Harper PHI115 Full Course latest 2019 March (No Homework 6 & Limited Quizzes) Question # 00601587 Subject: Education Due on: 05/23/2019 Posted On: 05/23/2019 07:11 AM Tutorials: 1 Rating: 4.9/5

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 1 Discussion

Forums will
be very important for us. We’ll exchange ideas, work with the ideas of others
and we will be doing so often. To help with that. I’ve made forum posts worth
part of your grade. In most weeks, I will grade your posts, looking for rigor,
depth and constructiveness. I will say more about that as we proceed and as I
introduce topics. This week I will only grade for completeness.

The main thing to think about is whether
you’re advancing or starting a good conversation. Easy questions don’t start
conversations. Vague comments don’t start conversations. Genuine questions that
show depth or comments that show some thought can start conversations. That
will be our goal: to have good conversations about philosophy. This week, I
want us all to say hello and to begin learning how this course is to be
arranged. So, post a ‘hello’ and a bit about yourself or why you’re taking this
course. If you have any special pronoun preferences, this would be the time to
let me and everyone else know (see below). If you have any questions about this
or anything else, bring them to the forum! That is the best place for public
questions. If you have any confidential questions, email me privately, please.
Good luck and I can’t wait to get to know you all! Also, don’t forget to do the
reading and post comments questions here, as well. We’re going to learn a lot
together and it starts this week.

On pronouns:
not everyone uses the pronouns we might assume they would. In my case, I
present as male, so I use ‘he/him/his’ as my pronouns. You would say, “Dr.
Horton, he teaches my philosophy class” or “I’m taking his
course.” If someone is a female, they might prefer ‘she/her/hers’. These
are not the only pronouns, however. Someone might prefer ‘they/them/their’, as
their singular pronouns, as in “Bobby wants their coffee black” or
“I know them (said of Bobby).” Or, alternatively, someone might
prefer ‘xe/xem/xyr’, as in “Jem wants xyr coffee black” or “I
know xem very well.”

In this class, I respect each of you. I’m
happy to help make sure we respect each other. Please let me know via email or
in whatever way you prefer what pronouns we should use and we will respect you
by doing so.

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 2 Discussion

Regan and
Rachels

So many
things to discuss this week! What did you think? Some things you might consider
posting about or in answer to:

(a) Was
there a specific passage that stood out to you? Provide it (and page number)
and provide why you think it’s interesting/challenging/etc.?

(b) Did you
have a question from the reading? What passage (and page number) and what is
your question? How do you think the philosopher you read might answer it?

(c) Do you
have a real world example that is relevant? Might you have seen someone
adopting a position like described this week? How so?

You can
also create a constructive post of your own topic, related to this week’s
material, but these are just to get you thinking. I’m looking forward to your
posts!

Note: you
do not need to address all of (a) – (c) in your posts. Take one and do a
thorough job on it. There is lots to discuss!

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 3 Discussion

Plato’s
Euthyphro!

What did
you think? Have any questions? Have any answers?

Let me help
us a bit here to get started. First, let’s look at some essay questions that a
textbook provides:

1. What is
the Euthyphro question? What is the answer, according to Socrates? Can you reconstruct
his reasoning for why?

2. What is
involved in service to the gods, according to Euthyphro and Socrates? Do you
agree? Explain.

3. What
does Socrates want in asking for a definition of piety? Is this what one should
be looking for in a definition? Explain.

In
formulating a post, we might think about these questions. We might try to come
up with an answer to them, or at least the beginning of an answer. How might you
try to answer one of these?

Another way to proceed is to find a
passage in the text you think is interesting. Share that passage and share why
you think it’s interesting. Why do you think it worth sharing, in other words?
Does it convey an important message about morality? Does it make a nice point
about why we should act in a certain way or about reasons for moral behavior in
general?

There are lots of ways to go, especially
since the reading is longer than some of the others. It’s a dialogue, so in
that since doesn’t read as long as it is. It is, though, philosophy, which
takes a careful read. After your careful read, what stood out to you? Why?

