Philosophy Test 2
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Which of the following is the name of the vice of too much with respect to boldness? a. cowardice b. rashness c. courage d. vulgar profusion e. lack of self-control."
B. Rashness
TRUE or FALSE: Some (but not all) Utilitarians think that animals have rights, since they too can feel pleasure and pain. Thus, these particular Utilitarians say, animals' pleasures and pains should be taken into account along with humans' pleasures and pains when trying to discern right from wrong.
TRUE
According to relativism, which part of human nature is the only one truly relevant to ethics?
The will
What part of human nature should be developed most, according to relativists?
The will
What factors make each kind of friendship in the list less stable and less deep than the next type of friendship in the list? (b) What do the motives of the first two kinds of friendship have in common, with respect to the ultimate GOAL of the friendship?
They are both based on loving someone else only for what that person provides for ME, and loving that other person only to that extent.
What does it mean to say that they are "natural institutions"?
They are rooted in the way human nature is structured, not merely in our arbitrary decisions. By contrast, baseball teams are not natural institutions, because you don't need baseball teams for human fulfillment. And, yes, I DO love baseball, but I mean you could have a different sport or a different way of interacting with your neighbors besides baseball - so it's not because of human nature that we have baseball teams instead of cricket teams or chess clubs; instead it's because of somewhat arbitrary choice. That's different from families, in Aristotle's view, where the attraction of male and female and the need of babies to be raised come from human nature, whether you like it or not.
What's unique about the relationship of the vice of being "Over-Reserved" with the opposite vice of being an Exaggerator when it comes to communicating thoughts about yourself?
A person who is EXTREMELY Over-Reserved (too little talking about oneself) actually ends up drawing attention to himself and thus ends up becoming an Exaggerator in that way. (For instance, extreme Over-reservedness can be like saying, "Hey, everyone, look at how humble I am, look at how I don't answer your reasonable questions about me and my achievements, and this makes you ask about them more and talk about me more!")
How do you judge whether someone has fully developed his will?
According to the level of commitment that he displays toward whatever plan of life he has arbitrarily chosen. Hypocrisy is bad, because that shows that you are not fully committed to whatever plan of life you chose. You must show SINCERITY by means of FIRM COMMITMENT to whatever views you've arbitrarily chosen. The views themselves are not better than any other views, since there's no objective moral truth, but your level of commitment to your own views might be stronger than someone else's level of commitment to his own views, in which case you are a better and less hypocritical person.
Why is "ignorance" not the same as true courage, according to Aristotle?
because these people would refuse to face the situation if they truly understood how dangerous it is. (*fails to fulfill condition # 2 for a virtuous action, because you don't truly know what you're doing as you go forth to meet the danger and look so "brave" to everyone else)
) Who are "the sanguine and hopeful" who are listed as people with a false type of courage in Aristotle's list?
being ignorant of one's own lack of ability, and thus overestimating one's ability to handle a situation. (Here you accurately understand the situation around you, but you do not understand yourself!) If you DID accurately assess your own ability (or lack thereof) and realized in advance how hard this was going to be for you, you'd run away from your duty. So you look brave to others but are not truly brave.
What is "Unhappiness"?
being mostly unfulfilled-25% fulfillment or less
Where does Aristotle think most people are on that graph?
between self-control and imperfect self-control, but NEARER to imperfect self-control than to self-control
Give an example of a specific way in which an inequality between friends can be equalized.
by giving more honor to the other friend (even tell others about him), by displaying gratitude, by showing extra respect, by offering payment if appropriate, etc.
What is the "Courage of Citizenship"?
facing danger not because it is right to do so, but instead merely because of the promise of honors or the threat of punishments.
What is distributive justice?
fairness in making a distribution from common supply of health, property etc-does not require each party to receive an equal amount since not each is deserving
What is "particular justice"?
fairness. And fairness is merely one virtue among others, not the sum total of all virtues.
Aristotle distinguishes two different kinds of situations in which corrective justice is carried out, and voluntariness is relevant to the distinction
voluntary-equal exchange needs voluntariness involuntary-forced to make equal exchange against your will
Good self-love
loving all parts of oneself in proper order (reasoning, spirited, desiring) such a person is virtuous not selfish-maximizing human potentials, not just thinking about themselves but justice, liberality etc
Bad self love
loving the lower parts of oneself at the expense of the higher parts-follows animal drives at expense of fairness, friendship etc
If someone is bold on behalf of an unreasonable goal, would Aristotle call that courage? ) Why or why not?
no,because a virtue aims at a relative mean which is DETERMINED BY REASON AND AS A PERSON WITH PRACTICAL WISDOM WOULD DETERMINE. So if the goal is unreasonable, then it is not reasonable to face danger to achieve it! Trying to be bold so as to achieve an unreasonable goal is a case of rashness, by definition. That's why it is pretty clear that Aristotle would not call terrorists "courageous." Instead, they are rash. They are being bold when it does not make sense to be bold - like when facing innocent civilians and being so bold as to cut their throats. That is too much boldness, relative to the situation of "facing a plane full of innocent civilians," as a reasonable assessment of the topic of "whether each person in this random collection of people on this plane has done something to deserve an instant death penalty at my hands right now" easily shows.
