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FIL 251 Semester Test (Quarter 2)

Introduction to moral and political philosophy (University of Pretoria)

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FIL 251: Semester Test (Quarter 2)

Section A (Theory questions)

Give the direct translation of philosophia? (Week 1, lecture 1)

The word comes from ‘philo’ and ‘sophia’. The direct translation of the word is ‘the
love of wisdom’. NB! The answer is not philosophy (English version of philosophia).

What forms part of moral agency? (Week 1, lecture 1)

1) Listen to reason
2) Consider options impartially
3) Be willing and able to change your mind

Know the different definitions of corruption and who said them. (Week 2, lecture 1)
In the semester test they asked the definition of corruption from the World Bank and
in the exam, they asked the definition of corruption from R. Brooks.
1) World Bank: “Abuse of public office for private gain.”
2) J.S. Nye: “Deviation from the formal duties of public role for private gain.”
3) R. Brooks: “Misperformance or neglect of a recognized duty or the
unwarranted exercise of power, with the motive of gaining some advantage,
more or less personal.”

What must the liberal neutral state be neutral towards?

1) Race
2) Gender
3) Religion
4) Age, etc.

What is consequentialist ethics?

Explain Mill’s utilitarianism. (Week 3, lecture 1)

Mill tried to reconcile individual rights with utilitarianism. Mill thinks we should
maximise utility, not on a case-by-case basis, but in the long run and over time,
respecting individual liberty will lead to the greatest human happiness. Mill believed
that individual rights and liberties are key to social progress which increases utility
overall in the long run.

What does telos mean? (Week 4, lecture 1)

It is the ancient Greek word for the purpose/goal of a thing.

What is the telos of a human and explain it? (Week 4, lecture 1)

According to Aristotle, the purpose of a human is to achieve Eudaimonia.
Eudaimonia is ‘human flourishing’; the state of having a good indwelling spirit or
being in a contended state of being happy, healthy and prosperous.

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Section B (Arguments)

What is a deductive argument?

A deductive argument is an argument that an arguer puts forward as valid. For a
valid argument, it is not possible for the premises to be true with the conclusion false.
That is, necessarily if the premises are true, then the conclusion is true. Thus, we
may say that the truth of the premises in a valid argument guarantees that the
conclusion is also true.
Basic example: John goes to church on Sundays. Today is Sunday, therefore John
will go to church.

What is an inductive argument?

In an inductive argument, the premises are intended only to be so strong that, if they
were true, then it would be unlikely, although possible, that the conclusion is false. If
the truth of the premises makes it unlikely (but not impossible) that the conclusion is
false, then we may say that the argument is inductively strong.
Basic example: The majority of people who go to the beach can swim. Suzy is at the
beach so it is probable that she can swim.

We were given an argument and had to identify it as either a deductive argument or

an inductive argument and justify why.

We were given an argument and had to put it in Premise-Conclusion structure.

Premise 1: Reason A
Premise 2: Reason B
Conclusion: Therefore, C

If the ask you what an argument is, you can answer this:
A logically connected series of statements intended to convince us to accept a
conclusion.

Section C (Formulating an argument)

We were given an article about Steinhoff and had to use the information from the
article to formulate an argument using virtue ethics. Word limit = ± 250
Include:
1) Teleology
2) Virtue and Vices
3) The Golden Mean and Hexis
4) Moral Exemplars and The Beautiful

If they ask you to formulate an argument using utilitarianism, include:

1) Consequentialist ethics
2) Utility
3) The Greatest Happiness Principle
4) Mill: Individual rights and liberties, social progress in the long run
5) Act vs Rule Utilitarianism

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Here are examples of formulating an argument using virtue ethics and utilitarianism.
These are my answers from tutorial assignment 3. I could not include all of the points
as stated above because there was a word limit so I only included the points that
were important regarding the information given.

Virtue ethics
This argument is trying to convince us that a company has only one responsibility -
generate large profits. The argument is trying to convince us of this by stating that a
company can either make money or save the environment, but not both. One can
use the theory of virtue ethics to critique the argument. Someone is virtuous if they
have good morals. Aristotle states that the virtues of a thing are those characteristics
which allow it to achieve its telos (purpose). The telos of a company is to maximize
shareholder wealth by maximizing profits but by taking people and the planet into
account as well. If a company only focuses on profits and harms the environment
whilst doing so, there will come a point where the environment will be too destroyed
that humans will not be able to achieve their telos of Eudaimonia. Therefore, the
utility of the greatest number of people is being minimized. The argument is
fallacious because it says that a company can only make money by harming the
environment. We know that this is false because through the triple bottom line, a
company can make money without harming the environment. Aristotle also argues
that virtue is always found at the Golden Mean between an excess and a deficiency
of a certain characteristic. One can see that the company has an excess of
selfishness as they are only concerned with their profits and not the environment.
Being virtuous requires doing what is necessary or beautiful, not just what is
desirable. The company is only doing what is desirable (increasing profits) and not
what is beautiful which is taking the environment and people into consideration. It
can be said that this company is adding to the problems relating to environmental
and social sustainability and therefore is not virtuous.

Utilitarianism
This argument is trying to convince us that cheating is in fact good. The way in which
the argument is trying to convince us of this is by stating that one person is positively
impacted by this action and nobody is negatively impacted by it. One can use the
ethical theory of utilitarianism to critique the argument which states that the best
action is one that maximizes happiness (utility). According to act utilitarianism, the
morality of an act is determined by the amount of happiness it maximizes and the
pain it minimizes as a direct result of that act. In terms of Jeremy Bentham’s
utilitarianism, everything that maximizes the happiness and minimizes the pain of the
greatest number of people contributes to the overall utility of the greatest number of
people. He states that pain and pleasure determines all actions. Furthermore, he
argues that any action that maximizes utility can be deemed moral because it
contributes to the utility of the greatest number of people. With regards to the
argument, cheating is bringing about pleasure to the person cheating and it is
maximizing their happiness as that person now has answers to submit that they
could get awarded marks for. However, if everyone cheats, the level of education
would be compromised and the standard of graduates going into the workforce will
deteriorate which will have a negative impact on the overall economy of a country.
The country will struggle to grow, therefore the GDP will stay constant, if not
decrease, consequently the standard of living of people will decrease. It can be said
that this argument is fallacious because if everyone cheats, pain will be inflicted on

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the population and it will cause the overall utility for the greatest number of people to
be minimized, therefore it is deemed immoral.

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