Philosophy 7-10 Review Quizzes

For Aristotle, to act virtuously it's necessary to: act knowingly for a good end? act intentionally for a good end? or act from a firm and unchanging state?

all of the above (It's not enough to do the right thing for Aristotle. I have to the right thing for the right reason, at the right time, and feel the right way)

For Aristotle, which of these are authentic goods: wealth, health, virtue?

all of the above (Remember that although virtue is clearly the highest good, external goods like wealth and the goods of the body like heath are still clearly goods)

A decision is excellent if...

desire pursues what reason knows to be true (The key point is that the virtuous man desires precisely what reason knows to be true. In other words, to be truly virtuous for Aristotle it's not enough to know what right, it's not even enough to do what's right, one also has to desire what's right. So acting well just out of self-control (i.e. doing the right thing even though you don't really want to) is not enough. To be truly virtuous you have to want to do what's right, and know what that is precisely because your reason is operating correctly)

true or false: Distributive justice is the same in all communities

false ("For all agree that the just in distributions must accord with some sort of worth, but what they call worth is not the same; supporters of democracy say it is free citizenship, some supporters of oligarchy say it is wealth, others good birth, while supporters of aristocracy say it is virtue.")

true or false: Aristotle thinks pleasure is always good

false (A life lived in pursuit of pleasure is "slavish, since the life they decide on is a life for grazing animals." Pleasure is good insofar as it is pleasure in something that is authentically good)

true or false: All voluntary actions involve decisions

false (All decisions are voluntary, but not all voluntary actions (e.g. non-rational animals) are decisions)

true or false: The term virtue (arête) is limited to human beings

false (All living things can have arête, i.e. excellences. So it is proper to speak of the virtues of a horse or giraffe, or even of an oak tree, etc)

true or false: For Aristotle, "political science" is the empirical study of existing political communities

false (Although Aristotle is interested in existing political constitutions, for him "political science" is more what we would call ethics, and not really concerned with the empirical investigations that tend to characterize the modern field of political science)

true or false: For Aristotle, only ethics is teleological

false (Aristotle actually considers all of nature to be teleological (i.e. directed towards some end). That's why he says: "Every craft and every line of inquiry, and likewise every action and decision, seems to seek some good.")

true or false: Justice only applies to involuntary exchanges like theft, etc

false (Aristotle thinks justice requires equality after exchanges whether those exchanges are involuntary (e.g. theft) or voluntary (e.g. commerce))

true or false: Aristotle was Socrates' student

false (Aristotle was Plato's student; he was only about 15 when Socrates was put to death in 399BC)

true or false: According to Aristotle, we must seek the same kind of precision in all fields of study

false (As Oderberg also argued in his book, different fields of knowledge admit of different levels of precision. In particular, ethics, because it involves the choices of free human beings, will have a different degree of precision than the natural sciences, for example. Nonetheless, it can remain a science (i.e. organized body of knowledge))

true or false: Aristotle thinks people are born good or bad

false (Because moral virtue is the result of repeated action (habit) no one is born either virtuous or vicious. However, it may turn out that some people have native inclinations that make it easier or more difficult to acquire the virtues)

true or false: Aristotle thinks an exchange is just as long as both parties agree to it

false (Both parties can agree and the exchange will still be unjust if there is inequality after the exchange. People in bad bargaining positions will often agree to exchanges that are unequal)

true or false: Knowledge that admits of being otherwise is limited to action

false (Both production and action admit of being otherwise. The key difference is that production (making) aims at producing an external object, while action is for its own sake)

true or false: Courage requires the absence of fear

false (Courage is not the same as fearlessness because some things (i.e. what is shameful) ought to be feared)

true or false: Distributive justice is horizontal

false (Distributive justice is best understood as top-down, because it involves the distribution of goods within a political community)

true or false: For Aristotle, anybody who believes a true fact (e.g. that e=mc2) can be said to have scientific knowledge of that truth