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 4 Discussion

I’ll start
with an example to help:

(1) Example
of categorical imperative: Do not lie.

(2) Example
of a hypothetical imperative: If you want to be trusted by your friends, do not
lie.

Why should
I follow the first but not the second even though they both say I shouldn’t
lie?

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 5 Discussion

Did you see
my handout? What do you think of the two cases? When we’re finished discussing
those, we may create our own. So many interesting things to say about this
week. I can’t wait to hear what you can offer!

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 6 Discussion

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism
is a theory about options. For everything we think about doing, we have
choices: we can do (a) or (b) or (c)…and so on. The question for a
utilitarian is the following: which of our options either produces the most
pleasure or reduces the most pain? Or, in short, which causes the most
happiness? Now, Mill defines happiness precisely, so we must be sure we’re
talking about the same thing. Mill also talks about different kinds of
pleasures. Taking all of that in, what might some examples be of what a
utilitarian would do in a specific situation?

(a)
Question: My Aunt Agatha gets a horrible, bee hive hairdo. I dislike it. Most
people will dislike it. It is ugly. Question: do I tell her what I think if she
asks me? Options: (a) lie to her or (b) tell the truth (tactfully). Only you
may know your Aunt, but what would a good utilitarian do?

(b) Should
I give money, say, $5, to charity or buy a Venti latte from Starbucks with that
money? What would a good utilitarian do?

(c) Should
we have an amendment guaranteeing free speech for all citizens or should we
not? What would a good utilitarian do?

We can
multiply examples endlessly. These are just to get us started.

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 7 Discussion

Let’s try a
few things in our posts this week:

(1) No very
general comments. Let’s be specific. If the text was hard, then where, what
passages? If something was unclear, then what passage or paragraph? What might
Rawls be saying? Why do you think that? No simply saying a passage was
challenging. Take a stab at interpreting it. What could Rawls be saying or
trying to convey?

(2) Let’s
help each other, too. Post an original comment and then use your second posting
to help a classmate or to constructively comment on their post. Again, be
constructive. Read the context around their quoted passage and ask whether
their interpretation is consistent with the text as you read it. Have another
interpretation? Politely offer it and ask what we think.

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 8 Discussion

The Racial
Contract

I hope you
enjoyed this week’s reading. It is a contemporary classic, if you will, and a
valuable lens through which to look at our society. Consider the following
question: suppose I had a policy at a company I ran that said the following: we
will not hire women. You’d think that was discriminatory, right? Obviously.
But, what if I had a policy in place that did exactly that (more or less), but
which didn’t mention women by name? I could do the following: “Any absence
of work for any reason for more than five business days will result in automatic
termination.” How does this policy do the same thing? Surely men, too,
might have an accidenct or need leave? Some will, no doubt. But this policy
impacts women particularly because they are the most likely to need leave,
specifically, parental leave. I might as well say “no maternity leave
here!”

Okay, what lesson can we draw from this?
First, a policy can be discriminatory in all of the following cases:

(1) without
mentioning a vulnerable group by name or description.

(2)
accidentally or unintentionally

(3) by
mentioning a vulnerable group by name or description

(4)
deliberately or intentionally

Intentions
have little to do with it, in fact, at the policy level or the level of law. A
policy or law can be discriminatory and just as immoral if it achieves the same
thing as a law that discriminates by name or description.

Okay, then, how does this relate to Mills?
In a sense, he’s asking a question: what if we can design a racist contract
that gives us the exact same results we might see out in the world? If we can,
doesn’t that mean the world is flawed?

Consider an example: suppose I’m of pure
heart and have only good intentions. Suppose also that I get a diversity of
applicants for job after job at my company. Suppose, lastly, that my company
hires men, predominantly. I don’t have a policy that says hire only men. I
don’t try only to hire men. It’s just the way it worked out. However, if I had
a policy that said “Hire only men,” I’d get the same results, more or
less, then that should give us a reason to think somethings going on. It
doesn’t mean I’m a sexist. It doesn’t mean other employees are sexist. But it
might mean that somehow we have a system in place that is sexist, despite the
best intentions of the people who are a part of that system.

