PHI 1700: Global Ethics Prof. Lauren R. Alpert Name: Date: Take Home Exam #1 Instructions (Read Before Proceeding!) Material for this exam is from class sessions 2-8. Please write your answers clearly in the blanks provided for each question. Matching & fill-in-the-blank questions are 1 point each; short answer questions are 3 points each. Full credit on short answer questions is given only if you express your answers in your own words. Some questions may have more than one acceptable answer. Partial credit may be given for answers that are on the right track. If you re not sure, guessing is better than leaving a question blank. The maximum score is 90 points. Philosopher X writes these sentences (I and II) in the introduction of her essay: I. In this essay I argue that Smith s view that empathy is the basis of morality is incorrect. II. I will also defend my own claim that morality implanted in our heads by space aliens. 1A. Which sentence describes X s positive view? 1B. Which sentence describes X s negative view? 2A. A claim, if it is not accompanied by reasons one should believe the claim is true, merely expresses an author s on a topic; 2B. in order to form an argument, one must supply for the view captured in the claim. 2C. The reasons one gives to support a claim are called when they are stated in the form of a proposition (a phrase that can stand alone as a sentence). 3A. If you find something wrong with an argument, it is appropriate to raise an against it, spelling out the error you see in the author s reasoning. For 4A & 4B, name two things you can do in response to an argument after you ve found and articulated a particular flaw in it. 4A. In 5A-5D, for each of the following arguments, Ø write P if the underlined phrase functions as a premise, or write C if underlined phrase functions as the argument s conclusion. 5A. Since there is a distinction between weather patterns and climate, one cannot deny global warming merely by pointing to how many very cold days we had this winter. 5B. We all ought to swipe our Metrocards to ride the subway because the MTA relies on revenue from Metrocard sales to make improvements to the system. 5C. It s important to recognize the contributions of all Americans to cultural heritage of the United States, therefore we pay special homage to black Americans during Black History Month. 5D. It is perhaps more imperative than ever that we acknowledge how our country relies upon immigrant labor, given that many Americans are concerned about and even afraid of the US s increasing ethnic diversity. For 6A-6F, write the letter corresponding to the name of the fallacy next to the example of that fallacy. a) Ad Hominem Attack e) Appeal to Emotion b) Anecdotal Evidence f) Appeal to Status c) Appeal to Authority g) Appeal to Tradition 6A. Don t take more food than you ll eat: think of all the starving children in Africa. 6B. We shouldn t eat at that restaurant; I heard one of their waiters is really rude. 6C. I should buy a gluten-free muffin. because Oprah says eating gluten is bad for your health. 6D. We can t trust anything Karl Marx said because he s a communist. 6E. We couldn t possibly elect a female president; the president has always been a man. 6F. The aliens are arriving tonight. Believe me: I m a multi-billionaire. 4B.
