Assignment
Question 1
Which of the following considerations about utilitarianism is correct?
The great 19th century utilitarians, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, believed that pleasure and happiness were different things.
Unlike Mill, Bentham was only concerned with the amount of pleasure that an action produces, not the quality of the pleasure.
Act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism boil down to the same thing.
Utilitarians believe that we can't compare one person's happiness with that of another.
Question 2
According to Kant
good will is the only thing that is good in itself.
an action has moral worth if it is consistent with the categorical imperative.
only actions based on feeling or sentiment have moral worth.
a self-interested person can never do the right action.
Question 3
Which of the following represents a utilitarian belief?
Rightness is determined by what most people want, i.e., by majority rule.
Rightness is determined by what will bring about the most good.
We should concern ourselves only with the immediate results of our actions.
We must always disregard our own happiness when deciding what to do.
Question 4
"If you want to go to law school, then you must take the LSAT exam." This statement is an example of
the transcendental imperative.
a hypothetical imperative.
the categorical imperative.
irrational behavior.
Question 5
Kant believed that we should always act
in such a way that we can will the maxim of our action to be a local law.
in a way that treats success as an end in itself, never merely as means.
in a way that would be universally unacceptable to all rational beings.
in a way that we can will the maxim of our action to become a universal law.
Question 6
According to the utilitarian theory, an action is morally right if and only if
it makes the person who does it happy.
everyone prefers that action to any other action.
it maximizes total, net happiness.
it brings only happiness and causes no pain.
Question 7
The case of the "deathbed promise" shows that
utilitarianism may lead to conclusions that conflict with commonsense morality.
keeping your promises never maximizes happiness.
it was wrong to have made the promise in the first place.
utilitarianism boils down to egoism.
Question 8
According to W. D. Ross's theory
a prima facie obligation is absolute and can never be overridden.
what we should do in any specific set of circumstances will always be self-evident.
it would be wrong to lie to a murderer even to save the life of a friend.
we have various moral duties that can't be reduced to a single, overarching obligation.
Question 9
Egoism as a psychological theory
states that self-interest is the only thing that ever motivates anyone.
is the same thing as ethical egoism.
states that people are sometimes selfish.
is based on egoism as an ethical theory.
Question 10
Which of the following statements is true regarding human rights?
Human rights are equal rights; if X is a human right, then everyone has this right.
Human rights are transferable and thus "alienable".
Human rights rest on particular roles and special relationships.
Human rights are not natural but are always grounded in a specific legal or political system.
Question 11
Nonconsequentialists like Ross believe that
we have no obligation to promote general welfare.
utilitarianism doesn't require us to sacrifice as much as we should to help other people.
morality permits each of us a sphere in which to pursue our own plans and goals.
people's so-called "moral rights" are unimportant when determining the right course of action.
Question 12
Utilitarianism is appealing as a standard for moral decision making in business. Which of the following provides a reason for this?
Utilitarianism provides an objective way of resolving conflicts of self-interest.
Utilitarianism provides a rigid approach to moral decision making.
Utilitarianism provides a fuzzy standard for formulating and testing policies.
Utilitarianism gives us firm rules to follow, rules that don't permit exceptions.
Question 13
The only accurate statement about consequentalism is:
Utilitarianism is a nonconsequentialist ethical theory.
Utilitarianism is an egoistic normative theory.
Consequentialism says that the moral rightness of an action is determined solely by its results.
Nonconsequentialists deny that consequences have any moral significance.
Question 14
The statement that best defines rights is
all moral rights are legal rights.
a negative right is a right to receive certain benefits.
a right is an entitlement to act or to have others act in a certain way.
all moral rights are human rights.
Question 15
A key idea of Immanuel Kant's ethical theory is that:
all duties are prima facie duties.
the moral permissibility of our actions depends entirely upon their consequences.
we should treat people as ends in themselves, never merely as means.
only pleasure has intrinsic value.