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Philosophy: Ethical Theories and Major Thinkers

Utilitarianism, Kant, virtue ethics, social contract theory and the big names from Plato to Rawls, with thought experiments to apply each view.

by Kill h.14 questionsCreated Nov 8, 2026, 08:03 PM

Philosophy· Ethics#philosophy#ethics#intro#thinkers

14 questions

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1
A trolley will kill five people unless you pull a lever to divert it, killing one. A strict act utilitarian would say:
- Pull the lever, because it produces the greatest good for the greatest number
- B
  Do not pull the lever, because killing is always wrong
- C
  It depends on whether a virtuous person would pull it
- D
  Do nothing, because consequences do not matter morally
Utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill) judges actions by their consequences: one death beats five. A strict Kantian might refuse because you would be using the one person merely as a means.
2
Kant's categorical imperative asks you to:
- A
  Maximize overall happiness
- Act only on rules you could will to become universal laws
- C
  Find the mean between two extremes
- D
  Follow the laws of your society
Kant tested a maxim by asking whether everyone could act on it. Lying fails because universal lying would destroy trust. Finding the mean is Aristotle.
3
In Aristotle's virtue ethics, courage is the 'golden mean' between:
- A
  Honesty and loyalty
- B
  Pride and humility
- Cowardice and recklessness
- D
  Fear and anger
Each virtue sits between a vice of deficiency (cowardice) and a vice of excess (recklessness). Aristotle's goal was eudaimonia, or human flourishing.
4
Who described life in the state of nature as 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short'?
- A
  John Locke
- B
  Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Thomas Hobbes
- D
  David Hume
Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651) used this bleak picture to argue for a strong sovereign. Locke saw the state of nature as governed by natural law and natural rights.
5
Descartes's 'I think, therefore I am' was meant to:
- A
  Prove that the senses are always reliable
- Find one belief that cannot be doubted
- C
  Show that the mind is identical to the brain
- D
  Argue that knowledge comes only from experience
Descartes doubted everything he could and found that the act of doubting proves a thinking self exists. Knowledge only from experience is empiricism, the opposite camp.
6
Plato's Allegory of the Cave suggests that:
- Most people mistake shadows of appearance for reality, and education turns them toward truth
- B
  Knowledge comes only from sense experience
- C
  Society should be ruled by the majority
- D
  Happiness is the highest good
Prisoners see only shadows on a wall; the philosopher escapes to see the sun (the Form of the Good). It appears in The Republic.
7
John Locke claimed the mind at birth is a tabula rasa. This makes him a(n):
- A
  Rationalist
- B
  Existentialist
- C
  Idealist
- Empiricist
Empiricists such as Locke, Berkeley and Hume hold that knowledge comes from experience. Rationalists such as Descartes and Leibniz believe some knowledge is innate or comes from reason alone.
8
David Hume's 'is-ought problem' says that:
- A
  We cannot know anything about the external world
- B
  Moral facts can be measured scientifically
- C
  Everything that exists ought to exist
- We cannot derive what ought to be purely from statements about what is
Facts alone ('people dislike pain') do not logically yield moral conclusions ('you ought not cause pain') without an added value premise.
9
John Rawls's 'veil of ignorance' asks people to choose principles of justice:
- Without knowing their own place in society
- B
  Based on what benefits them most personally
- C
  By majority vote
- D
  According to religious law
Not knowing whether you will be rich or poor, Rawls argued, you would choose fair principles that protect the worst-off (the difference principle).
10
Jean-Paul Sartre's slogan 'existence precedes essence' means:
- A
  Humans have a fixed nature given by God
- B
  Essence is more important than existence
- C
  Only material objects truly exist
- We exist first and then define ourselves through our choices
For existentialists, there is no preset human nature, so we are 'condemned to be free' and responsible for who we become.
11
Friedrich Nietzsche's claim that 'God is dead' was mainly about:
- A
  A historical event he witnessed
- The collapse of traditional values as a foundation for meaning in modern Europe
- C
  Proof that the universe has no beginning
- D
  His conversion to atheist utilitarianism
Nietzsche meant that belief in God no longer grounded European morality, raising the danger of nihilism and the need to create new values.
12
According to John Stuart Mill's harm principle, the government may limit an adult's freedom only to:
- A
  Protect the person from harming himself
- B
  Promote religious virtue
- Prevent harm to others
- D
  Enforce majority opinion
In On Liberty (1859), Mill rejected paternalism: your own good is not enough reason for the state to coerce you. Only harm to others is.
13
'Everyone always acts out of self-interest, even when helping others.' This is a claim of:
- A
  Ethical egoism
- Psychological egoism
- C
  Altruism
- D
  Utilitarianism
Psychological egoism describes how people DO act. Ethical egoism is a normative claim about how people SHOULD act (in their own self-interest).
14
Socrates said 'the unexamined life is not worth living' at his trial. His method of teaching was to:
- A
  Lecture students on fixed doctrines
- B
  Write long dialogues for publication
- Ask probing questions that expose contradictions in beliefs
- D
  Use mathematical proofs
The Socratic method uses questioning to test definitions. Socrates wrote nothing himself; we know him mainly through Plato's dialogues.