PHIL 1100 – Ethics (honors)
Fall 2021
Prof. Chris Heathwood
University of Colorado Boulder

Study Guide for Exam 1

For Exam 1, you are responsible for four main topics:

To prepare for the exam, re-read any readings that you found challenging, study your notes, study the lecture slides, and, most importantly, write out your answers to the questions below, as if it were the exam.  Do this before the review session, so that you will know what questions you need to ask.


Study Questions

  1. (a) What are the three main areas of normative ethics?  Name a question that is asked in each area.
    (b) What is the fundamental project of the Normative Ethics of Behavior?
    (c) Give an example of a theory in the Normative Ethics of Behavior.  Give an example of a moral principle in the Normative Ethics of Behavior that is not a theory (i.e., not a “fully general” principle).

  2. (a) What is an argument? 
    (b) What does it mean to say that an argument is valid? 
    (c) Can there be a valid argument with a false conclusion?  If not, explain why not.  If there can be, give an example of one.
    (d) What does it mean to say that an argument is sound?
    (e) Can there be a sound argument with a false conclusion?  If not, explain why not.  If there can be, give an example of one.

  3. (a) State 10C (the theory based on the Ten Commandments).
    (b) Give your own counterexample against 10C, based on your own specific case (it can be a imaginary one).  Describe your case in detail, and then represent your objection to 10C in the form of an argument like this:

              P1. If 10C is true, then ______________________ .
              P2. But it’s not the case that _____________________ .
              C. Therefore, 10C is not true.

    (c) Then give the rationale for both of the above premises (that's the reason the premise is supposed to be true).

  4. (a) State DCT (the Divine Command Theory).  Illustrate the theory with an example.
    (b) Does believing in the Divine Command Theory logically require believing in God?  If so, explain why.  If not, explain what follows from the combination of DCT and atheism.
    (c) Explain the Euthyphro Problem for DCT. 
    (You can either present and explain the line-by-line version of the argument we had on a slide, or you can explain the problem less formally.  Whatever you do, your answer should include the following elements: (i) Socrates’s Question; (ii) an explanation of both possible answers, or “horns”; (iii) a detailed explanation of both of the allegedly implausible implications of “Horn 1”; (iv) an explanation of why “Horn 2” is evidently not an acceptable option for a Divine Command Theorist.)

  5. (a) State CR (Cultural Relativism).  Define any technical terms.  Illustrate CR with an example of an action that intuitively has some moral status and that the theory agrees has that status (and explain why it does).
    (b) Does CR imply that everyone should be more tolerant of the practices of other cultures?  Explain your answer.
    (c) Present the Cultural Differences Argument in favor of CR, give the rationales for P1 and P3, and then say what you think of P2.
    (NOTE: When I ask you to “present” an argument, I am asking you simply to write down the premises and conclusion, in valid form.  When I ask you to “give the rationale” for a premise, I am asking you to give the reason the premise is supposed to be true -- the reason that a proponent of the argument would give for thinking that the premise is true. You can give the rationale for a premise even if you think the premise is false.)
    (d) Present the Argument from
 the Evaluation of Cultures against CR and give the rationale for each premise.  In your view, is this argument sound?  Justify your view.
    (e) Present the Gallup Poll Argument against CR and give the rationale for each premise.  In your view, is this argument sound?  Justify your view.