Plato, Republic (e-reserve) and Christine Vitrano, Happiness and Morality (EP, 407-409)
• In Plato’s Republic, we hear the story of Gyges and his magic ring. What point is this story used to make? What is the significance of this story to the question of moral motivation?
• According to the argument presented in Book 2 of Plato’s Republic, why does it seem like morality is not necessary for happiness?
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (EP, 410-415) and Bernard Mayo, Virtue Ethics (400-402)
• Why does Aristotle think that eudaimonia (often translated as “happiness”) is the highest good for human beings?
• According to Aristotle, human beings have a “function”– i.e., a characteristic activity through which a human being is a human being? What, according to Aristotle, is the function of a human being?
• What is the relationship between eudaimonia (the highest good for a human being) and man’s nature as a rational being?
• Explain Aristotle’s so-called doctrine of the mean. Give an example to illustrate this theory.
• What is virtue ethics?
Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals (EP, 415-420) and Onora O’Neill, Kant’s Ethics (EP, 385-387)
• What is a ‘deontological’ theory of ethics?
• Explain the difference between a ‘hypothetical imperative’ and a ‘categorical imperative’? Why might one think that morality should be a set of hypothetical imperatives? Why might one think that morality should be a set of categorical imperatives?
• Give the two formulations of the Categorical Imperative that we discussed in class—viz. the ‘universal law’ formulation and the ‘humanity as an end in itself’ formulation.
• Explain how making a false promise to secure a loan one cannot repay violates the Categorical Imperative in both the ‘universal law’ formulation and the ‘humanity as an end in itself’ formulations.
• Explain how Kant’s response to the problem of lying to the murderer at your door reveals the difference between a deontological conception of ethics and an approach to ethics which judges the morality of an action by its consequences.
• What does it mean to treat someone as an end, rather than a means?
J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism (EP, 420-428) and Louis Pojman, Assessing Utilitarianism (EP, 388-394)
• What is the ‘Principle of Utility’ or the ‘greatest happiness principle’?
• What is Utilitarianism?
• Explain and discuss the following objections to utilitarianism. (a) Utilitarianism is too demanding. (b) Utilitarianism makes nothing off-limits? (c) Utilitarian upsets personal relationships.
• How might a utilitarian respond to each of the three objections in the question above?
• Explain the difference between act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism?
• What is hedonism?
Plato, Crito (EP, 506-518)
• In Plato’s Crito, what are the main reasons Socrates gives for his refusal to break the law by escaping from prison?
• To put the question in another way, why does Socrates think that one has an obligation to obey the laws of the city? Does Socrates qualify this point in any way – i.e., are we always and in every case obliged to obey the law?
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (EP, 569-575)
• According to Hobbes, why is it rational for people in a “state of nature” to form a social contract?
• What does Hobbes think it is rational for people to agree to in a social contract?
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (EP, 519-527)
• According to John Stuart Mill, in On Liberty, what is the only legitimate reason for the government to interfere with an individual’s liberty of action?
• What, according to Mill, is the “appropriate region of human liberty” – i.e., in what three areas ought each individual to be left free from coercion?
• Why does Mill think that it is wrong to suppress ideas, even if one is firmly convinced that such ideas are false or dangerous?
• In Plato’s Republic, we hear the story of Gyges and his magic ring. What point is this story used to make? What is the significance of this story to the question of moral motivation?
• According to the argument presented in Book 2 of Plato’s Republic, why does it seem like morality is not necessary for happiness?
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (EP, 410-415) and Bernard Mayo, Virtue Ethics (400-402)
• Why does Aristotle think that eudaimonia (often translated as “happiness”) is the highest good for human beings?
• According to Aristotle, human beings have a “function”– i.e., a characteristic activity through which a human being is a human being? What, according to Aristotle, is the function of a human being?
• What is the relationship between eudaimonia (the highest good for a human being) and man’s nature as a rational being?
• Explain Aristotle’s so-called doctrine of the mean. Give an example to illustrate this theory.
• What is virtue ethics?
Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals (EP, 415-420) and Onora O’Neill, Kant’s Ethics (EP, 385-387)
• What is a ‘deontological’ theory of ethics?
• Explain the difference between a ‘hypothetical imperative’ and a ‘categorical imperative’? Why might one think that morality should be a set of hypothetical imperatives? Why might one think that morality should be a set of categorical imperatives?
• Give the two formulations of the Categorical Imperative that we discussed in class—viz. the ‘universal law’ formulation and the ‘humanity as an end in itself’ formulation.
• Explain how making a false promise to secure a loan one cannot repay violates the Categorical Imperative in both the ‘universal law’ formulation and the ‘humanity as an end in itself’ formulations.
• Explain how Kant’s response to the problem of lying to the murderer at your door reveals the difference between a deontological conception of ethics and an approach to ethics which judges the morality of an action by its consequences.
• What does it mean to treat someone as an end, rather than a means?
J. S. Mill, Utilitarianism (EP, 420-428) and Louis Pojman, Assessing Utilitarianism (EP, 388-394)
• What is the ‘Principle of Utility’ or the ‘greatest happiness principle’?
• What is Utilitarianism?
• Explain and discuss the following objections to utilitarianism. (a) Utilitarianism is too demanding. (b) Utilitarianism makes nothing off-limits? (c) Utilitarian upsets personal relationships.
• How might a utilitarian respond to each of the three objections in the question above?
• Explain the difference between act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism?
• What is hedonism?
Plato, Crito (EP, 506-518)
• In Plato’s Crito, what are the main reasons Socrates gives for his refusal to break the law by escaping from prison?
• To put the question in another way, why does Socrates think that one has an obligation to obey the laws of the city? Does Socrates qualify this point in any way – i.e., are we always and in every case obliged to obey the law?
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (EP, 569-575)
• According to Hobbes, why is it rational for people in a “state of nature” to form a social contract?
• What does Hobbes think it is rational for people to agree to in a social contract?
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (EP, 519-527)
• According to John Stuart Mill, in On Liberty, what is the only legitimate reason for the government to interfere with an individual’s liberty of action?
• What, according to Mill, is the “appropriate region of human liberty” – i.e., in what three areas ought each individual to be left free from coercion?
• Why does Mill think that it is wrong to suppress ideas, even if one is firmly convinced that such ideas are false or dangerous?
Asked May 12, 2013
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