false (For Aristotle, to have scientific knowledge is not just to have a true belief, but also to know the principles that make it true. So even if it is true that e=mc2 and I believe it, that's not enough to make it the case that I truly know it, precisely because I do not have a full understanding of the principles that make it true)

true or false: We can achieve happiness through good luck

false (For Aristotle, true happiness (eudaimonia / flourishing) is only possible through virtuous activity. So winning the lottery (whether of money or birth) cannot produce real happiness, it can only make it marginally easier to achieve. Ultimately, happiness is only possible by what we do, not what happens to us)

true or false: The moral virtues are easily lost

false (In fact, just as it is difficult to acquire the virtues, once we have them they're actually relatively stable. So while it's certainly possible to lose them over time, they are not lost easily. It's like playing the piano; it's hard to get good, but even if you stop practicing for a while you won't immediately lose the ability to play. However, if you stop playing for a long time then you will lost the ability to play)

true or false: The most common kind of vice (i.e. excess or deficiency) are the same with all the virtues

false (In fact, while the vice of deficiency (i.e. cowardice) is more common with courage, the vice of excess (i.e. over-indulgence) is more common with temperance)

true or false: The vice of excess arises from having too much virtue

false (It is impossible to be "too virtuous." The vice of excess is not "too much" virtue but another way of missing the mark. When you're shooting at a target, it's possible to miss long or miss short, whereas there is only one way to hit the bullseye)

true or false: Courage is an intellectual virtue

false (Like justice and temperance, courage is a virtue of character, not of thought)

true or false: We should solve mathematical problems by deliberating well

false (Mathematics is a scientific branch of knowledge because it concerns things that cannot be otherwise (i.e. are necessary). We never deliberate about things that are necessary. We either know them or we don't, but we can only deliberate about things that are up to us, and the truths of mathematics are not up to us, they just are)

true or false: prudence is a virtue of character

false (Prudence (phronesis) is a virtue of thought, not of character)

true or false: Prudence (phronesis) is the virtue of the rational part of the soul concerned with production

false (Prudence (phronesis) is not directed towards production / making. Instead it is the virtue of action for its own sake)

true or false: For Aristotle, the problem with honor is that it is a kind of pleasure

false (Rather, the problem with honor is that it is not ultimately in one's own control because it depends on others to bestow honor)

true or false: For Aristotle, political science requires rational demonstration

false (Rational demonstration is the standard of exactness in mathematics. In ethics, Aristotle says his claims should be understood "as claiming to hold good usually.")

true or false: Ignorance of the outcome makes any act unwilling

false (Recall, Aristotle thinks regret is also necessary. If I don't care, then the act is best thought of as non-willing rather than unwilling)

true or false: Courage can only be displayed in battle

false (This is false. Aristotle does seem to think that the battlefield is the most natural opportunity to display virtue, strictly speaking courage can be displayed in other circumstances as well)

true or false: Courage requires standing one's ground in all circumstances

false (This is not true because there are some cases when the appropriate thing to do is to retreat (e.g. to fight another day). We may never run away out of cowardice, but retreating is not always cowardice. The key is that we always stand "firm against the right things and fears the right things, for the right end, in the right way, at the right time, and is correspondingly confident.")

true or false: For Aristotle, happiness is entirely within our control

false (Unfortunately, this is not the case. Although it is true that we can only achieve happiness through our own effort, it is also possible for bad circumstances to rob us of happiness. So, for example, if some horrible disease kills me and my entire family, through no fault of my own I will not have a truly flourishing life)

true or false: There cannot be a virtue of the scientific part of the soul because it does not deliberate

false (While it is true that the scientific part of the rational soul does not deliberate, there is still a virtue (i.e. "the best state") of the scientific part)

true or false: Virtue and vice are involuntary because I cannot choose to be virtuous