In the context of false types of courage, what specifically does Aristotle mean by "ignorance" as a false type of courage?
people who underestimate the danger of a situation in itself. (Here you are underestimating the situation itself which is around you, though you accurately understand your own skill level.) If you DID accurately understand the situation, and realized in advance how hard this was going to be, you'd run away from your duty. So you look brave to others but are not truly brave.
What is "Natural Relatively Perfect Happiness"?
relative to a persons natural capacity to appreciate things that person is 100% fulfilled
What is "Supernatural Relatively Perfect Happiness"?
relative to a persons supernaturally elevated capacity to appreciate things that person is 100% fulfilled
) Which theory of ethics claims that all you can do is arbitrarily choose one of the OTHER theories to live by for yourself, but insist that you should not view the theory that you chose as objectively good and true for everyone? (So that, for instance, according to this theory, YOU might arbitrarily choose to live by Ethical Evolutionism while SOMEONE ELSE chooses to live by Utilitarianism - and you have to understand that neither Ethical Evolutionism nor Utilitarianism is based on objectively true claims about human nature.)
relativism
We studied multiple ways in which the term "justice" is used. What is "universal justice" (also called "general justice," also called "legal justice," also called "social justice," also called "contributive justice")?
sum total of all virtues insofar as they affect others
TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle claims that, on the basis of the ways in which the Contemplative Life fulfills the seven characteristics of happiness even better than the Practical Life does, the Contemplative Life is the most fulfilling lifestyle of all, but the Practical Life is ALSO fulfilling
true
TRUE or FALSE: Only God can have APH. Humans cannot have APH.
true, Because only God has an infinitely powerful mind and will. But by definition APH can only belong to a being whose existence is 100% infinite in every way (including an infinite mind and will). (Just look back at part (a)!) Our minds and wills are finite in many ways - we can't think of everything at once, we haven't always known everything, we haven't always existed, etc. etc. So we humans are only infinite with respect to "how long our souls will exist in the future," not with respect to every aspect of our existence.
According to Aristotle, the very concept of friendship must involve three components. What are those three components (in other words, what definition of friendship did we learn in class from Aristotle)?
two people, have mutual good will, and they both know it
Rank the kinds of friendship in order from least stable to most stable, according to Aristotle's ranking learned in class.
utility, pleasure, virtue
Meanness
vice of too little-save money by wearing jeans to a wedding
Vulgar profusion
vice of too much-motive is to show off your wealth
According to Aristotle, which is worse - "Lust" (a salient case where the Desiring part rules the soul) or "[Excessive] Anger" (a salient case where the Spirited part rules the soul)? Why?
"Lust," for several reasons. In class we focused on just two reasons: (1) The person whose spirited part is in charge of his life has ONE thing right - his spirited part is governing his desiring part. At least SOMETHING in his life is properly tamed. But when one's desiring part is ruling the soul, NOTHING is in proper order. And (2) the desiring part of us is the lowest part of us, so being enslaved by it is the most degrading type of self-enslavement, in Aristotle's view. At least the person ruled by his spirited part has the HIGHER animal drives (honor/reputation/power/self-esteem) governing his life. But the desiring part consists of the LOWEST animal drives (pleasure/comfort/ease), which even animals often sacrifice for higher goals like protecting their turf or their young). (These are Aristotle's arguments - you are not required to agree, of course, but do know why he said what he said.)
Here's a SUMMARY of possible ways to address Aristotle's account of Great-Mindedness, based on # 146
(1) "Arrogance is just fine for someone who has all the virtues, and when properly interpreted, Aristotle's account of Great-Mindedness promotes arrogance." - said by those who deny the value of humility and who think that Aristotle was right to omit it from his list of virtues. (2) "Arrogance is bad, and, when properly interpreted, Aristotle is promoting arrogance" - said by those who think humility is good and that Aristotle's account of Great-Mindedness is bad (3) "Arrogance is bad, but when properly interpreted, Aristotle is not necessarily promoting arrogance" - said by thinkers (like St. Thomas Aquinas) who claim that humility is good and that Aristotle's account of Great-Mindedness is still compatible with humility
Based ultimately on the way human nature is built, money CAN help us to live more excellently by fulfilling three functions that are not as easily fulfilled in a barter economy. What THREE functions does money naturally and legitimately serve, according to Aristotle? Briefly name and explain them. ANSWER:
(1) Money can make it easier to ensure that particular justice is fulfilled in exchanges and distributions. EXPLANATION: Money provides a quick numerical method of comparing the values of very different things like shoes, houses, and loaves of bread. (2) Money can encourage distributions and exchanges which are beneficial to everyone (and to society at large), but which otherwise might not happen, by ensuring that all parties in the exchange or distribution really end up with something which is valuable to THEM. EXPLANATION: Suppose a shoemaker needs a house. The housebuilder would probably not want to trade a house for 3,000 pairs of shoes from the shoemaker, but he might be willing to trade a house for $150,000 from the shoemaker (since $150,000 can easily be spent to acquire something that the housebuilder really DOES need or want - unlike 3,000 pairs of shoes!). (3) Money can store value in a more permanent way than other items that might be traded or distributed, ensuring that an exchange or distribution "remains fair" over time. EXPLANATION: Money does not typically rot as fast as food, for example.
A being with RPH is just barely less than 100% fulfilled.
