Midterm Exam

This sample midterm is here only to give you a sense of the format of the final exam.  Many of the questions are not appropriate for this course -- they use different terminology and cover material that we have not covered in this course.  If you don't understand some of the questions, do not worry.
 

Part A
Clearly print a letter "T" in the appropriate space on your answer sheet for each of the following that is true. Clearly print a letter "F" in the appropriate space for each of the following that is false. If your marker cannot determine which letter you intend, your response will be marked as incorrect. (To be safe, you might want to answer the questions of this part by printing the words "True" and "False" in full.) Each question in this section is worth one mark.

1.  The statement, ‘This ice-cream tastes awful to me’ is an objective statement.

2.  The statement, ‘You should respect your elders’ is a normative statement.

3.  A valid argument must have all true premises.

4.  If an argument’s premise and its conclusion are mutually exclusive, then it must be unsound.

Part B
For each of the questions in this section, list all and only those responses that are correct. That is, some of the questions in this section may have more than one correct answer. Each question is worth two marks if answered completely correctly; otherwise, one mark will be deducted for each incorrect letter that you include and for each correct letter that you leave out. (No one will lose more than two marks per question.) Items that are left blank will be worth zero. List all of your answers on the answer sheet.

5.  In Ibsen’s play “An Enemy of the People,” the following passage was stated by whom?  “As a private person, it is quite another matter.  But as a subordinate member of the staff of the Baths, you have no right to express any opinion which runs contrary to that of your superiors.”

A.  Peter Stockmann
B.  Dr. Stockmann
C.  Katherine Stockmann
D.  Hovstad
E.  The drunk man

6.  According to Sumner               is sufficient warrant for a culture’s moral practices.
 

A.  Dialectic
B.  Tradition
C.  The commands of the chiefton.
D.  Divine command
E.  Homer Simpson’s approval

7.  One might plausibly criticize Sumner for failing to:

A.  Distinguish objective from subjective claims.
B.  Distinguish descriptive from normative relativism.
C.  Note that the mores of a culture change over time.
D.  Note that there are many different evaluative standards.
E.  Note that new social conditions may arise which force a culture to re-evaluate its own
     mores.

8.  The Simpsons clip in which Homer was a missionary illustrated that:

A.  We should be tolerant of each other’s beliefs.
B.  We should never intervene with other cultures.
C.  The objective claim of normative statements is easily misapplied in unfamiliar
      situations.
D.  When understood properly, the seemingly different moral beliefs of other
      cultures are actually quite similar.
E.   Even when people are well-intentioned, intervention can lead to bad
      consequences.

9.  The statement, ‘When in the Homerpaloozic culture, you should not pick your nose in public’ is a(n)              claim:

A.  Normative
B.  Descriptive
C.  Absolute
D.  Tolerance
E.  Traditional

10.  The statement, ‘Most people in British Columbia, Canada believe that it is morally permissible to beat people over the head with frozen salmon’ is a(n)                 claim:

A.  Objective
B.  Subjective
C.  Normative
D. Descriptive
E.  Absolute

A.  Objective
B.  Subjective
C.  Normative
D.  Descriptive
E.  Absolute
 

A.  Objective
B.  Subjective
C.  Absolute
D.  Non-absolute
E.  Totally rad, man.

13.  The following argument is:

1.  All cats are mammals.
2.  All mammals live in the ocean.
3.  All cats live in the ocean.

A.  valid
B.  invalid
C.  sound
D.  unsound (= not sound)

14.  The following argument is:

1.  In the Oswegan culture it is considered immoral to beat hyamas.
2.  In the Tillochan culture it is considered immoral not to beat hyamas.
3.  Therefore, whether or not it is immoral to beat hyamas depends on whether one is from the Oswegan or the Tillochan culture.

A.  valid
B.  invalid
C.  neither valid nor invalid
 D.  approximately valid
E.  obviously the product of a severely disturbed mind (hint: don’t pick
      this answer)

 
Part C
You should be able to answer the following question in 2-3 sentences.
Write your answer in the space provided below. (This question is worth two points).

15.  Explain the concept of dialectic reflective equilibrium.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Part D
Write an essay that answers one of the following prompts.  While most of the marks concern the content of your answer, form counts.  Take some time to think about how you want to answer each question, and make sure you are expressing a coherent line of thought.  While you want to provide a complete answer, you should only include that information that is necessary to answering the specific question – essays that appear to be  a list of everything that one can remember about a particular author/view are at best a ‘C’ response.  Your answer should be about 2 pages. Please double space.

16.  Explain why the extremes of complete isolationism (i.e. the view that we should never intervene) and fervent interventionism (i.e. the view that we should impose our values on anyone who disagrees with us) are undesireable.

17.  Use Pojman’s list of the purposes of morality to evaluate the moral code of the Sneetches, as described in the following scenario (inspired in part by a story from Dr. Seuss).

      There exists, in a land far away, a group of people who call themselves Sneetches.  All Sneetches
      have stars on their bellies: some purple, some red, and some blue.  The one’s with purple stars,
      also called schmoos, think they’re the best; they live in big houses and do nothing but rest.  The
      ones with red stars have a middle position; they have to work hard, but don’t mind the tradition.
      The blue-starred sneetches, also called magoos, get the very worst deal; they work all day long
      and must beg for each meal.

      Sometimes a magoo is born with a star that looks almost purple, so the schmoos instituted the
      death penalty for any magoo who tries to pass for a schmoo.  In order to keep the magoos
      content, the schmoos also implemented the following custom.  Each year, the top 2% of all magoos are allowed to have their blue stars removed and replaced with purple ones.  The procedure is very painful, and occasionally results in the death of a magoo.  But these special magoos are happy, because they are about to become schmoos.  There is always some grumbling among the magoos, but there has not yet been a rebellion that wasn’t successfully put down.