2. What does it mean to say that an ethical theory is consequentialist? (497) Nonconsequentialist? (497-98)
3. What feature of virtue theories does the author note? (498)
4. What is cultural relativism? Is this a plausible view? Explain. (499)
5. What is ethical absolutism? (500)
6. What is ethical relativism (ER) ? How does it differ from cultural relativism? (500)
7. What objection to ER does the author elaborate at bottom 500 to top 501?
8. What objection to ER does James Rachels make? (501)
9. How does the author use the diversity of cultural views about infanticide to argue against ER?
(501-502)
10. What important point are advocates of ER often rightly trying to make? (502)
11. Answer discussion question 2 on p. 503?
12. How do consequentialist theories determine the right action? (504)
13. How do ethical egoists determine the right action? (504)
14. What does it mean to say that an ethical egoist is a hedonist?
15. What kind of activities does the hedonist Epicurus recommend? Is this an odd position for a hedonist, or is he very enlightened about how to carry out the pursuit of hedonistic goals? Explain. (505)
16. Are there ethical egoists who are not hedonists? Explain. (505)
17. How does ethical egoism create a problem of conflicting interests? (505-506)
18. What are the three key characteristics of the "ideal observer" who has what some call "the moral point of view"? What is then claimed about the judgment of the ideal observer? (506)
19. Can ethical egoists take the "moral point of view"? Explain. (507)
20. What challenge to the ideal of the "moral point of view" does the author mention? (507)
21a. What does utilitarianism say that we should do? (507-8) Is this a consequentialist position? (507)
21b. Is Bentham's classical utilitarianism hedonistic? (507-9)
22. How does ideal utilitarianism differ from the original formulation of utilitarianism? (509)
23. How does act utilitarianism differ from rule utilitarianism? (509-12)
24. What does the example on pp. 510-511 and again bottom 511-top 512 reveal about utilitarianism?
25. What kind of argument against various forms of sexual freedom is developed by the Ramsay Colloquium? (egoist or utilitarian, rule or act, hedonistic or ideal) (513) Is the argument completely sound? Explain.
26. What characterizes a nonconsequentialist ethical theory? What does the divine command theory hold about human conduct? Scriptural divine command theory? (515)
27. What are some of the serious difficulties with the [scriptural] divine command theory? (516)
[The author's discussion of Stoic ethics on pp. 517-18 is flawed, so after the first sentence under "Natural Law Ethics" on p. 517, you may skip to the second full paragraph on p. 518.]
28a. How, according to the natural law ethics of Thomas Aquinas, can humans discover what God commands? (518)
28b. What are the basic moral precepts of the natural law, according to Aquinas? (518-19)
28c. What is Thomas Aquinas' position on suicide? How does he justify his position? (519)
29. How does Thomas Aquinas try to deal with conflicts among the goods towards which we are naturally inclined? (519)
30. How does John Finnis' adapt traditional natural law ethics? (520)
31. What advantages does natural law theory have in comparison with (scriptural) divine command theory? (520)
32. State one criticism of natural law ethics mentioned on p. 520.
33. State the basic idea of David Levy's natural law approach to sexuality. How does it differ from the more traditional natural law approach defended by John Finnis? (523)
34a. For Kant, what lies at the heart of morality? What alone is good without qualification? What is the relation between a good will and moral duty? (524-525)
34b. What is Kant's categorical imperative? (525) How does Kant use this principle to show that it is wrong to make a false promise? (526, 527)
34c. How does Kant use this principle to show that prosperous people have duties to help their needy neighbors? (526, 528)
35a. What does Aristotle have in mind when he says that virtue aims at the mean? If virtue is related to the mean, what are vices related to? Discuss an example involving feeling and an example involving action. (540-41)
35b. How do we become virtuous? (541) How can we tell who is temperate and who is not? Who is courageous and who is not? (541)
35c. What three features of the virtue approach to ethics does the principles or rules approach normally lack? (543)
35d. What task does virtue ethics sometimes seem ill-equipped to do? (544)