. By definition, RPH means 100% fulfillment, since it is a type of PH. (c) Then why is it called RELATIVELY perfect? Because it is 100% fulfillment RELATIVE TO the finite capacity which that particular person has for fulfillment. Other persons might be doing even more, but that is because they have a greater capacity for fulfillment. ANALOGY FROM CLASS: A big bucket and a small cup might both be 100% full of water. But the big bucket has more water. They are both full RELATIVE TO their respective capacities, but one of them has a greater capacity. Likewise, one person's RPH might include more fulfillment than another's, even though both are 100% fulfilled.
According to Aristotle, there is a connection between particular justice (especially commutative justice) and the main functions that money naturally serves. Explain
1. it can enable us to compare values more quickly and accurately 2. can encourage exchanges and distributions that are good for society, but otherwise might not happen
What is "Perfect Happiness"?
100%fulfillment
. What is a "Mediocre Life" (as we called it in class, just to give it a name)?
50% fulfillment
What is "Imperfect Happiness"?
75% fulfillment of happiness
Which is easier to reform - a person with a vice, or a person with Imperfect Self-Control, according to Aristotle, and why?
: A person with Imperfect Self-Control because at least that person still himself recognizes that he ought to change his behavior. The person with a vice refuses even to agree with the statement "I ought to change my behavior" because his enslaved reasoning part (enslaved to the lower parts of his soul) actually justifies his depraved conduct with rationalizations (bad arguments that his soul's powerful lower parts convince him to consider true so that they can get what they want). That person might even be quite proud of his conduct!
The person with a vice realizes deep down that he is doing something bad.
: FALSE. (After all, he has silenced his conscience - that is, he has enslaved the reasoning part of his soul to the animal drives, so that their rule inside himself on certain issues is no longer challenged. He calls good "evil" and calls evil "good"! He might even be downright proud of his conduct!)
. TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle considers the relationship of people within a family to be a kind of friendship.
: TRUE. Remember, Aristotle uses the term "friendship" for any kind of positive social relationship.
What does Aristotle mean by the lifestyle that has been labeled (for short) "the Practical Life"? Describe it.
: a lifestyle that aims at maximizing time spent exercising the moral virtues, but which does not have much intellectual virtue. So we're thinking here of someone who DOES HAVE the moral virtues, but who is not really a scholar or contemplative. An example of this would be a morally virtuous businessperson who lacks all liberal arts education, or morally virtuous parents who lack all liberal arts education while they are managing a household.
) What is the "utilitarian calculus"?
: the attempt to calculate and compare how much net pleasure and how much net pain will ultimately result for the world in the long run from a proposed course of action ("doing X") as compared with alternative courses of action ("doing Y").
MULTIPLE CHOICE (Choose the ONE best answer): Utilitarians would typically say that the goal of life is . . . a. having both pleasure AND the absence of pain for as many people as possible b. merely taking pleasure IN the absence of pain (that is, enjoying the fact that although you have no real pleasure, you aren't feeling pain, either) for as many people as possible
A
MULTIPLE CHOICE: On page 52 of Right and Reason, as also noted in class, our textbook points out that, in the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses only one level of happiness. Which one?a. Imperfect Happinessb. Natural Relatively Perfect Happinessc. Supernatural Relatively Perfect Happinessd. Absolutely Perfect Happiness
A
Which of the following names the virtue of having the right amount of boldness? a. courage b. perfected self-mastery c. insensibility d. rashness e. none of the above
A. Courage
. What is brutishness?
An unnatural desire taking over the soul (not merely an ordinary, natural desire taking over the soul, which would be bad enough). Examples: Instead of merely wanting too much ordinary food in general like an ordinary glutton (as in the vice of gluttony), a brutish person might want to rip babies out of pregnant women's bodies and eat them (to use one of Aristotle's examples). Or instead of a man seducing an adult woman outside of marriage (as in one example of the vice known as Lack of Self-Control, which would be bad enough), a child molester shows his brutishness by going after toddlers. As you can see, brutishness tends to involve seeking something that it never makes sense to want in any way and for any reason, whereas mere vice tends to involve seeking something which could be legitimate in other circumstances, but wanting it too much (or too little) or in the wrong way or under the wrong circumstances.
Why might someone disagree with Aristotle's position (about non-virtuous people not having friendships of virtue) on PHILOSOPHICAL grounds, according to what we covered in class?
Because (according to this anti-Aristotle argument) natural human experience shows that sometimes people in fact DO care about each other for the other person's own sake even when the other person is not already excellent. That's because they see HOPE for the other person to become excellent, and that potential (which they hope will someday be actualized) helps them to still see something worth loving in the other person.
) What is the ultimate realistically achievable goal of human life according to Aristotelianism? (b) Point out why that's not identical with Stoicism.
Because the Stoic does not think that the intellectual virtues add anything meaningful to human fulfillment. They view intellectual virtues as just a side hobby that some people happen to like. But Aristotle views intellectual virtues as something that do significantly enhance human life by their very nature, because the intellect by its nature sets us above animals. Intellectual virtues do not make us more moral, but they do make us more fulfilled, says Aristotle.
) Why does everyone agree that, apart from the possibility of a miracle, Perfect Happiness hasn't ever happened for anyone BEFORE death?
Because there are always ways in which things could be at least a little better for someone during life before death - like having more virtue, or having fewer problems for oneself and one's friends, or not having the certainty of eventual death in one's future, etc.
