Quiz 4 Study Guide. Ch, 9, 11, 13.

Question 1

What are Virtues?

Answer 1

Specific character traits, like honesty and courage, that are morally good values. A virtuous person has many virtues.

Question 2

What are Vices?

Answer 2

Specific character traits, like dishonesty and selfishness, that are the opposite of virtues and thus morally bad. A vicious person has many vices.

Question 3

What’s Eudaimonia?

Answer 3

Aristotle’s concept of human flourishing (happiness) that is achieved only as we fulfill our human function of lviing by reason.

Question 4

What is Mean? (The Golden Mean)

Answer 4

A virtuous act or feeling that achieves the proper balance (“Golden Mean”) between both excess and deficiency.

Question 5

What is a Moral Saint?

Answer 5

Drawn from Wolf’s essay, a moral saint is one who perfectly fulfills the requirements of a given moral theory.

Question 6

What is Impartiality?

Answer 6

The objective moral perspective prized by most principle-based theories; it requires us to detach ourselves from our personal feelings and bypass our personal interests.

Question 7

What is Obligation Virtues?

Answer 7

Help us fulfill moral obligations to act in certain ways (e.g. promise keeping, justice, truthfulness).

Question 8

What are Good-Promoting Virtues?

Answer 8

They help promote specific values or goods (e.g. sociability, generosity).

Question 9

What are limiting virtues?

Answer 9

Help us control or manage our inclinations and feelings. (e.g. courage, temperance [self-control], loyalty, or faithfulness.

Question 10

What is Natural Value?

Answer 10

Some desirable end or goal toward which nature aims

Question 11

What is an innocent?

Answer 11

A person, or nation, that has a moral right not to be threatened by others because he (or it) has not attacked or threatened another.

Question 12

What is the Autonomy Thesis?

Answer 12

It states that the moral standard is something that exists autonomously-on it’s own, independent of any deity.

Question 13

What is the Dependency Thesis?

Answer 13

Is states that morality originates in God and so depends upon God for it’s existence.

Question 14

What is the Divine Command Theory?

Answer 14

A traditional dependency theory that maintains that morally right acts are those that God commands or wills.

Divine Command Theory asserts that God is the basis of morality and that God is not subject to reason or anything else.

Question 15

What is the Principle of Autonomy? (Autonomy Thesis)

Answer 15

The third version of Kant’s categorical imperative, this principle states that every person is equally a creator of the universal moral law- that is, that each person makes the moral law for himself.

Question 16

What is Natural Law Theory?

Answer 16

Natural Law Theory identifies natural values as things that human beings innately desire and need; more generally, they reflect whatever conforms to the cosmic order.

The laws of nature

Question 17

What do we mean when we say something is “universalizable”?

Answer 17

It refers to a principle or theory that can be applied to everyone

Question 18

In the context of ethics, what is meant by the word “autonomous”?

Answer 18

Able to make free choices as a self-determining individual.

Question 19

According to Plato and Socrates, does immorality stems from God’s commands, ignorance, or is it all relative?

Answer 19

It stems from his commands

Question 20

Which conditions must be satisfied for one to be considered autonomous?

Answer 20

Independence Condition. Competency Condition. Authenticity Condition.

Question 21

What is moral deference? Provide an example

Answer 21

Respecting another person’s choices without interfering. An example would be respecting your child’s decision to drop out of college to pursue something else they’re interested in. You’re recognizing them to be moral agents, and capable of making decisions on their own. You’re showing them moral deference

Question 22

What is Paternalism? Provide an example.

Answer 22

Overruling people’s choices and actions for their own good. A court ruling that a child must be treated with a life saving treatment even though him and his parents deny the treatment.

Question 23

What is a Moral Agent?

Answer 23

A person who satisfies the conditions of autonomy and is able to appropriately apple these capacities to a specific choice. An autonomous person making a specific moral choice.

Question 24

What is a moral principle?

Answer 24

A moral generalization that holds for everyone in the same way. Principles are not limited to particular people or situations.

Question 25

What is Virtue Ethics ?

Answer 25

Virtue theory maintains that our primary moral obligation is to become a virtuous person, which will make it natural for us to do what is right.

Question 26

According to Aristotle, how does one become a good (or virtuous) person?

Answer 26

According to Aristotle, you become a good, or virtuous person, through practice, habit and training.