PHIL 440A:  Midterm Review Questions

 

                The Midterm Exam will take place in class on Friday, August 7.  PLEASE BRING ONE OR MORE BLANK BLUE BOOKS (WITH NO PAGES MISSING) AND A PEN OR LEGIBLE PENCIL TO THE EXAM.  Please answer all questions completely, but concisely.  ANSWER IN COMPLETE SENTENCES.  The exam will consist of selections from the following questions.  You will have 90 minutes to complete the exam.  To complete the exam in 90 minutes, it will be important to have thought out your answers in advance.  In preparing for the exam, you are encouraged to discuss these questions with other members of the class, and to discuss what the relevant considerations would be in answering them.  However, each student is expected to develop his/her own answers to the questions.  You should not discuss the wording of an answer or attempt to come up with an agreed upon answer.  If you draft answers to the questions, you should not show your draft answers to others, nor should you read or copy someone else's draft answers. 

 

1.  Distinguish the items in the following groups of terms:

(a) Top-Down/Bottom-Up Reasoning in Moral Philosophy

(b) Moral Cognitivism/Non-Cognitivism

(c) Moral Realism/Anti-Realism

(d) Moral Anti-Realism/Practical Reason Anti-Realism/Theoretical Reason Anti-Realism.

(e) Direct/Indirect Utilitarianism

(f) Positive/Negative Responsibility

 

2.  (a) What claim does Moore call the "Naturalistic Fallacy"?  (b) What claim does Ruse call the "naturalistic fallacy"?  (c) What does Mill refer to as the "Greatest Happiness Principle" (GHP)?  (f) If the GHP is true, would that imply that Moore is mistaken?  Explain.  (g) If the GHP is true does that imply Ruse is mistaken?  Explain. 

 

3.  (a) What is Moore's Open Question Argument supposed to show about the concept good?  (b) Explain the argument. 

 

4.  (a) Why is Mackie not a subjectivist about morality?  (b) Why is Mackie not a naturalist about morality?  (c) How does Mackie classify himself?  Explain.  (d) What does Mackie mean by "objective prescriptivity"?  (d) Explain his two reasons for thinking the idea is "queer" or weird.  (e) What is the "companions in guilt" response?  In your explanation, give two examples of other kinds of judgments that would seem to be weird by Mackie's standards.

 

5.  Using Nagel's terminology, for each of the following claims, identify whether the relevant reasons are (i) internal or external and (ii) agent-relative or agent-neutral.  Explain your classifications:

                (a) Everyone has a reason to be grateful to his or her own mother;

                (b) Everyone has a reason to be grateful to mothers;

                (c) Everyone has a reason to preserve beautiful objects, even if no one will ever see or otherwise appreciate the object.

                (d) Everyone has a reason to alleviate his or her own severe pain if s/he wants it to stop.

                (e) Everyone has a reason to alleviate severe pain in anyone who wants it to stop.

                (f) Everyone has a reason to prolong human life, even if the person whose life it is would rather end it.

                (g) Everyone has a reason to maximize his own individual happiness.

                (h) Everyone has a reason to maximize overall happiness.

 

6.  Hume is usually thought to be an instrumentalist about practical reason.  Why does Millgram believe that interpretation of Hume is a mistake? 

 

7.  (a) Hume believes that there are only two cases in which it makes sense to call a passion irrational.  What are they?  (b) In each case, is it the passion that is truly irrational, or is it something else?  Explain. 

 

8.  Why is Hume so sure that moral distinctions are not based on reason?

 

9.  (a) What does Nagel mean by an "objective" reason?  (b) What does Nagel mean by an "internal" reason?  (c) What does Nagel mean by an "agent-neutral" reason?  (d) Does Nagel believe there are any objective, internal, agent-neutral reasons for action?  Explain.

 

10.  (a) Nagel and Williams both have a concept of internal reasons.  Call them internalN and internalW.  Explain the two concepts.  (b) Suppose all reasons for action were internalN.  Would that imply that all reasons for action are internalW? Explain. 

 

11.  (a) Let internalismW be the claim that all reasons for action are internalW.  Williams accepts internalismW about reasons for action.  Does Nagel?  Explain.  (b) Korsgaard also defines a version of internalism about reasons for action.  Call it internalismK.  Define internalismK.  (c) Korsgaard accepts internalismK.  Would she accept internalismW?  Explain.  (d) Would Williams accept internalismK?  Explain.

