PHIL 210 Final Exam

What is Plato's argument for why the kingly soul is the happiest?

The kingly soul exists with a sense of internal harmony with itself, the soul's parts of reason, emotions, and desires, exist properly and harmoniously, and the sense of inner harmony is what makes a person the happiest.

What is the worst kind of soul, according to Plato?

The tyrannical soul, and the idea is that the worst of our desires, the most selfish desires become tyrants over lives and souls.

What does Aristotle mean by calling happiness the final cause of the human being?

Happiness is the goal of human life, the purpose of human life, that's what a final cause is. Our human nature orients us towards the goal of happiness, our final cause.

What does Aristotle's view that virtue is a habit imply about our capacity to live virtuously?

By calling virtue a habit, he's saying that we all have the potential to live excellently and attain happiness, our final cause. But importantly, none of us are born excellently, living virtuously, but we have the potential to live this way if we choose the right habits, but it takes time and effort to attain that.

What is the stoic view of the highest good?

They say that the highest good is living virtuously, living according to nature.

What is the epicurean view of the highest good?

They believe that the highest good is happiness where happiness is maximum pleasure and minimum pain.

What is Augustine's conception of happiness

Eternal life with God in heaven, and that is human happiness.

What is Augustine's argument for why free will is a good thing?

The first part of his argument is that free will is good because God gives it to us, and whatever he creates or gives is inherently good, and the second part is that free will is a good thing because free will is necessary to live a morally good life and therefore you have to have free will to attain happiness.

What is Aquinas' account of how we understand the precepts of the natural law?

We know what the natural law is by understanding our nature as humans. Aquinas examines our basic inclinations, our basic desires. If we understand what are the most basic things that all human beings desire, than we can know what our natures are like and what the moral and natural law is like.

What is the role of basic inclinations in Aquinas' natural law theory?

If the natural law is based upon our basic inclinations, what that does is shows or teaches us how we can fulfill those desires in the right kind of way, in a way that leads to virtue and happiness.

Why are Augustine and Aquinas both examples of Divine Command Theory?

Both give the idea that God establishes/creates the moral law, and then God reveals it to human beings in some way. So the law is a divine command, it is given by God, the divinity.

What is Hobbes' view of the nature of morality?

He is a moral relativist, he doesn't believe that there is a single, universal moral truth, morality is not natural or anything like that. It is relative to an individual or culture, and we decide how we ought to live, and that can change from culture to culture.

What is Hobbes' description of the state of nature?

It is a state of war, of all against all

What is Hobbes' understanding of human nature and how this informs his understanding of the state of nature?

Hobbes sees us as primarily desire-driven beings, we are power-hungry, and we are prone to conflict. If you take away all of the government and social and legal structures that we have, than you are going to have the state of war, of nature.

What is the right of nature?

All of us have the natural right to do whatever we think is necessary for our preservation and our happiness.

What is Hobbes' view of moral quality of the law of nature and how does this compare to Aquinas

The law of nature is not a moral law, Aquinas says that it is a moral law. Hobbes thinks that the law of nature is a practical or utilitarian law, it is a useful law, it simply tells us how to get out of the state of nature.

What does Hobbes mean by a social contract?

When we make an agreement to give up a certain amount of our liberty, our freedom, and live according to laws that we create. Importantly, this can only happen if everyone agrees to it.

What role does the social contract play in Hobbes' philosophy?

We exist in the state of nature, and the law of nature says here is what to do to get out of it, you make a social contract. The contract is how we escape the state of nature.

What is Hobbes' account of why we create political and legal systems?

We begin to leave the state of nature by agreeing to a social contract, by promising to live a certain way. The problem is we don't trust each other to fulfill the contract, so we need something else to enforce the contract, and that is the purpose of political and legal systems.

What is Hobbes' view of the purpose of a government/soverign?

Its purpose is to enforce the social contract, primarily by punishing those who violate it.

What is the school of moral philosophy that Hume represents?

Sentimentalist utilitarianism.

What is Hume's account of what moves us to approve or disapprove of an action?

Our sentiments, it could also mean our emotions, or our feelings.

What is Hume's view concerning the objectivity of morality?

Hume argues that morality is primarily emotional, but he does not believe that morality is merely relative like Hobbes does. Instead, he believes it is universal and objective, there is a single, universal moral code that we ought to live by. Our feelings and emotions just point us toward that moral code.

What is the basic claim of consequentialism?

The idea that we come to understand if an action is good or bad based on its consequences, we see what comes from an action to see how to evaluate it.

What is Hume's understanding of relationship between sentiment and reason?

When I witness an action, the first thing that occurs is a sentimental reaction, it is an emotion that I feel, either this is a good thing and I approve of it, or the inverse, the emotions come first. He calls this the moral sense. the 6th sense of the human being. Reasons' job is to support the moral sense, to explain why I have a certain emotional response to an activity.

What is the quality of an action that governs how the moral sense responds to it?

It is the action's utility that explains why the moral sense feels certain things towards certain action. I am led to approve and feel good towards actions with high utility, and feel a sense of disapproval with low utility, that are not useful to us.