. MULTIPLE CHOICE: According to relativism, what criterion should be used to select a view of yourself and what you should be aiming your life at? a. the objective truth that your reasoning part is meant to govern your animal drives b. the objective truth that a life lived according to BOTH moral virtue AND intellectual virtue is more fulfilling than a life lived according to moral virtues alone c. arbitrary choice, because there is no objective truth about human nature other than the fact that we can make arbitrary choices about how to view ourselves
C
Name a thinker whom we learned about IN THIS COURSE who lived in the 1st century B.C., who wrote a book called On Duties, and who adopted the Stoics' position on many topics in ethics, even though technically he claims not to be a Stoic.
Cicero
Which deals more with regulating our Spirited Part and its handling of pain - Courage or Perfected Self-Mastery?
Courage
According to Aristotle, which is worse, Cowardice or Rashness? (b) What reason does HE give for this -- because it's more tempting for most people, or because it simply does not resemble the virtue very much, meaning that it is further from the relative mean and thus is "worse in itself"?
Cowardice "worse in itself" than rashness, because cowardice simply does not even resemble the virtue (unlike rashness, which does somewhat resemble bravery). This means that cowardice, by its very nature, is further from the relative mean (i.e., "worse in itself").
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Which of the following names the vice of not having sufficient boldness in the face of danger? a. courage b. perfected self-mastery c. insensibility d. rashness e. none of the above
E. None of the above-cowardice
Suppose someone says that friendship should be defined simply as two people having goodwill toward each other, nothing more and nothing less. Why would Aristotle consider that definition to be technically INCOMPLETE?
EX: famous actor you have goodwill towards but they do not even know you exist
What was John Stuart Mills nationality?
English
Notice that there are two vices and a virtue dealing with anger. (b) Which is worse, according to Aristotle - too much anger or not enough? (c)When compared with Angerlessness, is excessive anger worse in itself, or worse relative to most people (meaning it is more tempting to most people), or both, according to Aristotle?
Excessive anger is worse BOTH in itself by its very nature and being more tempting to people
. TRUE or FALSE: Particular justice includes all the virtues.
FALSE
The person with a virtue still has not tamed his/her desiring and spirited parts and thus has an internal struggle about doing what is right.
FALSE
) TRUE or FALSE: The person with a vice has an internal struggle about doing what is wrong.
FALSE. He does bad actions wholeheartedly and remorselessly, because he has convinced himself that they're OK for him to do.
) TRUE or FALSE: SRPH is studied in detail in both philosophy and theology.
FALSE. Only in theology. Philosophy just notices the possibility that God might offer something like this, which exceeds the capacities naturally found in humans. Catholic theologians claim that He has in fact offered this as a possibility for humans, and it is called Heaven. So theology studies this topic in depth, but philosophy does not study it in depth (aside from noticing the concept, as we did in class).
. TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle claims that the Practical Life is a waste of time. Everyone should seek the Contemplative Life, since it is the ONLY way to "be truly happy"/ "have life go well"/ "have eudaimonia".
FALSE. The Practical Life is also a fulfilled life - like getting an A for "fulfillment in life." The Contemplative Life is like getting an A+ in terms of fulfillment. According to Aristotle, contemplatives are not necessarily MORALLY better than Practicals, but they ARE more fulfilled because they are fulfilling the highest part of human nature (the Reasoning Part) not only by moral virtue but also by intellectual virtue. The Contemplative Life and the Practical Life are both fantastic fulfillments of the highest parts of human nature, but the Contemplative Life by definition involves even more types of human fulfillment since it includes the intellectual virtues too.
TRUE or FALSE: If you live by intellectual virtues but not moral virtues, then you are living the Contemplative Life.
FALSE. You're living neither the Practical Life nor the Contemplative Life, in that case!
What is commutative justice
Fairness of wages, prices and exchanges-end of exchange both parties have gotten something of equal value
) TRUE or FALSE: If someone does not have the intellectual virtues, does not have the moral virtues, and spends most of his/her time doing practical things like managing a business, that person is living "the Practical Life."
False
TRUE or FALSE: All Utilitarians think that animals have rights, since they too can feel pleasure and pain. Thus, all Utilitarians say that animals' pleasures and pains should be taken into account along with humans' pleasures and pains when trying to discern right from wrong.
False
TRUE or FALSE: If the only way to find the cure for cancer were to do painful and deadly experiments on a five-year-old girl who had very unusual, unique genes that were the key to finding the cure, all Utilitarians would absolutely refuse to kill the girl.
False
TRUE or FALSE: Utilitarians claim that the end does not justify the means.
False
Aristotle grounds the duty of patriotism (love of and duty toward one's country) in his account of friendship.
First, the bonds of fellow-citizens within a country constitute a type of friendship, according to Aristotle (as # 209 pointed out). People care about what happens in other parts of their country (whether because of utility (the rest of the country is useful to us economically), because of pleasure [good feelings about and pride in their country, for instance], or because they care about their fellow citizens for the fellow citizens' own sakes). Second, we owe our country for such things as peace and order and trade, all of which are provided to us by our country, more than we can ever give back to our country. (You cannot personally build as many roads or maintain as much law and order or provide as much economic help to families, for instance, as your country has already provided to you, beginning even long, long before you were born when the country was preparing things for "future generations.") So (applying # 204-05 about unequal friendships) we should do whatever we can to equalize the relationship of ourselves with our country, namely by showing respect, gratitude, and love for our country.