false (While it's true that one cannot simply choose to be virtuous, one can choose to act in the way a virtuous person would act, and so over time one can develop a virtuous character (though habituation). Thus, virtue and vice are voluntary because the acts that result in the states are voluntary)

true or false: We deliberate about the nature of virtue

false (While it's true that we deliberate about which actions are required by the virtues, the nature of the virtues are determined by human nature and therefore we do not deliberate about them. In other words, the virtues are not up to us; however, our actions are up to us)

true or false: Justice always requires treating all others exactly the same way in all circumstances

false (While some forms of justice (e.g. rectification) do require treating everyone equally, some forms of justice (e.g. distributive) do not. Ultimately, justice requires treating everyone according to their worth. In some cases (e.g. in transactions) their worth is equal, but in others (e.g. distribution of honors) it is not)

true or false: Because human being are rational by nature, the most important virtues for acting morally are the virtues of thought

false (While the virtues of thought are important for Aristotle, moral action is the result of the virtues of character, which (unlike those of thought) cannot be learned from teachers, but requires repeated action ("habit"))

The Greek term 'eudaimonia' is best translated into English as?

flourishing (Eudaimonia (literally, good spirit) is best understood in modern English is a kind of flourishing. For human beings, that means the flourishing of our nature as rational animals)

For Aristotle, what is the highest good achievable in action?

flourishing (Only flourishing (eudaimonia) is a complete good. All of the others are (or can be) goods, but are incomplete because they are either instrumental goods (e.g. wealth), or too dependent on others (e.g. honor))

What is the characteristic human activity or "function"?

rational activity of the soul (It's worth noting that all of these are human activities, but we share all except rational activity with other living things. It is our reason that is most essential to us as human beings, and so it is rational activity that is most characteristic of us)

Prudence (phronesis) is the virtue of what part of the soul?

the rational part that deliberates concerning things that can be otherwise (The key point is the prudence (phronesis) is an intellectual virtue that involves reason concerning things that could be otherwise (i.e. not necessary). The reason for this is that we cannot deliberate about scientific knowledge, because those things cannot be other than they are. So there's nothing to deliberate about in math, you either know it or you don't)

Which of these do not make an action involuntary? - ignorance - threat of harm - external principle - none of the above

threat of harm (Threat of harm is not enough to make an act involuntary. Even if I would not have done the action without the threat, I still have a choice about whether or not to respond to the threat. In other words, hard choices are still choices)

true or false: Rectification requires everyone to be treated equally

true ("here it does not matter if a decent person has taken from a base person or a base person from a decent person, or if a decent or a base person has committed adultery. Rather, the law looks only at differences in the harm [inflicted] and treats the people involved as equals, if one does injustice while the other suffers, and one has done the harm while the other has suffered it")

true or false: For Aristotle, the moneymaker's life is a life of pleasure

true (Aristotle considers the mere pursuit of money to be analogous to the pursuit of pleasure because money is an instrument good, i.e. its use is primarily to purchase things that give us pleasure)

true or false: The Nicomachean Ethics is likely named after Aristotle's son and father

true (Aristotle's son Nicomachus was named after his grandfather)

true or false: The morally good human being is the only truly happy human being

true (Because happiness is best understood as eudaimonia (flourishing) and flourishing requires virtue, then it is the case that only the truly good human being can be happy. This makes it very clear that happiness is not merely an emotional state)

true or false: For Aristotle, happiness is the result of virtuous activity

true (For Aristotle, true happiness (eudaimonia / flourishing) is only possible through virtuous activity)

true or false: For Aristotle, the goodness of a living thing depends on its "function."