For each of the following sentences (7A-7F), fill in the blank with the best option from the word bank. auxiliary argument begs the question confirmation bias non sequitur questionable warranted 7A. Jamie wasn t convinced by argument K, because its claim that babies don t experience anything in the womb seemed to be a assumption, for which there is no general consensus among knowledgeable people. 7B. Jeff s assessment of argument Z is that since alternative conclusions could also be drawn from the same premises, Z commits a, jumping to a particular conclusion without ruling out other options. 7C. Adrian read up on recent neuroscientific studies before stating in his argument that the brain changes in response to experience, in order to make sure that this claim was a assumption, backed by the consensus of contemporary neuroscientists. 7D. Linda realized that argument H was flawed because one of its premises assumed exactly what the author aimed to conclude. Thus, argument H is circular, or in other words, it. 7E. Since Jessica wasn t sure that premise 3 of her argument would be obviously true to all of her readers, she decided to provide a(n) to support it. 7F. Gerald objected to argument Q, saying that it exhibits : it only seems plausible because the author ignored a wealth of counterevidence and selectively pointed to a small bit of evidence in favor of the conclusion. 8. Fallacix is marketed as a miracle drug that solves financial problems. Andy rushes out to the pharmacy to buy Fallacix, and takes it every day for a month. At the end of the month, Andy gets a big raise at work. Andy raves about the drug, saying that it really does solve financial problems, as promised in the commercials. What logical error has Andy made? For 10A-10F, write the letter corresponding to the name of the fallacy next to the example of that fallacy. a) Bandwagon Fallacy d) Red Herring b) False Analogy e) Slippery Slope c) Hasty Generalization f) Strawman 10A. Those gun control activists just want to leave us all without any defenses against foreign military attacks. 10B. Smoking is good for your health, because it makes you look mature and mysterious. 10C. If we grant legal rights to human fetuses, then it ll be illegal to eat omelettes because we d be violating the rights of unborn chickens. 10D. Our visitor is British, so she will surely be expecting tea and crumpets for breakfast. 10E. You pay for college just like you pay for a good meal. If the customer is always right in a restaurant, then the student s always right at college. 10F. Suicide Squad grossed over 745 million in ticket sales, so it must be a superb instance of cinematic artistry. 11A. A good argument gives us adequate reason to believe its conclusion is. 11B. The conclusion of a fallacious argument is not sufficiently supported, but that doesn t necessarily mean that it is. 12A. Researchers who want to draw conclusions about a large population (who cannot test or survey the entire population) ought to collect data from a which has demographics resembling that of the whole population. 12B. The trouble with a sample which is too is that it leads researchers to draw hasty conclusions from a very limited data set. 12C. It s important that researchers use a sample from the whole population, in which every member has equal chance of being selected otherwise, the sample might be biased. 2
13. Grades would be a poorly-chosen for measuring students intelligence, since one student (A) having higher grades than another (B) does not reliably indicate that A is smarter than B. 14. One should be careful when considering premises containing statistics that give the mathematical of a data set, since that figure can fail to capture how the data is distributed, and whether or not there were outliers. Questions 15A & 15B concern the following argument: 1. The percentage of first-year Baruch students who are from Staten Island doubled from 3% to 6% from fall 2015 to fall 2016. 2. There were twice as many instances of bicycle theft at Baruch in fall 2016 as there were in fall 2015. 3. Therefore, students from Staten Island are bicycle thieves. 15A. Premise 2 is an instance of a manipulative use of statistics called : since it leaves out the actual number of incidents of bike theft in these two years, it s ambiguous whether this was a significant increase or not. 15B. Name a fallacy that the argument commits (there are several options) and explain how this pattern of reasoning exemplifies that fallacy. For 16A-H, match each ism to its description. a) moral anti-realism e) moral realism b) moral empiricism f) moral relativism c) moral nativism g) moral sentimentalism d) moral rationalism h) moral universalism 16A. The view that the capacity to judge what is right/wrong is something all humans are born with, i.e., part of our nature. 16B. The view that at least some moral values are shared by all human beings regardless of what community they belong to. 16C. The view that objective moral facts exist, and are either implemented by God or necessitated by nature (but either way, exist independently of human belief). 16D. The view that moral judgments ought to be made by consulting our emotions (e.g. pity for someone experiencing pain). 16E. The view that the capacity to judge right and wrong is acquired during our lifetimes through instruction and/or imitation. 216F. The view that there are no objective moral facts (but there might be subjective moral facts instead). 16G. The view that the truth of a moral principle depends upon the context in which you evaluate the principle. 16H. The view that our reason is the best guide for moral decision-making. 17. is the branch of moral philosophy that investigates the nature of morality. 18. Gilbert Harman suggests that we can learn something valuable about moral principles by contrasting them with scientific, which can be confirmed (shown to be correct) or disconfirmed (shown to be incorrect) using observation and experimentation. 3
