Assignment - Ethics

Instructions: Please note that the questions below are based on the Unit readings and are intended to be both an outline of the units' material and the basis for your Unit Assessment, so please give your best effort to answering them thoroughly. The task is to respond to all 30 of the questions below. Each question will be worth one point.

The format for submission is to include the questions with the replies. Example:

How does one know what the good life is?

- The good life is...

1. Give a formal definition (dictionary) of the terms ethics, metaethics, and morals.

2. List a few ethical/moral questions to demonstrate that you understand the subject matter.

3. Give the brief sociological, psychological, and theological answers to the question, why should human beings care about being moral?

4. Define Mores and Etiquette.

5. What is the relationship between Law and Morality? Give some example to show how they are distinct.

6. List the 6 stages of moral development put forth by the moral psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg.

7. Describe Cultural Relativism, Descriptive Ethical Relativism, and Normative Ethical Relativism.

8. Of the "several problems and criticisms" associated with the theory of normative ethical relativism, list and explain at least 3 of them.

9. What is the difference between some having intrinsic and instrumental value?

10. What is the difference between a Consequentialist and a non-consequentialist theory of ethics?

11. List the 5 types of Egoism as they appear in you reading.

12. What are the arguments for and against ethical egoism?

13. What is the Basic Idea behind Utilitarianism?

14. What is the difference between Act and Rule Utilitarianism?

15. What are some of the problems associated with Utilitarianism?

16. What is Divine Command Theory?

17. What are some of the problems associated Divine Command Theory?

18. What is Natural Law Theory? What are the two major variations of it?

19. List some of the problems associated with Natural Law Theory.

20. Who is Immanuel Kant? Give a few biographical facts.

21. What is the basic outline of his ethical theory? What is the Categorical Imperative?

22. List and describe Kant's four formulation of the Principle of Universalizability.

23. Describe the Kantian distinction between Perfect and Imperfect Duties.

24. What are some of the problems raised in response to Kant's Theory?

25. Who is John Rawls? What two principles of Justice did he propose in his work A Theory of Justice?

26. What are some of the ethical features of Post Modernism?

27. Explain Nietzsche's ethical principle of the will to power.

28. What is a Pragmatic Ethic?

29. What is the main idea behind Feminist ethical theory?

30. What are some of the problems associated with Feminist ethical theory?