice among the latter?
- (10 points:) In part 2 of section 9 of his second Enquiry, Hume addresses the question of
whether it can be shown to be in one’s interest to be moral. What is his
answer?
- (10 points:) What did Aristotle mean when he said that anyone with a
certain virtue wants to act as that virtue requires?
- (10 points:) What is Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean?
- (20 points:) Mill and Kant are representatives of two alternative ways of
doing normative ethics. How would Mill and Kant disagree about how to answer a
moral question such as when (if ever) it is permissible to lie, or such as
when (if ever) one person or nation may justifiably go to war with another
person or nation?
- (20 points:) Mill and Hume are both important figures in the utilitarian
tradition, but they are engaged in rather different projects. What is (or are)
the most important respect(s) in which Mill’s Utilitarianism differs
from Hume’s second Enquiry?
- (20 points:) Mill and Aristotle are both deeply interested in the question
of what the good life for human beings is. Compare and contrast their answers
to this question.
- (20 points:) Kant and Hume are both concerned with whether reason is
capable of selecting certain ends or acts as rational, or whether such
decisions must ultimately be made by each agent’s passions or sentiments. How
do Kant and Hume disagree in their answers to this question?
- (20 points:) Kant is in certain ways a typical modern moral philosopher of
the sort that might be regarded as starkly contrasting with an ancient
ethicist such as Aristotle. What are some of the features of Kant’s and
Aristotle’s thought makes this statement true? In answering this question,
you’ll want to draw on some of the differences between modern moral philosophy
and ancient ethics that are discussed by Anscombe and Annas.
- (20 points:) Hume and Aristotle both focus on the virtues. How do their
ideas of what makes something a virtue differ?