NAME a famous relativist and state what century he lived in
Friedrich Nietzsche (1800s), Adolf Hitler (1900s), Benito Mussolini (1900s)
Out of all Aristotle's detailed accounts of moral virtues and vices from the second half of Book III to the end of Book V, which virtue is described by Aristotle in the most controversial way, according to what we learned in class?
Great-mindedness
b) What aspect of life is Vanity too much of, and Small-Mindedness not enough of?
Great-mindedness
What SPECIFIC bad effect does Small-Mindedness have "in itself," according to Aristotle?
He claims it deteriorates one's character by tending to result in aiming at less excellent activities than one is really capable of. Thus (in Aristotle's view) the person ends up not practicing and further developing and maintaining the great virtues that he once actually had. Instead, a Small-Minded person accomplishes nothing.
Which degree of happiness is generally agreed, at best, to be the highest that has ever been obtained DURING LIFE ON EARTH (before death) so far in human history, among regular human beings?
Imperfect happiness
Who was the most famous Utilitarian of modern times?
John Stuart Mill
According to Aristotle, which is worse, Lack of Self-Control or Insensibility?
Lack of self-control because it is tempting for most people
According to class lecture based on the text, what is the difference between Liberality and Magnificence?
Liberality is the relative mean of spending on everyday, small-scale things and events (like shopping for groceries or new pajamas). But Magnificence is the relative mean of spending on large-scale things and events (like shopping for a car, planning a wedding, buying a house, etc.)
We studied one reason for which quarrels might arise between friends, according to Aristotle. Indeed, he claims that it is the MAIN reason for disputes and misunderstandings among friends. What is that source of quarrels that we studied?
Mixed friendships where they each have different motives for the friendship
Then what one thing IS important in life, according to ancient Stoicism?
Moral virtue
Suppose someone does not have the moral virtues. Will that person be fulfilling the 7 characteristics of happiness sufficiently to be "living well," according to Aristotle?
No
) Some thinkers (such as pure Libertarians, Relativists, and some Materialists) have proposed that the SOLE role of the state is merely to officiate in disputes between people and to ensure that contracts are not broken, that nobody cheats anyone else, and that no one hurts anyone else. They do not think the state should care if huge numbers of citizens end up in poor conditions of character, as long as they are not directly hurting anyone else. Does Aristotle agree? Explain.
No, Aristotle does not agree. Aristotle thinks that the state arises from a need in human nature: we need help to attain happiness, BOTH materially (with respect to their external goods) AND with respect to character (which is what even more important to happiness). Thus the state's legitimate role is to help its citizens - and not merely to help their bodies (as if they were mere animals). That is, the state should serve human goodness and happiness, not merely economic goals. Human goodness and happiness are found in virtue. Therefore, the state should generally (within its sphere, without taking away the rights of the family, on which he claims society is based) promote virtue and restrain vice in its citizens even in many cases where (for example) commutative justice is not the particular virtue that is involved. *NOTE: This does not necessarily mean what is called a "police state" or a kind of fascist society where the government installs cameras in every room of every home to watch your every move to enforce virtue. After all, that situation itself can interfere with virtue for various reasons, such as the fact that it interferes with the family instead of helping the family. But it does mean that, for example, Aristotle would probably approve of my local, city-run phone company's internet policy that forbids our city's residents from visiting pornographic websites. He probably would approve of public service messages like those billboards that say "Perseverance - Pass It On" and so on. He probably would want schools to stop teaching kids about condoms and start teaching them about courage and liberality and other inspiring topics. He would probably endorse the old practice of requiring young people to copy, memorize, recite, and read about inspiring statements and stories about virtue and morals (as George Washington and the rest of his generation had to do when he was a boy, for instance). Etc.
Do you get moral credit for having involuntary particular justice applied to you?
No, because by definition it happens against your will. By definition we mean a situation where you do not WANT to be fair but someone else enforces fairness upon you anyway.
According to Aristotle, is shame a virtue?
No. Shame only makes sense if you are not being excellent so totally excellent/virtuous person would need ZERO shame. Only a relative mean of shame for non-excellent people
Aristotle's account of the various types of justice makes sense to a lot of people. But society still has lots of disputes about how to APPLY particular justice. What three kinds of disputes can arise among people about particular justice, even when they agree that distributive justice is different from corrective justice?
People still argue over: (1) whether the items in a given exchange are in fact equal in value (when trying to APPLY corrective justice), and (2) what standard should be used to decide who gets how much honor, power, wealth, possessions, etc. in a distribution (when trying to APPLY distributive justice), and (3) whether a given economic situation calls for the application of corrective justice or of distributive justice (or of a mix of the two in some proportion that has to be determined).
Which deals more with regulating our Desiring Part and its drive for pleasures - Courage or Perfected Self-Mastery?
Perfected self-mastery
. According to Aristotle, which type of friendship do young people tend to have with each other?
Pleasure
What is the name of the theory that claims that there is no objective truth in ethics?
Relativism
Which theory of ethics claims that all the other theories besides itself are just arbitrarily chosen viewpoints, equal in value, because there is no objective moral truth?
Relativism
Which theory treats human nature as basically just a will?
Relativism
155. (a) What aspect of life is Great-Mindedness the "right amount of"?
Seeking-large scale public honor-being in the limelight
Is a strong friendship fundamentally based more on similarity or on difference, according to Aristotle? (b) Why?
Similarity, Because then they are both looking for the same results from the friendship, and thus they avoid the kinds of quarrels discussed in class and in the text.