Anytime we see something like that, anytime
we see something that COULD be achieved by purely immoral means, we ought to
want to dig deeper and try to see what’s going on. In a sense, that’s what
Mills is up to. Since we can get almost the exact same results as we see in our
very own world by use of a racist contract, doesn’t that mean that somehow in
our world exists racism at a structural or systemic level? At the very least,
shouldn’t it mean we ought to look deeper?

Here are
further things to think about, as you’re reading the Mills:

Evidence of
exploitation? Evidence of Mills’ claim that the Racial Contract has a political
dimension, an epistemological dimension or a moral dimension? What does he mean
by those terms? Other interesting tidbits?

Please
provide a page number with each post so that we can know what part of the
reading you’re commenting on, elaborating on, challenging, connecting to, etc.
Each post should connect to the reading, whether it is an original post or a
comment on a classmate’s post.

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 9 Discussion

Aristotle:
what is a good person?

What
character traits are virtues that Aristotle may not have mentioned? Do they fit
his pattern of “excess” and “deficiency?” If they are moral
virtues, they should! What do you think of virtue ethics? Do we care about the
kind of person you are on the inside or do we only care that you do the right
thing? Is there a place for virtue ethics? Let’s have a great discussion this
week!

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 10 Discussion

Thoughts
about Gilligan

How is it
claimed that boys think about ethics? What evidence is there?

How is it
claimed that girls think about ethics? What evidence is there?

What does
this mean for ethics?

Each post,
whether an initial post or a reply, should include page references to the part
of the reading that informed your post.

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 11 Discussion

Of
particular note to Held’s theory is the fact that care is both a practice and a
value. What does she mean by this? And, for someone else or many people, what
are examples?

Second, how
does the ethic of care help is in the real world? What examples fit or don’t
fit the theory?

Last, What
do you think about the Lorde?

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 12 Discussion

Peter
Singer is trying to convince us that we ought–morally–to be doing a lot more
to help other people in the world. There is no moral difference between a
person living in our borders and a person living somewhere else. There might be
a cultural difference or a linguistic difference between them, but a person is
a person. Morally, there is no difference. There is also a lot of need in the
world. There is need here and there is need there. Need is need. Part of
thinking about altruism is thinking about how to get the most bang for our
bucks. We have to be thinking about that, too. Peter Singer takes facts like
this, adds a few moral premises, and concludes that we–individually, sure, but
also as a nation, should be doing a lot more to help those in poverty. Do you
agree?

Or, do you think about it like Hardin does?
His paper is less rigorous than Singer’s (he’s not a professional philosopher,
after all), but he does present a case that suggests we don’t have a moral
obligation to help those in poverty. Is he ? Do you agree? Why or why not?

Note: each
post should include either a quoted passage from the reading (along with page
number where it can be found) or a paraphrase/summary/statement of a thought
contained in the reading (along with a page number where it can be found). You
can disagree with the thought expressed in the reading. You can agree with it.
You can use it as a jumping off point for your own thoughts. Great! But, make
sure you give a page number.

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 1 Quiz

Question 1

True/False: One of the first points of
Socrates when deciding what to do, was to say that we should not let our
decisions be determined by our emotions.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 2

What was
the position of Socrates in the Crito?

Answers:

He was
eating dinner.

He was
lecturing to a large audience.

He was in prison.

Question 3

The claim
“It is always wrong to harm someone” is what kind of claim?

Answers:

A claim
from descriptive ethics.

A claim
from normative ethics.

A claim
from meta-ethics.

Question 4

True/False:
Based on the syllabus: Each week you are required to post at least two
constructive comments in the discussion forum.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 5

Historians
and psychologists are best thought of as doing what kind of ethics?