19. The logical law of says nothing can simultaneously have opposite properties; it follows from this that any action X cannot be both right and wrong at the same time. 20A. Philosophers sometimes use involving fictional scenarios to help draw conclusions about challenging topics; 20B. However, the findings we get by using this strategy are, since some scenarios seem to confirm the principle while others disconfirm it. 21A. According to Harman, we can t use feelings about particular moral cases to learn the truth about morality, since we our feelings may not correspond to moral facts which hold independently of anyone s beliefs, thoughts, perspective, etc. 21B. Additionally, we can t actually perceive rightness/wrongness of actions, because these do not belong to the actions themselves, but instead are we make about those actions. 22. Explain what Harman means when he says that observations are always theory-laden, and why observing the world teaches us more about ourselves than it teaches us about morality. 23. Cultural relativism is often motivated by the breadth of moral in the world: the number and variety of moral codes across the world leads many people to believe that the idea of universal truth in ethics is a myth. 24. According to Rachels, disagreement about morality is not sufficient evidence to conclude that there is no objective moral truth, because one party in the disagreement might just be about the objective truth. 25. Rachels uses a form of argument called a when he shows that cultural relativism is implausible because undesirable consequences would result from embracing that view as true. 26. Explain how Rachels example of the Eskimo practice of female infanticide illustrates his point that it is easy to overestimate the extent of [moral] differences between cultures if we judge cultures on the basis of their customs. 27. Rachels demonstrates that the belief that there are no moral truths that hold for all peoples at all times results from a mistaken assumption that cultural differences in customs must signify differences in moral. 28. He suggests that some moral rules are shared by all cultures because they are necessary for the of human populations. 4
29. One thing that cultural relativists get right, from Rachels perspective, is that they encourage us to be open-minded about morality instead of succumbing to, meaning unwillingness to modify one s beliefs. 30A. Adam Smith noted how remarkable it is that all human beings feel when we see another person suffering, even when that person is a total stranger 30B. He specified that our is what makes it possible for us to put ourselves in another person s shoes and gain insight into another person s feelings. 31. While Smith believes that being able to feel with other people always leads us to behave ethically, Paul Bloom argues that for others is unlikely to help us (and sometimes even counterproductive) when it comes to tackling large-scale, and enduring moral issues without visible victims. 32. Bloom shows that empathy can be used as a tool to promote division among groups of people. Give your own example of a dispute where proponents of opposing views attempt to inspire empathy for particular victims in order to promote a particular social/political agenda. 33. justice is an approach to ethics where help we offer to others (including volunteering efforts, charitable donations, government assistance) should be proportionate to how much they need our help. For 34A-C, Ø write N for necessary or S for sufficient in each blank to form complete, logical sentences. 34A. Being female is a condition, but not a condition, for being a sister. 34B. Eating a hamburger could be a condition, but not a condition, for satisfying one s hunger. 34C. Many people take for granted that having free will is a condition for having moral responsibility. 35A. In order to have free will, our choices would have to be the of our actions; 35B. whether or not is true (that is, whether or not everything happens the way it does as the inevitable consequence of preceding events), it seems unlikely that really we have free will. 36. According to Galen Strawson, why is it logically impossible for us to be morally responsible for our actions and why should we nevertheless continue to hold ourselves and others morally responsible? 5
37. A is a situation where we are stuck between two alternatives, both of which have undesirable consequences. 38. Fascinatingly, Milgram s experiment demonstrated that the mere that someone has authority over us can significantly impact our behavior. 39. Philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the phrase to describe the upsetting idea that extremely immoral acts can be committed by totally ordinary people, and not just by monstrous, sadistic individuals. 40A. One of the psychological strategies people adopted to cope with the conflict between their moral convictions and the command of an authority figure is to their victims, treating them as if they are naturally inferior & deserving of mistreatment; 40B. however, since people do this to victims as a consequence of acting against them, it seems to be a : an attempt to retroactively justify one s mistreatment of others by fabricating a false story about why mistreatment was warranted. 41A. is a view of human behavior according to which the way a person acts has little to do with their moral character, but rather depends on the circumstances in which they find themselves. 41B. Another way to look at this view of human behavior is to say that our actions are subject to determinism, once again challenging the commonplace idea that we act according to our own free will. * END OF EXAM * 6