According to Aristotle, which is worse - the vice of Small-Mindedness, or the vice of Vanity? (b) What reason(s) does he briefly give for this - it's worse "in itself," it's worse "relative to most people" (i.e., more tempting to most people), or both?
Small-mindedness for BOTH reasons
According to Aristotle, which is worse - Stinginess or Prodigality?
Stinginess is both worse in itself (doesn't even resemble the virtue as much as Prodigality does) and worse relative to most people personally (more tempting to most people)
) TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle does not say whether he thinks one vice is worse than the opposite extreme in the case of friendliness.
TRUE
) TRUE or FALSE: In friendships between people who are in some way unequal, Aristotle thinks that it is important that the inequality be somehow equalized, so that neither friend feels "cheated
TRUE
) TRUE or FALSE: Non-relativist ethical theories all claim that there is objective truth in ethics. In other words, there are objective moral truths
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: According to Aristotle, a person with Imperfect Self-Control is on the path to vice.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: According to Aristotle, human nature can get along better in an economy that uses money than in a barter economy. That is, human nature is built in such a way that we find the invention of money to be helpful toward making our lives excellent (both morally and otherwise) instead of just passably okay.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle considers the relationship of people within the same city or even within the same country to be a kind of "friendship."
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle did not identify one vice as worse than the other in the area of life that deals with small-scale honors.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: Courage involves being as bold as a situation reasonably requires, in Aristotle's view. A coward does not act as boldly as reason requires in some situation.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: Non-relativist ethical theories all claim that the will is not the only feature of human nature that is relevant to ethics.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: Particular justice can also be called "fairness" in modern English.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: Stoicism and Aristotelianism (and really, all the non-relativist theories besides Worldliness and Cult of the Body) treat us as creatures who are not just high-powered animals who can use reason to achieve animalistic goals. Instead, they claim that the Reasoning Part of the soul should be valued over the animal drives. Power, property, health, strength, and/or beauty are NOT the ultimate goals of human nature. There's something better that human nature is built for, they say.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: The order in which we studied the 11 non-relativist theories of ethics reflects the fact that each succeeding theory on our chart typically sees SOME value in the goal that the previous theory proposed, but thinks that there's an even more ultimate goal that human nature is built to achieve that goes beyond what the previous theory proposed.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: The person with Imperfect Self-Control has an internal struggle about doing what is wrong.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: The person with Imperfect Self-Control realizes deep down that he is doing something bad.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: The person with Self-Control still has not tamed his/her desiring and spirited parts and thus has an internal struggle about doing what is right.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: The vices mentioned in part -over-reservedness and exaggeration(b) of this question concern such things as how much you talk about yourself (including how much attention your clothing draws to yourself, since clothing talks about yourself in a way).
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: Truthfulness is Aristotle's name for the virtue of habitually doing the right amount (the relative mean) of talking about oneself.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: We covered the following argument that relativism endangers human rights: Human rights depend on rejecting relativism, since the relativist can "personally define away" anyone's rights whenever he feels like it, and will say that your attempt to defend human rights is no better than his attempt to take them away! Thus, it's no accident that relativism undergirded Nazi and Fascist ideology.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: Worldliness and the Cult of the Body focus on the animal drives in human nature. They basically view us as high-powered animals who happen to have reasoning skills that can help us to achieve the same kinds of goals that animals want: power and property, or health, strength, and/or beauty.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: If someone does not have ALL the other virtues, then Aristotle claims that person cannot have the virtue of Great-Mindedness.
TRUE,Because it is not reasonable to have a high opinion of oneself if one is not virtuous! So "great honor" would be "too much honor," by definition, for a person who was not virtuous.
) TRUE or FALSE: NRPH is studied in detail in both philosophy and theology.
TRUE. It is studied in philosophy insofar as, if God had not offered us any goals beyond the ones that human nature is oriented toward by its very nature, then this is what human nature would have been aimed at. (And this is still worth knowing, and is also studied in theology. After all, it helps you to appreciate how Heaven [SRPH] is a supernatural gift that is even better than the reward that good people would otherwise have been offered, if God had set up reality without grace and other supernatural things.)
Historically, what civilization is MOST associated with Stoicism as a cultural ideal (not that all members of that civilization actually followed it, that's for sure!!!)?
The ancient Romans
What book did Aristotle write immediately after the Nicomachean Ethics?
The politics
Then what do the 11 fundamentally different non-relativist theories of ethics DISAGREE with each other about?
They disagree about just what, besides the will, human nature DOES contain, and what is the order amongst the parts of human nature. In other words, they disagree about just which human function is, by the very structure of human nature, the ultimate, noblest, highest human function.
Which sense is Perfected Self-Mastery trying to moderate most of all, according to Aristotle?
Touch
TRUE or FALSE: Some Utilitarians include not just humans but also animals in the meaning of the term "greatest number." After all, animals can feel pleasure and pain, too, so if all ethics is just about pleasure and pain, why not include the animals' pleasure and pain too? And thus Animal Rights people seem generally to be Utilitarians, though not all Utilitarians are Animal Rights people.
True
TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle claims that friendship should go beyond justice.
True, Because even enemies can be FAIR to each other, but friends go beyond the absolute minimum required by mere FAIRNESS.
TRUE or FALSE: According to Aristotle, the better types of friendships include what the less deep types of friendship offer, and more.