 

 

12.  (a) What do we mean by objective non-moral "to be pursuedness/not to be pursuedness" (TBP/-TBP)?  (b) What do we mean by objective non-moral "to be doneness/not to be doneness" (TBD/-TBD)?  (c) What do we mean by objective moral TBP/-TBP?  (d) What do we mean by objective moral TB/-TBD? 

 

13. (a) State each of the following as a norm (i.e., a normative/evaluative statement); (b) Identify what kind of norm it is (i.e., a norm of "to be believedness" (TBB), TBP, or TBD); (c) Do you believe that it is a norm that applies to all rational beings; (d) Explain your answer to (c).

(i) Ockham's Razor

(ii) Instrumentalist Norm

(iii) Weak Norm of Transitivity

(iv) The Internal, Agent-Neutral Disvalue of Pain

(v) Hedonistic Act Utilitarianism

 

14.  (a) Mackie refers to the "companions in guilt" strategy for responding to his arguments for moral anti-realism.  What is that strategy?  (b) How does Hampton's argument for objective norms of practical reason fit the companions in guilt strategy? 

 

15.  Hampton says "To be able to reason instrumentally, we must be able to reason non-instrumentally."  Explain what she means. 

 

16.  (a) Why does Ruse believe that evolution provides us with an explanation of the belief in objective moral norms?  (b) Why does Ruse believe that the evolutionary explanation of our belief in objective moral norms supports the conclusion that there are no objective moral norms?  (c) Why does Ruse not expect us to accept the conclusion of his argument? 

 

17.  (a) What is an Independence Claim about human moral beliefs?  (b) What is a Sensitivity Claim about human moral beliefs?

 

18.  (a) What does Ruse mean by saying he is an "intergalactic relativist" about morality?  (b) How does his position on the scope of morality differ from Mill's?  

 

19.  (a) What does Sober refer to as Hume's Thesis?  (b) What are the two ways that Sober extends Hume's Thesis?  (c) Why does Sober believe that Ruse commits a kind of "naturalistic fallacy"?    [Hint:  Why does Sober believe that Ruse's argument has a normative conclusion.]  (d) According to Sober, what are the two gaps in Ruse's argument?  (e) What sort of premise is needed to fill each gap?

 

20.  (a) What are the two senses of "observation" that Harman distinguishes?  (b) Explain why Harman believes that a moral theory might explain our observations in one of the two senses of "observation", but not the other. 

(c) What does Harman mean by ethical nihilism?  (d) What does he mean by naturalism?  (e) What does he mean by ethical naturalism? 

 

21.  What is Sturgeon's reply to Harman's explanationist argument?  Use the normative/descriptive distinction to explain how Harman would reply to Sturgeon.  What is the paradox in Harman's position?

 

22.  (a) What is Direct Utilitarianism?  (b) What is Indirect Utilitarianism?  (c) What is the Greatest Happiness Principle?  (d) Is it a principle of Direct or Indirect Utilitarianism?  Explain.

 

23.  Why is Mill's "proof" that only happiness is desirable question-begging?

 

24.  (a) What is the central idea in Mill's utilitarian account of legal justice.  (b) Why does Mill's account of legal justice qualify as a form of Indirect Utilitarianism?

 

25.  Why does Williams think that utilitarianism requires that a person be alienated from his/her moral feelings?  Use one of Williams's examples to explain your answer.

 

26.  (a) What is rule utilitarianism, according to Hospers?  (b) Why does Hospers believe rule utilitarianism is an improvement over act utilitarianism?  (c) What is the sub-class problem for rule utilitarians?  (d) What is Hospers' proposed solution to the sub-class problem?  (e) It is successful?  Explain.  (f) What is the universalizability problem for rule utilitarianism?  Explain how it would apply to Hosper's version of rule utilitarianism.

 

27.  For each of the following, say whether they believe moral norms are agent-neutral or agent-relative and explain your answer:

(a) Mill

(b) Williams ("Against Utilitarianism")

(c) Hospers

 

28.  Classify the following authors by how they would answer the questions, and explain each of your answers:  (i) Is there an objective property of non-moral TBP/-TBP?  (ii) Is there an objective property of non-moral TBD/‑TBD? (iii) Is there an objective property of moral TBP/-TBP?  (iv) Is there an objective property of moral TBD/-TBD?  [For each question, there are three possible categories:  Yes, No, and Indeterminate].  Your explanations should show that you are familiar with the authors' statement and defense of their positions.

(a) Moore

(b) Hume

(c) Mackie

(d) Williams ("Internal and External Reasons")

(e) Korsgaard

(f) Hampton

(g) Nagel

(h) Ruse

(i) Sober

(j) Harman

(k) Sturgeon

(l) Mill

(m) Hospers

(q) Your position.