Why can we call Hume's moral philosophy sentimentalist utilitarianism?

Because the sentimentalist point, it is our moral sense or sentiment that moves us, and that is done in view of utility of the action.

What is the Principle of Utility?

The principle that says that a good action is one that produces the most amount of happiness or pleasure for the most amount of people. Bad actions, on the other hand, are those that produce more pain than pleasure.

What role does the Principle of Utility play in Mill's moral philosophy?

The role it plays is that it is the basic principle of his whole moral theory, he sees it as the bedrock of morality, it is the foundation of his whole moral theory.

What is Mill's understanding of happiness?

The epicurean idea, happiness is maximum pleasure and minimum pain.

Why is epicurean utilitarianism is an example of consequentialism?

If happiness is determined by pleasure and pain, the only way to know if an action is good or bad is to look at its consequences. Does it create more pleasure or more pain for more people.

What is the connection between the Principle of Utility and caring about the welfare of others?

According to the principle of utility, I should not only seek my own happiness, my own pleasure, but I have to seek the greatest happiness for the greatest number, I have to care about the greatest happiness and pleasure, or welfare of others.

What is the method by which Mill determines the moral status of an action?

By examining the consequences and seeing if more pleasure comes out of that action or more pain comes out of that action, and that's what decides if it is good or bad.

What is the distinction Mill makes between higher and lower pleasures?

Pleasures can be of different qualities, you have high and low quality pleasures. High quality pleasures are those of the intellect, of the mind, and these he thinks are more important than the low quality pleasures. The low quality pleasures are usually associated with the body. He's saying we should not simply think of pleasure in quantitative terms, instead we have to take the qualitative distinctions between pleasure into account. Both quantity and quality.

What is Mill's understanding of the sources of unhappiness, and how unhappiness be minimized?

Not all, but many sources of pain and unhappiness in the world come from human actions, primarily they come from bad social polices and political structures, so he blames human beings for a lot of suffering in the world. Because we are creators of the suffering, than we can also take it away. through good policies and political arrangements, we can reduce the pain and suffering and make people happier.

What is Kant's overall project in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals?

He is trying to get a metaphysical account of morality. That means that Kant is trying to explain what makes morality possible, and what makes duty possible, what makes obligation possible. He's laying out the philosophical principles that make these things possible.

Why is Kant's moral philosophy and example of deontology?

Because he makes the concept of duty or obligation the basic concept of morality?

What is Kant's account of the moral motive and its relation to objects of desire?

The moral motive is to act or to obey the moral law from duty alone out of respect for the moral law. It relates to desires by requiring me to put aside my desires, not to act for the sake of a desire, but purely from duty out of respect from the law.

What is the distinction between acting merely in accordance with duty and acting from duty?

My actions certainly must accord with my duties, but that is not enough for the action to be moral, for it to be moral, I have to act from duty alone.

What is Kant's understanding of the form of law?

It applies universally it applies to everyone, so a maxim, a principle that has the form of law, is a maxim that applies universally to everyone equally, no exceptions.

What is a categorical imperative?

A categorical imperative is one that issues an unconditional command.

What is a hypothetical imperative?

A hypothetical imperative issues a conditional command, it says you ought to do something if you want something else.

What are the names of the three formulas of the categorical imperative?

The Formula of Universal Law; the Formula of Humanity, and the Formula of Autonomy.

What is the Formula of Universal Law?

It says to act only on those maxims that you can will as universal laws.

How do we use the Formula of Universal Law to figure out what our obligations are?

We use that to know our obligations by asking ourselves what our maxims are, and do they possess the form of law or not, can they be willed as a form of universal law or not. If they can, than we ought to do them, if they can't then we ought not to.

What is autonomy?

Autonomy identifies the fact that reason is the source of the moral law, that the moral law comes from us, from our minds, from our reason.

What is the role of autonomy in Kant's moral philosophy?

Kant understands autonomous actions as moral actions, to be autonomous is to act morally. Therefore, what it does not mean is freedom to do whatever you want, when you do that you are not acting autonomously, you are only acting autonomously when you are doing your duties from duty alone.

What is Kant's argument for why the moral law is universal for all rational beings, although it is given by each individually?

If autonomy comes from reason, we're all giving the moral law to ourselves, Kants answer is that the moral law comes from reason, the Categorical Imperative is a rational principle, and we all possess reason, and therefore the law I give to myself through reason is the same law I give to myself through reason, and that's why the law is operating within each of us.

What is Kant's argument for the dignity of the rational being and why dignity cannot be lost?

A rational being is dignified and have worth and value because they have the capacity to be moral, that's what gives us our dignity as rational beings. Because of that, it doesn't depend on our actual behavior, of what I do in the world, it only depends on my rationality. Therefore, dignity cannot be lost or denied to anyone based upon your actions.

What is the connection between autonomy and dignity?

Because autonomous actions are the same thing as moral actions, and my dignity rests in my potential to be moral, my dignity rests or results from potential to be autonomous.

What is Kant's conception of the kingdom of ends?

The kingdom of ends, Kant thinks, is the state in which every rational being is understood as the lawgiver and the subject of law.