Sample Ethics mid-term from Spring Semester

Spring 2013

Dr. Mark Alfino

Philosophy Department

Midterm Exam – Philosophy 301 – Ethics

Answer 6 of the following 8 questions in the space indicated. You may not skip a question marked with an asterisk (*). Note the length prompts for each answer.

1. Describe Ariely's "matrix test" on cheating and discuss its implications, in your view. (2-3 sentences)

2. What factors affect one's decision to break with situational control? (2-3 sentences)

3. What does it mean to say that ethical reasoning must involve universalizability? (1 paragraph) (*Answer either this question or the next.)

4. How does our "function" or nature help inform our understanding of the good life and of the kinds of lives (identify them) that can't be the good life? (1 paragraph) (*Answer either this question or the previous one.)

5. What evidence do we have that "intuitions come first"? Are there some limits to how helpful this view is in doing ethics in your opinion? (1 paragraph)

6. *Is there really a virtuous amount of anger? Use Aristotle’s model of virtue to reconstruct an affirmative answer and then evaluate that answer. (2 paragraphs)

7. How does Aristotle distinguish the voluntary from the involuntary? (2-3 sentences)

8. Why does Hobbes think we need a social contract? (1-2 sentences)