Qustions from Chapters
University Fall 2014
Dept. of Philosophy Exam I UI400 Business Ethics
Section I. Complete each statement below with the letter of the word or phrase that best completes it. Place the letter of your choice in the space provided on the question sheet.
1. In our examination & refutation of cultural moral relativism, we were able to demonstrate its falsehood on the grounds that the very first conclusion the relativist wants to claim is itself a _______, the very sort of proposition it says it impossible. (a) relative judgment, (b) cultural judgment, (c) universal judgment, (d) qualitative judgment.
2. Law & morality are indeed related and sometimes overlap with each other, largely because morality is based on legal precedents established in courts of law and legislatures. ________ (a) true, (b) false, (c) it depends on the circumstances and the times, (d) the connections is in principle undecidable.
3. Although we raised serious objections to ethical egoism, we argued that it has a kernel of truth in it, namely ________. (a) selfishness is a virtue, (b) even when one acts in the interest of others, one does so because it is in one self-interest, (c) any legitimate objective moral theory will leave room for taking one’s self-interest into account, (d) people can’t help being egoistic since that is how they are psychologically conditioned to be.
4. If an act or policy has been ruled legal, then it must necessarily be also morally justified. _______
(a) true, (b) false, (c) undecidable— i.e., neither true nor false.
5. Of the many disciplines that study human conduct & social practice, those such as anthropology, sociology, psychology, & political science take a ______________approach to their studies.
(a) conceptual, (b) prescriptive, (c) normative, (d) descriptive.
6. On the other hand, moral philosophy or ethics (properly speaking) takes a ___________approach.
(a) hypothetical, (b) prescriptive, (c) inductive, (d) descriptive.
7. The Is/Ought distinction, which ethicists use when discussing human conduct & moral principles, primarily calls attention to the ________. (a) insight that values do not entail facts, (b) presumption that philosophy and science have nothing to do with each other, (c) insight that facts do not entail values, (d) the overlap of moral philosophy & science.
8. Psychological egoism is a doctrine that makes a pretense at being scientific. But examination shows that its central claim is both ________________, and thus, contradictory and therefore necessarily false. (a) descriptive & prescriptive, (b) necessary & contingent, (c) scientific & moral, (d) valid & true.
9. According to your textbook, _______ is a notion often mistaken for a term of moral evaluation when it is properly a term of rational self-interest. (a) egotistic, (b) prudence, (c) selfishness, (d) conscience.
10. Of the several approaches to morality described chapter 1 of your text, the cultural moral relativists hold that all moral values are __________. (a) applicable to all cultures, (b) subjective, (c) restricted in application to a specific culture, (d) universal.
11. _________ is the famous philosopher & novelist who, in an effort to defend ethical egoism, confused it with selfishness. (a) Ruth Benedict, (b) John Stuart Mill, (c) Ayn Rand, (d) Bernard Williams.
12. Of the several views of morality described in chapter 1 of your text, the view known as ______ readily leads to circular reasoning and self-contradiction. (a) ethical egoism, (b) deontology, (c) psychological egoism , (d) moral relativism.
13. Of the moral theories covered so far, only _________ has a genuine possibility of providing at least a partial justification for business activities. (a) moral subjectivism, (b) cultural moral relativism, (c) the legal system, (d) ethical egoism.
14. Whether one is thinking in terms of psychological or ethical egoism, there are certain human acts that egoism cannot explain, such as _______. (a) caring for an elder, (b) giving to a charity, (c) an act of love, (d) returning a favor.
15. One of the many problems with subjectivism is that while it might enable us to avoid ___________ everyone, it also makes ________ anyone impossible. (a) disagreeing with, agreeing with; (b) harming, helping; (c) being unfair to, being fair to; (d) being useless to, being useful to.
16. One of the several problems with moral relativism is that the premises of its argument are ________. (a) contradictory, (b) circular, (c) relative, (d) both false.
17. The criticism mentioned in 16 above is an observation of which philosopher?_____ (a) Ruth Benedict, (b) Ayn Rand, (c) John Stuart Mill, (d) Bernard Williams.
18. Upon examination, moral relativism violates the distinction between ______________. (a) is/ought, (b) psychological/ethical, (c) prudence/morality, (d) legal/ethical.
