| Classical Ethical Theory | Richard Lee |
| Philosophy 4123 | Autumn 2008 |
This examination counts as twenty percent (20%) of your grade. You will be asked to write two (2) essays, each worth ten (10) points, with a maximum possible of twenty (20) points.
You must answer one question from each of two parts.
Be sure to bring a blue book with you to the examination.
1. Naturally no help in answering the questions may be received from anyone (except yourself) during the examination. The work you hand in should be your own work.
2. Undergraduate students: You may bring with you to the examination one (1) 3" x 5" card (crammed as full as you care to make it) of notes to use during the examination. You may use any abbreviations or diagrams on the card you find helpful (as well as English, of course). You may not use any unusual aids (e.g., magnifying glass, microfiche reader) during the examination to read the card. (Your usual spectacles and contact lenses are not "unusual aids.") No other books or notes may be used during the examination. What appears on the card you bring to class should be your own work. Each person should be the "author" of his or her own card. One exception: you may include quotations (but not photocopied) on your card from the textbook or from any handout I have given. Everyone who uses such a card must hand it in with the examination with her or his name clearly on it. (The card does not have to be legible otherwise--just so you can read it.) The card will not be used to help determine a grade for the examination. (So on the examination don't say "see point 6a on the card".) I will return these cards to you when I return your graded examination.
| "Name" | Question |
|---|---|
| Part I: Plato | |
| P-USEL | At one point in book I of Plato's Republic Socrates backs his interlocuter into a corner by drawing from his view the conclusion "In fact justice is never of any use in using things; it becomes useful when they are useless." Explain how Socrates draws this conclusion. Is he being fair? (That is, critique his argument.) |
| P-STEA | At one point in book I of Plato's Republic Socrates apparently backs his interlocutor into a corner by drawing from his view the conclusion "The just man, then, ... will also be good at stealing [money]." Explain how Socrates draws this conclusion. Is he being fair? (That is, critique his argument.) |
| P-TECH | Socrates often, explicitly and well as implicitly, likens justice to a techne (or art or skill or practice). Explain what a techne is and how Socrates's treatment of justice as a techne colors the positions that Socrates takes on the nature of justice. |
| P-ILLT | At one point in book I of Plato's Republic Socrates apparently backs his interlocutor into a corner by drawing from his view the conclusion "According to your account, then, it is right to ill-treat a man who does no wrong." Explain how Socrates draws this conclusion. Is he being fair? (That is, critique his argument.) |
| P-SHEP | Thrasymachus likens rulers to shepherds. Use this analogy, and what Thrasymachus and Socrates say, to explain the difference between them on how they view the nature of rulers. |
| P-BAND | Socrates asks "whether any set of men--a state or an army or a band of robbers or thieves--who were acting together for some unjust purpose would be likely to succeed, if they were always trying to injure one another." Explain how Socrates uses this question to argue that an unjust person will be at enmity with himself. |
| P-FUNC | Near the end of Book I of Plato's Republic Socrates attempts to convince Thrasymachus that injustice is not more profitable than justice by appealing to the function of the soul. Explicate and critically discuss Socrates' argument. |
| P-GLAU | Glaucon says "What people say is that to do wrong is, in itself, a desirable thing; on the other hand, it is not at all desirable to suffer wrong, and the harm to the sufferer outweighs the advantage to the doer. Consequently, when men have had a taste of both, those who have not the power to seize the advantage and escape the harm decide that they would be better off if they made a compact neither to do wrong nor to suffer it. Hence they began to make laws and covenants with one another; and whatever the law prescribed they call lawful and right. That is what right or justice is and how it came into existence; it stands half-way between the best thing of all--to do wrong with impunity--and the worst, which is to suffer wrong without the power to retaliate." Explain Glacuon's conception of justice, paying special attention to the suggestion that justice lies between the best and worst. |
| P-RING | Explain the story of the ring of Gyges in book II of Plato's Republic. What point is Glaucon trying to make in bringing up this story? Critically discuss. |
| P-SOUL | Plato argues that there are three parts to the soul. Explain and critically discuss his argument. |
| Part II: Aristotle | |
| A-HAPP | Early in his Nicomachean Ethics (See chapters 4 and 5 of book I) Aristotle considers and rejects several accounts of what happiness is. Specify two of these accounts and explicate and critique Aristotle's reasons for rejecting them. |
| A-TRIO | "Since things that are found in the soul are of three kinds--passions, faculties, states of character--virtue must be one of these." (NE II.5) Which one is virtue, according to Aristotle? And how does he show that it can't be either of the other two? |
| A-CIRC | Aristotle says "The question might be asked what we mean by saying that we must become just by doing just acts, and temperate by doing temperate acts; for if men do just and temperate acts, they are already just and temperate ..." (NE II.4) What is the issue here? How does Aristotle resolve it? Critically discuss. |
| A-3CON | Aristotle indicates three conditions which must be satisfied in order that an action may be said to be virtuous. (Nicomachean Ethics Book II chapter 4) What are these conditions? For each condition provide an example of an action which fails to satisfy that condition but satisfies the others and which on Aristotle's account would therefore not be considered a virtuous action (but which would be if the remaining condition were satisfied). (If the demand for such examples is impossible to satisfy in one or more of these cases, please indicate the reason for this.) |
| A-MEAN | What is Aristotle's doctrine of the mean? Show how Aristotle applies it to a virtue or two (take your pick) and the related vices. Critically discuss. |
| A-BADN | Aristotle says "not every action nor every passion admits of a mean; for some have names that already imply badness." (NE II.6) Explain what he means by this. Is there a way that the troublesome cases can fit more readily into the general Aristotelian position? Explain and critically discuss. |
| A-MIXD | Explain Aristotle's account of "voluntary" and "involuntary" actions. Give examples. How do what he calls "mixed actions" fit into this account? What of actions which he calls "not voluntary?" Do his distinctions seem reasonable? Why or why not? Critically discuss. |
| A-IGNO | Aristotle claims that an action is not voluntary if it is done in ignorance of the particular circumstances of the action. Explain, with the help of examples, what Aristotle has in mind here. Are there cases in which an action is voluntary in spite of the agent's ignorance of some particular circumstances? Critically discuss. |
| A-J4T | Aristotle wrote: "The just, therefore, involves at least four terms; for the persons for whom it is in fact just are two, and the things in which it is manifested, the objects distributed, are two. And the same equality will exist between the persons and between the things concerned ..." Carefully explain this remark. Critically discuss. |
| A-3FR | Aristotle distinguishes three types of friendships. Explain what each of these is. Are some friendships better than others, according to Aristotle? Critically discuss. |