True, Some examples from class (mentioned here to jog your memory in case this did not end up in your notebook) are: --People who enjoy each other's company are willing to help each other out around the house or to loan money to the person they spend free time with. SO a friendship of pleasure includes usefulness to each other - and more. --Likewise, people who love each other for the other's own sake because of the other's excellence are certainly going to ENJOY being in the presence of each other's excellence and are also going to be willing to help each other out with yard projects and loans as needed, etc. SO a friendship of virtue includes pleasure and utility - and more.
According to Aristotle, which type of friendships do co-workers and others involved in a business operation or a business deal often tend to have with each other?
Utility
What are the three basic kinds of friendship, as delineated by Aristotle according to the three possible motives for friendship?
Utility-other person is useful to me Pleasure-the other person makes me feel good Virtue/excellence-love the other person for his/her own sake not merely based on being useful or pleasant
Only one theory claims that having something subhuman will make us as happy/fulfilled as possible. What name did we give that theory? What does such a lifestyle basically look like?
Worldliness-wealth, honor, and power at whatever means
Does Aristotle view the family, the village, and the state as natural institutions?
Yes, Aristotle thinks that the whole reason why states should exist is that villages are not self-sufficient for everything that helps us to achieve happiness/goodness, and the reason why a village has a right to exist is that the family can't be as happy/good as possible without interacting with other families (which results in larger communities), and the reason for the family is that most people are better off when they live not alone but in a family. So investigating what happiness/goodness are (in ethics) ends up being important for understanding what a state should do, since the ultimate reason why states should exist is to promote human happiness/goodness (through this chain of intermediate social structures), in Aristotle's view.
Has anyone ever defended the claim that Aristotle's account of Great-Mindedness can be interpreted so as to NOT sound like a "treatise in defense of arrogance"? If so, how, in general?
Yes, for example St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas is a thinker who very much likes humility and very much condemns arrogance, but he claims that although Aristotle did not mention humility as a virtue, there is a way of interpreting his account of Great-Mindedness as at least not endorsing arrogance. (In fact, St. Thomas claims that Aristotle's account can be interpreted such that it would still even be compatible with the virtue of Humility, even though Aristotle never noticed that virtue which he should have added to his list.) For example, looking down on other people's praise of oneself (according to this interpretation of Aristotle) does not render the Great-Minded person arrogant. Instead, Aristotle is just saying that a Great-Minded person would think "I am not a fantastic person just because other people whose standards might be lower say so; thus I don't consider others' praise so important that it should puff me up with self-adulation" - and this attitude is quite compatible with humility. And hearing of others' good deeds toward himself is not as enjoyable to him as hearing of what he has done for others simply because he is pained by the thought that he has burdened others - not at all because he is ungrateful, you can suggest, if you want to save Aristotle from the charge of promoting arrogance. Furthermore, according to St. Thomas, suppose a person has great virtue but recognizes that all goodness comes from God as First Cause of all goodness (not originally merely from oneself). Such a person will not take credit for his virtue in an arrogant way, but will give the credit to God. Aristotle did not talk about this at all, but he didn't deny it either in this passage. So this attitude is compatible with what Aristotle wrote. Likewise, if one reads carefully, this pro-Aristotle-AND-pro-Humility view can point out, in some passages Aristotle says he is just describing features that a Great-Minded person is "thought to have" - which means he is not himself necessarily claiming that all these features MUST belong to a Great-Minded person. Finally, sometimes it is reasonable for a person to even demand great honor - like (to use my own example) King St. Louis IX of France (13th century), who was renowned for fairness and his love for the poor, and who reformed France for the better in many ways. Without that great honor accruing to him, could St. Louis have accomplished as much?
Can non-virtuous people have friendships of pleasure, according to Aristotle? Explain with an example.
Yes. For example, one crook might like to sit back and hear the other crook tell stories about his exploits. He might enjoy the other's company in jail, as someone who shares his love of telling mean stories about the police. Etc.
Can non-virtuous people have friendships of utility, according to Aristotle? Explain with an example.
Yes. For example, you rob the bank and I drive the getaway car, and we both want things to go well for each other to the extent that we are useful to each other in robbing the bank. You don't want your getaway driver to be too sick or depressed to carry out his role in the robbery, right?
Give an example of commutative justice practiced in a voluntary transaction.
You give a soccer store owner $29.95 for a pair of junior soccer cleats which are worth $29.95. Or another student needs an eraser, and you want a pencil, and you both agree that his pencil is worth as much as your eraser, so you trade your eraser for the pencil.
Give an example of commutative justice practiced in an involuntary transaction
You shoplift a pair of soccer shoes from a soccer store. Then the police catch you. Since the shoes were worth $29.95, the government fines you and repays the soccer store owner against your will. You grind your teeth in jail and wish you had gotten away with the crime.
What is "Relatively Perfect Happiness"?
a finitely powerful mind and will is 100% fulfilled.
What does Aristotle mean by the "contemplative life"? Describe it.
a lifestyle that aims at having and exercising the moral virtues as appropriate AND at spending as much time as possible developing and exercising intellectual virtues too. Think of a morally virtuous person who is also a scholar who spends large amounts of time each day thinking of deep topics (like a really morally good person who is also a contemplative monk or nun, for instance).
