Study questions

Ethics: PHIL 202
Lecturer: Sandy Berkovski

Bilkent University
Spring 2023

Contents

1  Introduction: Kleist

1. Can we conclude that Kohlhaas is a good man, at least before his troubles begin? Why?
2. What is the source of Kohlhaas' sense of justice?
3. Does Kohlhaas have a reasonable reaction to the putative injustice committed toward him?
4. Is there a moral change in Kohlhaas after the events at the castle, petitions to the court, his wife's death etc.?
5. What are the moral positions adopted by Herse and Lisbeth?

2  Rawls.sensejustice

1. What is the connection between moral and natural attitudes?
2. What is the difference between the morality of authority and the moralities of association and principles?
3. What is the role of the precepts of authority in the child's primitive morality?
4. What is the role of the utilitarian principle in the sense of justice?
5. What is the role of the natural attitudes in the development of moral feelings?
6. What is the role of the art of perceiving the person of others in the interpretation of behavior?
7. What is the role of the ability to put oneself in another's place in the development of moral attitudes?
8. What is the role of abstract reasoning in the development of moral attitudes?
9. What is the role of exemplars in the development of moral feelings?
10. What is the role of the sentiment of justice in the ideal state of affairs?
11. What is the role of the aspiration to realize the ideal state of affairs in the natural sentiments?
12. What is the role of the full knowledge and experience of the ideal state of affairs in the rational human beings?
13. What is the role of the principles of justice in the morality of principles?
14. What is the role of the four-stage sequence in the understanding of the principles of justice?
15. What is the role of the attachment to particular individuals and communities in the morality of principles?
16. What is the role of the sense of justice in the acceptance of the principles of justice?

3  Haidt

1. Summarise the reasons given by the social intuitionist model for doubting the role of rationality in moral judgements.
2. Does this model declare reason irrelevant for moral judgement?
3. How does Hume's philosophy, according to Haidt, provide initial support for the social intuitionist model?
4. Outline Kohlberg's view of moral judgement.
5. What is the social interactionist model?
6. What are the principal differences between the social intuitionist and the social interactionist models?
7. What is moral dumbfounding?
8. What are the chief characteristics of the moral judgement, according to the social intuitionist model?
9. What is moral reasoning?
10. What is the contrast between reasoning and intuition?
11. Briefly explain each link in the social intuitionist model.
12. How does the social intuitionist model explain the possibility of moral change?
13. Under what conditions does is the moral judgement automatic? Under what conditions does it involve reasoning?
14. How does the social intuitionist model integrate the dual-processing heuristic system?
15. What are the biases in moral judgement?
16. Give examples illustrating post-hoc moral reasoning.
17. Does post-hoc reasoning rule out the possibility of rational moral disagreement?
18. How does the social intuitionist model interpret the causal mechanics of moral action?
19. What are the "gut feelings"?
20. What is the role of metaphor in intuitive reasoning?
21. In what sense, according to the social intuitionist model, are moral intuitions innate?
22. How does culture shape moral intuitions?
23. Give an example that illustrates the proposed integration of moral intuitionism and moral rationalism.

4  Greene

1. How to describe the debate between deontologists and consequentialists?
2. "Deontology and consequentialism are psychological natural kinds." Explain.
3. What does the Elder miss when he "misses the big picture" (38)?
4. What are the "characteristic judgements" of deontology and consequentialism?
5. What is the "hidden essence" of deontology?
6. In what sense is cognition behaviourally neutral?
7. What is the distinction between cognition and emotion?
8. How does Greene describe his disagreement with Haidt's views?
9. Describe the trolley and the footbridge dilemmas.
10. What are the traditional explanations of the different moral responses in the two cases?
11. What is Greene's explanation of these responses?
12. What are the two forms of violence implicit in Stalin's motto?
13. What is the neuroscientific evidence for the two forms of violence?
14. How does neuroscientific evidence account for response conflicts?
15. How do cognition and emotion elicit moral judgements, according to Greene?
16. How in general does Greene's account help to deal with Singer's dilemma?
17. What is the empirical evidence for Greene's account of that dilemma?
18. What are the two competing views of punishment?
19. What are people's most frequent responses to punishment dilemmas?
20. What is the role of outrage in these responses? How does it explain people's behaviour in ultimatum games?
21. Describe the different scenarios of "harmless crimes". Connect them to our earlier discussion of incest.
22. What are the factors likely influencing people's reactions to harmless crimes?
23. How does the earlier discussion of disgust connect to the problem of harmless crimes?

5  Rawls.theoryjust

1. What is the relationship between well-formed sentences and moral theory?
2. What is the original position and why is it important?
3. What is reflective equilibrium and how is it achieved?
4. What is the priority problem and how is it addressed?
5. What is the difference between claims of liberty and increasing social welfare?
6. What is the basis for inviolability in a just society?
7. What is the role of the basic liberties in a just society?
8. How are principles chosen in a just society?
9. What is the relationship between the original position and the principles of justice?
10. What is the role of rationality in the original position?
11. How are spiritual aims considered in the original position?
12. What is the relationship between the original position and autonomy?
13. What is the difference between egoism and mutual disinterest in the original position?
14. How is rationality interpreted in the original position?
15. What is the role of the initial situation in determining principles of justice?
16. How are considered convictions of justice related to the principles chosen in the original position?
17. What is the relationship between the principles chosen in the original position and our present judgments about the basic structure of society?
18. How might the principles of justice chosen in the original position be applied in practice?

6  Scanlon

1. What is Scanlon's definition of a principle?
2. How does Scanlon explain the role of principles in our thinking about right and wrong?
3. What is the difference between judgments of right and wrong and other types of evaluative judgments?
4. What is the contractualist framework?
5. How does Scanlon address the question of whether the justification for an action should appeal only to consequences of that act?
6. What is the distinction between reasonableness and rationality?
7. How does Scanlon explain the concept of reasonable rejection?
8. What is the relationship between principles and cultural standards?
9. How to explain the importance of privacy in defining one's standing as an independent person?
10. How can principles licensing certain actions would be ones that people could reasonably reject?
11. How does Scanlon explain the difference between reasonableness and rationality in the context of determining what principles could reasonably be rejected?
12. What is the importance of generic reasons in deciding whether a principle could reasonably be rejected?
13. What is Scanlon's view on the idea that the situations of the people who would suffer from an action's being permitted and those who would suffer from its being forbidden are virtually the same?
14. How are judgments of right and wrong based on some general characteristic or reason?

7  Williams

1. How does the concept of a man's future self relate to the theory of the self?
2. What is the role of ground projects in providing motivation for a person's life?
3. Can ground projects be altruistic or moral in nature? Provide examples.
4. How do conflicts between ground projects and impartial morality arise?
5. What is diachronic relativism, and how does it relate to the concept of a man's future self?
6. How can a man's present projects be understood as the projects of one who will change in the future?
7. How does Williams evaluate the two successive outlooks in the supposed type of example?
8. What is the mistake of Kantians and some kinds of Utilitarians in evaluating the distribution of consideration over one's whole life?
9. How does the habit of treating persons in abstraction from character misrepresent moral philosophy?
10. What is psychological connectedness, and how does it relate to personal identity?
11. What are scalar items, and how do they relate to personal identity?
12. How can moral thought reflect the scalar character of phenomena underlying personal identity?
13. What is Rawls' conception of practical rationality, and how does it relate to one's own life?
14. What is the consequence of present projects being the condition of future ones?
15. How does Williams's perspective differ from Nagel's on taking a rational interest in preparing for the realization of later projects?