Philosophy Department

Ethics

The questions on these lists are provisional and subject to revision. Students should confer with the Department faculty before beginning work on any of the questions from these lists.
 

1)    One might think that rule utilitarianism has a deontological character because it asks us to decide what rule to follow, and following a rule involves an intention.  Is this correct?  Can there be a purely consequentialist version of rule utilitarianism?

2)    Kant holds that the formulations of the categorical imperative are different ways of expressing the same thing.  Could this be true even though the first formulation is about universalizing our maxims and the second does not mention maxims at all but only ends and means?  Relate these principles to Kant’s idea of the Kingdom of Ends.

3)    At one point in his book Utilitarianism, Mill quotes the first formulation of Kant’s categorical imperative, and then writes:

But when he [Kant] begins to deduce from this precept any of the actual duties of morality, he fails, almost grotesquely, to show that there would be any contradiction, any logical (not to say physical) impossibility, in the adoption by all rational beings of the most outrageously immoral rules of conduct.  All he shows is that the consequences of their universal adoption would be such as no one would choose to incur.  (Mill, J. S.  “Utilitarianism.”  In Pojman, Louis P.  Ethical Theory: Classical and Contemporary Readings.  Third Edition.  New York: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1998, p. 191.)

4)    Ethical relativism is an attractive theory in our age of multiculturalism.  What is ethical relativism?  What are some arguments in favor of accepting it?  What are some arguments against it?

5)    Several ethical theories rely heavily on the thesis that we all share a common human nature.  Which theories are these and how do they rely on this thesis?  Is this thesis a good one?

6)    Thomas Nagel and others discuss the issue of moral luck.  What does Nagel mean by this term?  What challenges does Nagel’s essay on the subject pose to our everyday and philosophical thoughts about the appropriateness of our moral judgements?

7)    Explain how virtue-based theories (such as Aristotle’s) are different from deontological and consequentialist theories.  What is the relationship between virtue (arete) and well-being (eudaimonia) in Aristotle’s view?  In what way does Aristotle’s theory of virtue entail that we should not judge a person’s life until it is over?

8)    Kant’s moral theory is based on the human faculty of reason.  Some other moral theories rely on faculties other than reason to explain our moral judgements.  Explain some of these other theories and name the philosophers who held them.