What is "Absolutely Perfect Happiness"?
an infinitely powerful mind and will is 100%fulfilled, only God can have this
Why would a friendship of utility be less stable than a friendship of pleasure?
because it is based on usefulness, and someone can cease to be useful to you faster than (for example) their sense of humor ceases to amuse you. The kinds of traits (like sense of humor or beauty) that give rise to a friendship of pleasure are typically longer lasting than the kinds of traits (like performing a business service for you) that give rise to a friendship of utility.
Why is that considered so controversial?
because many people have thought that details that Aristotle gives about Great-Mindedness make it sound like a rather unpleasant form of arrogance. He says that the Great-Minded person "despises" the praise of less virtuous people. He would rather hear of his own good deeds instead of others' good deeds toward him. Aristotle even concedes that people like this are "thought to be supercilious" because nothing is all that important in their eyes. Everything is small, they think, compared to their own great thoughts and virtues. Etc. (as we covered in class from the text).
Why aren't "experience and skill" the same as true courage, in Aristotle's view?
because the person knows he is not REALLY facing as much danger as everyone else thinks, so this situation is not REALLY an adequate test for "excellence" in his character. If he were in a situation that is TRULY dangerous for someone of his level of training, he would give up and not do what is right. (*fails to fulfill condition # 4 for a virtuous action, since person does not have a firm habit of being brave, but only shows the right amount of boldness when it's easy)
Why isn't the "Courage of Citizenship" the same as true courage, in Aristotle's view?
because the reasoning part is not motivating the person, but just rewards or punishments. The resulting conduct when the person faces danger thus might still be okay or even good but not "excellent" (virtuous). (*To put it another way, if perhaps it helps any of you to connect this with an earlier topic: the person fulfills condition # 1 for a virtuous action, but not condition # 3.)
Why isn't "mere Animal Spirit" the same as true courage, in Aristotle's view?
because the reasoning part of a person is not really what is motivating him, but only a temporary rush of adrenaline. Once that wears off, he will not be as bold as he needs to be (if it is really "mere Animal Spirit" and not "the spirited part working together with the reasoning part" inside him). (*fails to fulfill condition # 4 for a virtuous action, since he lacks a firm habit of doing what is right, and instead he only does what's right when his animal drives coincidentally happen to urge him to it)
Why is being "sanguine and hopeful" not the same as true courage, in Aristotle's view?
because these people would refuse to face the situation (even though they ought to) if they truly understood their own skill level for dealing with it. (*fails to fulfill condition # 2 for a virtuous action, because you don't truly know what you're doing as you go forth to meet the danger and look so "brave" to everyone else)
When did John Stuart Mill live?
early 1800s
In the context of false types of courage, what is meant by "experience and skill"?
having specialized abilities so that you know that FOR YOU the situation is nowhere near as dangerous as it looks to the untrained eye. Yet if the situation WERE dangerous for you, you'd run away from your duty. So even though you're doing the right thing, you're not doing the right thing in a fully excellent way, since you still have a wimpy character instead of a brave character giving rise to the action within yourself.
What is superhuman virtue?
having tamed the lower parts of the soul so much that the person does incredibly excellent actions. For example, instead of merely exercising "ordinary" liberality with frequent donations to the poor, a few people like St. Francis of Assisi have renounced all their earthly possessions and spent the entire rest of their lives doing good deeds and taking care of the poor, the sick, etc. Wow!Reply all
The final sentence of the Nicomachean Ethics is "To this let us now turn." What subject was Aristotle preparing to turn to next?
how the state and society should operate, OR YOU COULD DESCRIBE IT AS how the state and society should assist individuals in acquiring virtues by promoting virtue and discouraging vice.
Aristotle concludes the Nicomachean Ethics by transitioning from the topic of how individuals should live to the topic of how ___________________________________________________________.
how the state and society should operate, OR YOU COULD DESCRIBE IT AS how the state and society should assist individuals in acquiring virtues by promoting virtue and discouraging vice. In other words, the new topic is POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
What does relativism claim about ethics?
that there is no objective truth in ethics
According to Aristotle's analysis, two and only two lifestyles sufficiently fulfill the characteristics of happiness, so as to be considered "living well"/ true happiness / true eudaimonia. Which two lifestyles are those?
the Practical Life and the Contemplative Life [or some mixture thereof, of course]
What is "mere Animal Spirit," according to Aristotle?
the spirited part of a person temporarily becomes very excited (like a "rush of adrenaline"), and then the person faces danger solely because of the adrenaline rush, not because of his reasoning part recognizing that it's right.
Interdisciplinary Moment with Theology: TRUE or FALSE: What you just described in part (a) is also called "Heaven" in Catholic theology.
true
Interdisciplinary Moment with Theology: TRUE or FALSE: What you just described in part (a) is also called "Limbo" in Catholic theology.
true
According to Aristotle, which is worse - Over-reservedness or Exaggeration? (b)Why is Exaggeration worse - is it worse in itself, or worse relative to most people, or both, according to Aristotle?
worse in itself. It does not really even look like Truthfulness (the right amount of talking about oneself), in other words, in Aristotle's view. At least what the Over-reserved person DOES bother to say about himself is true!
) According to Aristotle, which is worse - sternness or buffoonery? (c) Why is buffoonery worse, according to Aristotle - is it worse in itself, or worse relative to most people, or both, according to Aristotle?
worse relative to most people. (That is, most people are more tempted to tell jokes that at times and in ways that are inappropriate, he thinks, than they are to scorn humor that is legitimate.)