Answers:

descriptive

normative

meta-ethical

PHI115 ETHICS

Week 2 Quiz

Question 1

True/False:
Cultural relativists believe that there are no standards of right and wrong.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 2

Why does
Rachels say that not every moral rule can vary from society to society?

Answers:

Some rules are necessary for society to exist.

Human
beings share a common creator.

Certain
values are innate.

Human
beings have all evolved from a common ancestral line

Question 3

Suppose Sue
argues in the following way: “82% of the U.S. population is in favor of
the death penalty. Therefore, the death penalty is morally permissible.”
What mistake is Sue making?

Answers:

The “I
think it therefore it’s right” mistake.

He is saying that lots of people think it,
therefore it’s right.

He is
appealing to a moral authority.

He is using
cultural relativism to support his position.

Question 4

What is a
value that all cultures share, according to Rachels?

Answers:

All
cultures value personal freedom.

All
cultures value fairness.

All
cultures value self-defense.

All cultures value truth-telling.

Question 5

Suppose Jim
argues in the following way: “Lying is wrong. We were all raised to
dislike lying and it’s just socially accepted that lying is wrong.” What
mistake is Jim making?

Answers:

The “I
think it therefore it’s right” mistake.

He is
saying that lots of people think it, therefore it’s right.

He is
appealing to a moral authority.

He is using cultural relativism to support his
position.

PHI115 ETHICS

Exam 1

Question 1

What is a
value that all cultures share, according to Rachels?

Answers:

All
cultures value personal freedom.

All
cultures value fairness.

All
cultures value self-defense.

All cultures value truth-telling.

Question 2

The
“Euthyphro Dilemma” is the famous question that Socrates asked
Euthyphro in Plato’s Euthyphro. What is that question (or what comes closest to
that question)?

Answers:

Can right
things be right while people disagree about what’s right and wrong?

Is an
action right because people say it’s right or do people say it’s right because
it is right?

Are actions right because all the gods love
them or do the gods love them because they are right?

If the gods
agree about what’s right, then why do religions disagree with each other?

Question 3

Which of
the following consequences follows from taking Cultural Relativism to be true?

Answers:

Asking
whether a given action conforms to the code of oneâ s society is sufficient for
determining that actionâ s rightness or wrongness.

The
assumption that our society has progressed since the days of slavery becomes
doubtful.

A society
tolerant of Jews cannot be said to be superior to an anti-Semitic society.

All of these are .

Question 4

True/False:
Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for not paying his fair share in taxes.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 5

True/False:
Socrates is being charged with impiety.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 6

Historians
and psychologists are best thought of as doing what kind of ethics?

Answers:

descriptive

normative

meta-ethical

Question 7

What was
the position of Socrates in the Crito?

Answers:

He was
eating dinner.

He was
lecturing to a large audience.

He was in prison.

Question 8

Suppose
someone asks Mary what’s the difference between right and wrong and she says,
“Well, murder is wrong while helping our neighbors is right. Lying is
wrong while obtaining consent from other people is right.” She is making
what mistake from Plato’s Euthyphro?

Answers:

She is giving a list of right things and of
wrong things.

She is
saying that things are right if the gods love them and wrong if the gods hate
them.

She is
saying that things are right if all the gods love them and wrong if all the
gods hate them.

None of the
above.

Question 9

Suppose Jim
argues in the following way: “Lying is wrong. We were all raised to
dislike lying and it’s just socially accepted that lying is wrong.” What
mistake is Jim making?

Answers:

The “I
think it therefore it’s right” mistake.

He is
saying that lots of people think it, therefore it’s right.

He is
appealing to a moral authority.

He is using cultural relativism to support his
position.

Question 10

Suppose you
wanted to know what makes something morally right and were given a list of
things that are right. Which of the following is a reason that Socrates would
probably give (based on Platoâ s dialogue â Euthyphroâ ) for not wanting a
list.

Answers:

A list of
examples of rightness would not tell you any examples of rightness.

A list of examples of rightness would not tell
you the one characteristic they have in common.

A list of
examples of rightness would not help you prosecute your father for murder.

