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.

  1. (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)?
  2. (10 points:) What is the difference between the tasks in which Mill is engaged in chapters 3 and 4, respectively?
  3. (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?
  4. (10 points:) What is the reasoning by which the first formulation of Kant’s categorical imperative supposedly disallows making a false promise?
  5. (10 points:) What is the difference between Hume’s natural virtues and Hume’s artificial virtues, and why is justice among the latter?
  6. (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?
  7. (10 points:) What did Aristotle mean when he said that anyone with a certain virtue wants to act as that virtue requires?
  8. (10 points:) What is Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean?
  9. (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?
  10. (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?
  11. (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.
  12. (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?
  13. (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.
  14. (20 points:) Hume and Aristotle both focus on the virtues. How do their ideas of what makes something a virtue differ?