Philosophy Introduction to Ethics

Question 1 What is David Barash defining when he says, “the total of [living things’] reproductive success through their offspring plus that of their relatives”?

	inclusive fitness
	natural selection

 

	adaptation by sociable behavior
	Darwin’s theory of kin mutation

Question 2

When discussing whether two individuals will reciprocate altruism, Barash points out three important factors: benefit to the recipient of the act, cost to the altruist of the act, and what?

	Whether the act is against any moral rules.
	Whether the act is against the law.

 

	Whether the recipient and the altruist are related or not.
	Whether the altruist has been altruistic to cheaters or not.

 

 

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT a conclusion that Ashworth draws from the experience of trench warfare in World War I?

	Soldiers on both sides would use unofficial truces as traps to kill each other
	Soldiers on both sides would often violate direct orders in refraining from engaging with the enemy.

 

	French and German soldiers extended empathy to each other in their exchanges.
	Unofficial truces were a kind of reciprocal altruism.

 

 

Question 4

Does Malinowski’s report on “The Kula Ring” confirm the idea of reciprocal altruism?

	No, because the New Guineans who take part in it are possessive, and only want to accumulate the necklaces and bracelets.
	No, because the the Kula Ring has actually fragmented New Guinena society.

 

	Yes, because the New Guineans sacrifice their youngest child when they receive the wrong kinds of bracelets.
	Yes, because the Kula Ring has social, linguistic and cultural benefits beyond the trade in necklaces and bracelets.

 

Question 5

Which of the following ancient sources of ethics teaches “An eye for an eye?”

	Jesus
	Hillel

 

	The Law of Hammurabi
	Confucius

 

Question 6

Robert Trivers theorizes that early humans (hominids) evolved reciprocal altruistic behaviors because of their long lifespan and degree of mutual dependence. What do these two factors have in common?

	They are both likely to help hominids survive during glacial periods.
	They increase the number of times that hominids interact with each other, thus increasing the likelihood of remembering and reacting to past interactions.

 

	They decrease the number of times that hominids interact with each other, thus decreasing the likelihood of remembering and reacting to past interactions.
	They make it less likely that hominids will develop a faculty for recognizing each other.

 

 

Question 7

According to Trivers, if an individual is a “gross cheater” in a system of interactions characterized by reciprocal altruism, what is likely to happen to him or her?

	He or she is likely to switch to subtle cheating long before they are found out.
	He or she is likely to become the leader of that group.

 

	He or she will be trusted because most humans are too stupid to understand when cheating occurs.
	He or she will not be trusted and will be “exiled” in some way from interactions.

 

 

Question 8

What is “TIT FOR TAT”?

	A strategy for resolving the Prisoner’s Dilemma
	A strategy that involves “mirroring” whatever a game opponent did on their last move.

 

	A game strategy that involves a pattern of 5 cooperations followed by 3 defections.
	Both A and B above.

 

Question 9

Hume’s “naturalistic fallacy” is the idea that

	…it is always wrong to derive an “ought” statement from a statement describing what “is” the case.
	…it is always wrong to derive a descriptive statement about what “is” the case from what we believe “ought” to be the case.

 

	…morality is based purely on sentiments and feelings.
	…morality is based purely on rational calculations.

 

Question 10

What is Kant referring to when he says, “[it] is not good because of what it effects or accomplishes or because of its adequacy to achieve some proposed end; it is good only because of its willing, i.e. it is good of itself.”

	The moral sense.
	The moral emotions.

 

	The good will.
	Duty.

 

Question 11

Hume, like Rousseau, thinks that our capacity for sympathy is basic to our moral life. According to Kant, when we perform our obligations because we are sympathetic to others, which of the following is true?

	He agrees with Hume and Rousseau that we are good to act from sympathy.
	Our actions have derivative (partial) moral worth.

 

	Our actions have no moral worth whatsoever.
	We have acted in a rational way.

 

Question 12

By calling certain principles of ethics “axioms,” utilitarian Henry Sidgwick wants to imply that they are…

	…false.
	…absolutely obligatory.

 

	…self-evident to all.
	…applicable only to one’s own culture.

 

Question 13

Edward Westermarck thinks that, by and large, most of us in a givern society agree on most moral truths. Where there is difference, he says, there is…

	…a difference in knowledge of relevant facts.
	…a difference in how “reflective” some people are versus others.

 

	…a difference in emotional constitution.
	all of the above.

 

 

Question 14

Does reason play a common-sense role in ethics? Thomas Nagel believes that when someone injures us or steals from us, more than our feelings are hurt. What does he believe, beyond this?

	That the person who injured or stole from us had a reason not to do what they did.
	That the person who injured or stole from us had no reason to do what they did.

 

	That the person who injured or stole from us mistakenly thought they were following their duty, as in Kant’s view.
	That the person who injured or stole from us was merely acting out of emotional hysteria.

 

Question 15

Virginia Held believes that hitching moral truth to reason is basically a man’s invention. What, instead, does she favor as the bases for a feminist ethic?

	Emotion and embodied feeling.
	Women’s history.

 

	Laws favoring womens’ control of their own bodies.
	She has no such bases; she only makes a criticism of “male-biased” ethics.

 

Question 16

What phenomenon in evolutionary ethics does Robert Trivers spend his time documenting?

	Sex selection
	Kin altruism

 

	Reciprocal altruism
	Incest taboos

 

Question 17

What phenomenon in sexual ethics is Donald Symons describing in this passage? “It seems likely that parents (and perhaps other elder kin) have systematically attempted to inculcate one set of sexual attitudes in their daughters and another in their sons, since copulation exposes males and females to very different risks.”

	The sexual double standard
	Male jealousy

 

	The female attitude toward adultery
	Incest taboos

 

Question 18

Who is the author of the following text? “”Since reason alone can never produce any action, or give rise to volition, I infer, that the same faculty is as incapable of preventing volition, or of disputing the preference with any passion or emotion. This consequence is necessary.”

	Hume
	Sartre

 

	Kant
	Westermarck

 

Question 19

Who is the author of the following text? “The presumed objectivity of moral judgments thus being a chimera, there can be no moral truth in the sense in which this term is generally understood. The ultimate reason for this is, that the moral concepts are based upon emotions, and that the contents of an emotion fall entirely outside the category of truth.”

	Sidgwick
	Kant

 

	Held
	Westermarck

 

Question 20

Who offers us this story to illustrate a point about morality? “I will refer to a pupil of mine, who sought me out in the following circumstances. His father was quarreling with his mother and was also inclined to be a ‘collaborator’; his elder brother had been killed in the German offensive of 1940 and this young man, with a sentiment somewhat primitive but generous, burned to avenge him. His mother was living with him, deeply afflicted by the semi-treason of his father and by the death of her eldest son, and her one consolation was in this young man. But he, at this moment, had the choice between going to England to join the Free French Forces or of staying near his mother and helping her to live.”

	Held
	Hume

 

	Sartre
	Kant