Study Questions for

Introduction to Ethics, Test 1

Instructor: Dr. M. Guarini

One of the following three questions will be on your midterm examination.  The exam is closed book; no aids of any type are allowed.  The answer you provide will need to be in an essay format.

(1) When we study ethics or morality, do we study all kinds of right and wrong (or good and bad)?  What kinds of rights and wrongs do we study in ethics?  Point out similarities and differences between ethics and etiquette in an effort to sketch out the relationship between them.  Point out similarities and differences between ethics and law in an effort to sketch out the relationship between them.  If you think moral judgments are attempts to express categorical imperatives, explain how you think that makes moral judgments similar or different from the judgments of etiquette and law.  If you think moral judgments are not attempts to express categorical imperatives, explain what you think makes moral judgments similar or different from the judgments of etiquette and law.  Be sure to use a number of examples in carrying out the preceding tasks.

(2) What are imperatives?  What are categorical imperatives?  What are hypothetical imperatives?  How are they related?  How are they different?  According to Kant, which imperative is the imperative of morality?  Why does he say that?  State and explain at least one of the universalization formulations of the categorical imperative.  State and explain the means-ends formulation of the categorical imperative.  How does Kant arrive at these formulations of the categorical imperative?  What motivates them?  Where do they come from?  Explain.

(3) State and explain the universalization formulations of the categorical imperative and the means-ends formulation of the categorical imperative.  Use an example of an action that Kant calls a perfect duty, and apply each formulation to the action to explain why Kant thinks it is a perfect duty.  Explain (with the use of an example) what Kant means by an imperfect duty; this explanation should make reference to (among other things) the universalization formulation of the categorical imperative.  Do you agree with how Kant draws the distinction between perfect and imperfect duties?  Defend your position.