true (For any living things—plant, animal, or human—to say that "X is good" just means that X performs its characteristic activity well. So a good giraffe is one that performs characteristic giraffe activities well. The good human being is just the one that performs the characteristic human activities well. And of course the characteristic human activities are those that fundamentally involve our rational nature)

true or false: Justice has the same form as the other virtues (i.e. intermediate between two vices)

true (Justice is a mean between undervaluing and over-reaching (overvaluing). So justice aims at the appropriate amount, though what is appropriate can be different in different circumstances)

true or false: For Aristotle, eudaimonia is the highest good because it is complete

true (Recall, that he rejects honor as a highest good because it is dependent on others (i.e. other people have to bestow honor). The key point is that eudaimonia should be something that is largely in your own control (but not entirely because sometimes bad luck—e.g. war or famine, etc.—can prevent it))

true or false: The best deliberator flourishes as a human being

true (The best deliberator (the phronimos) is the man who possesses the virtue of prudence (phronesis) and so knows and pursues "the best good for a human being that is achievable in action.")

true or false: For Aristotle, some ends are higher than other ends

true (The lower ends (e.g. bridle making) ultimately serve the higher ends (e.g. horsemanship), which can then serve even higher ends (e.g. generalship))

true or false: Justice is special because it concerns our relations with other people

true (The other virtues are best understood in terms of my own flourishing. Justice is unique in being essentially related to others)

true or false: Human communities must engage in exchange

true (This is just a consequence of the fact that we're social beings and the division of labor. Different people produce different goods, and exchange allows us to live together in community and take advantage of those efficiencies rather than everyone trying to produce everything he might need (e.g. food, clothing, shelter, etc.))

true or false: The good harpist has the same "function" as the bad harpist

true (This is true because the good and bad X have the same characteristic activity, but the good X does that activity well, while the bad X does not. This applies to "jobs" like playing the harp, but it also applies more generally to all human beings)

true or false: Courage, temperance, justice, etc. are virtues for all human beings

true (This is true in that virtues like courage, temperance, justice, etc. are virtues for everyone. However, the actions that the virtuous require may be different for different people. This is the point about Milo the athlete. Food is good everyone, but different people need different diets depending on their circumstances (e.g. size, body composition, activity, etc.))

true or false: it is impossible to be too temperate

true (This is true, because it's always impossible to be too virtuous. However, it is possible to miss the virtue of temperance through a kind of insensibility to pleasure. In other words, we should enjoy authentic pleasures moderately)

true or false: Any healthy person can acquire the virtues

true (This is true, but it may be more difficult for some people than others (just like learning to play the piano is more difficult for some people than others). However, there are circumstances that can prevent the acquisition of virtue (e.g., mental defects) just as there are circumstances that can prevent one from learning to play the piano (e.g., losing one's fingers in an accident))

true or false: virtue is about pleasure

true (This is true, but it's important to realize this does not mean virtue consists in pleasure. Rather it means that the virtuous person feels pleasure in the right way, that is towards the right things at the right times)

true or false: For Aristotle, every action is directed toward some end

true (This largely agrees with Oderberg's view, and means that Aristotle's conception of ethics is fundamentally teleological

true or false: For Aristotle, virtuous activity is always pleasant for the virtuous person

true (This one is a little surprising because we are all used to the idea that sometimes it is hard to act virtuously. However, that's only because we are incompletely virtuous. For the truly virtuous person, virtuous activity is "pleasant by nature.")

true or false: Aristotle thinks profit is unjust

true (Unfortunately, this is true because he thinks that any profit represents a loss on the part of someone else and this violates the conditions that justice "is having the equal amount both before and after [the transaction]." Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that both parties can profit from an exchange)

true or false: virtue is an intermediate condition

true (Virtue is always an intermediate between two vices: of deficiency and of excess)

true or false: virtue is like a craft

true (Virtue is like a craft in that we acquire it through practice. Just as nobody can sit down at a piano and play it well without practice, so analogously we have to learn virtuous through practice)

true or false: Aristotle was not actually born in Greece

true (he was actually from Stagira in Macedonia north of Greece proper. This meant that he was an outsider in Athens, but also meant he was called by Philip II of Macedon to tutor his son Alexander the Great)