A list of
examples of rightness would not be since
any and all lists are wrong.

Question 11

(Basedon
Regan) Suppose Tom argues in the following way: “Of course murder is
wrong. It’s written in the Bible. God says it’s wrong!” What mistake is
Tom making?

Answers:

The “I
think it therefore it’s right” mistake.

He is
saying that lots of people think it, therefore it’s right.

He is appealing to a moral authority.

He is using
cultural relativism to support his position.

Question 12

(from Frankena)
The claim “It is always wrong to harm someone” is what kind of claim?

Answers:

A claim
from descriptive ethics.

A claim from normative ethics.

A claim
from meta-ethics.

Question 13

True/False:
Based on the syllabus: Each week you are required to post at least two
constructive comments in the discussion forum.

Selected
Answer:

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 14

True/False:
Cultural relativists believe that there are no standards of right and wrong.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 15

Why does
Rachels say that not every moral rule can vary from society to society?

Answers:

Some rules are necessary for society to exist.

Human
beings share a common creator.

Certain
values are innate.

Human
beings have all evolved from a common ancestral line

Question 16

Suppose Sue
argues in the following way: “82% of the U.S. population is in favor of
the death penalty. Therefore, the death penalty is morally permissible.”
What mistake is Sue making?

Answers:

The “I
think it therefore it’s right” mistake.

He is saying that lots of people think it,
therefore it’s right.

He is
appealing to a moral authority.

He is using
cultural relativism to support his position.

Question 17

Why does
Regan think the method of answering
moral questions cannot be the appeal to a moral authority?

Answers:

It is not
clear that such an authority exists.

Even if
there is a moral authority, it is not clear that we could be sure what he or
she thinks about moral questions.

The
authoritative status of moral judgments can be established only if there are
independent ways of testing the truth or reasonableness of those judgments.

All of the choices are , according to Regan.

Question 18

What makes
an action right or wrong, according to cultural relativism?

Answers:

the standards of one’s culture

the
consequences of doing that action

whether
that action is rational or irrational to do

whether
that action makes one happy or not

Question 19

(from
Frankena) True/False: One of the first points of Socrates when deciding what to
do, was to say that we should not let our decisions be determined by our
emotions.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 20

Euthypro
attempts to define piety at one point by saying, “The pious is what the
gods love and the impious is what the gods hate.” Why, according to
Socrates, can’t this be ?

Answers:

The gods disagree with one another. Hence the
same thing could be both pious and impious, which is impossible.

The gods
disagree with one another. Hence one god would have to be more powerful than
another god, which we can’t know.

The gods
disagree, which means that the gods aren’t rational. That is itself an imious
view.

If whatever
the gods love is pious, then anything could be pious, even killing children.
That’s obviously false.

PHI115 ETHICS

Exam 2

Question 1

True/False:
According to Mill, a completely contented fool is happier than an intelligent
person who is not fully satisfied with his or her lot.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 2

Suppose you
lie to me in order to obtain money from me. In that case, my decision to lend
you money was not…

Answers:

voluntary

informed

decisionally-capacitated

Question 3

On what
grounds does Mill think some pleasures can be judged higher or better than
others?

Answers:

the
undisputed superiority of the mind over the body

the
compatibility of certain kinds of pleasure with moral virtue

the
preference for one kind of pleasure over another shared by all of thsoe fully
acquaiinted with both

all of these

Question 4

What is an
imperative?

Answers:

It is a command.

It is a
question.

It is a
statement.

Question 5

True/False:
The main idea for Rawls is that justice is fairness.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 6

How does
Mill define happiness?

Answers:

the
fulfillment of one’s highest human potential

a life
lived in accordance with virtue

pleasure and the absence of pain

the
achievement of one’s goals

Question 7

True/False:
Immanuel Kant is a consequentialist.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 8

Which of
Rawls’ principles requires that positions of authority and responsibility be
held open, that is be accessible to everyone?

Answers:

First

Second

Question 9

Mill would
most likely say that it is generally immoral to lie because:

Answers:

lying
involves treating someone merely as a means.

lying undermines trustworthiness, which is
indispensable to human well-being.

lying runs
counter to the divine will.

to lie is
to act according to a maxim that would not be universalized.

Question 10

True/False:
Kant believes that it is possible to use ourselves merely as a means and not as
an end.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 11

If I am
forced at gunpoint to give over my wallet, then my actions was not…

Answers:

voluntary

informed

decisionally-capacitated

Question 12

True/False:
When behind the “veil of ignorance,” decision makers know their
income level and socioeconomic status.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 13

Which of
the following is a hypothetical imperative?

Answers:

Don’t
steal.

If you don’t want to go to prison, then don’t
steal.

Stealing is
a means of getting things.

Question 14

True/False:
The utilitarian standard of right action is the happiness of the one performing
the action.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 15

Which of
the following rules captures Mill’s understanding of utilitarian ethics?

Answers:

Love your neighbor as yourself

Act only
according to maxims you would be willing to make into universal laws.

To thine
own self be true.

Carpe diem
(“Seize the day”).

Question 16

Which of
the following is a categorical imperative?

Answers:

Help others.

If you want
to be respected, then you should help others.

Helping
others is good for the soul.

Question 17

True/False:
According to Mill, pleasure is the only thing desirable for itself and not as a
means to some other end.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 18

Which of
the following is THE Categorical Imperative?

Answers:

Do unto
others as you would have them do unto you.

Always act
in such a way that you make the world a better place.

I ought never to act in such a way that I
couldn’t also will that the maxim on which I act should be a universal law.

Question 19

Suppose I
have a hammer and use that hammer to drive nails into wood while I’m building a
house. I am using that hammer ____________

Answers:

as an end

merely as a means

Question 20

Suppose
that I go to a restaurant. I consent to being there and the wait staff consent
to being there and waiting on me. In such a case, when I order food I am using
the staff__________

Answers:

as an end

merely as a
means

Question 21

How should
basic liberties or freedoms be distributed, according to Rawls?

Answers:

Basic
freedoms can be distributed to anyone so long as a majority of the people vote
for it.

Basic
freedoms can be distributed to some but not to others so long as this benefits
everyone.

Basic freedoms have to be distributed equally.

Basic
freedoms have to be distributed unequally. It’s the only way for this to work.

Question 22

Mill’s
supreme principle of morality is…

Answers:

the
categorical imperative

the principle of utility

the natural
law

the formula
of the end in itself

Question 23

True/False:
Utilitarians tend to rank pleasures of the mind higher than pleasures of the
body.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 24

Consent
requires that an action be….

Answers:

voluntary

informed

decisionally-capacitated

all of the above

Question 25

The initial
state which insures that the fundamental agreements reached in it are fair is
called what?

Answers:

Status quo

Original Positoin

Distributive
justice

Continental
Congress

PHI115 ETHICS

Exam 3

Question 1

In what
sense is moral virtue a mean?

Answers:

It occupies a middle ground between excessive
and deficient possibilities of feeling and acting.

It
corresponds to what the average person would do in a situation.

It
corresponds to what ordinary “common sense” would recomment.

It is a
mean in the sense that it is mathematical and one can apply a simple formula to
determine what is right and wrong.

Question 2

True/False:
Gilligan would probably say that the way that girls reason has typically been
devalued and not treated as a genuine alternative to the way that boys
typically reason.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 3

True/False:
In order for an act to be truly virtuous, it must be done from a fixed state of
character, for its own sake and knowingly and willingly.

Answers:

TRUE

FALSE

Question 4

The Racial
Contract is that set of formal or informal agreements establishing the rules
and regulations for two groups of people, the _________ and the ___________.

Answers:

whites…non-whites

northern
whites…southern whites

Europeans
and Africans

Question 5

In what
does happiness consist?

Answers:

experiencing
pleasure and not experiencing pain

achieving
one’s goals and receiving honor from one’s community

activity of