Study Guide for the 1^st Ethics Quiz
Spring, 2006

 

The quiz will consist of a number of short answer questions. For each of the philosophers we have covered, you should be able to give an account of their basic claims and the arguments that they give for these claims.  You should be able to apply their ethical theories to a concrete situation.  You should also know some major criticisms that can be offered of each philosopher.  I may give you quotations from the philosophers that we have studied and ask you to identify the philosopher and to explain that quotation. What follows is a list of major ideas that may help with your review.

 

1.      Aquinas
a.    There is a distinction between divine law, natural law, and human law.
b.    Natural law can be discovered through reason and reveals the ends towards which human beings naturally incline.
c.    Some human laws may be judged unjust from the perspective of natural law.


 

2.      Hobbes

1. People are self-interested and rational.
2. The state of nature equals a war of all against all.
3. It is rational to end this state of nature with a social contract.
4. A strong centralized government (preferably a monarchy) is needed to maintain social order.
5. The laws of the state define justice.
6. Revolution can never be justified.
7. In conflicts between states, no appeal to justice makes sense, because there is no social contract.
   
    

3.      Locke

1. Even in the state of nature, there are natural rights.
2. The purpose of the social contract is protecting the natural rights of its citizens.
3. There is a right to revolution under certain circumstances.
4. The best government is a representative democracy with branches of government that check and balance one another’s powers.
5. In the state of nature something unclaimed becomes property when someone mixes his labor with it.  Certain conditions apply on how much can be claimed until money is in common use.
6. Only certain people have full rights of citizenship.
7. War between states does not negate the natural rights.
   
   
    

4.   Las Casas
       a.    The scholastic framework of Aquinas is assumed.

b.       A description of four types of barbarians is developed from Aristotle’s thought.

c.       Those participating in the conquest are one form of barbarian, and the conquered are only barbarians in that they haven’t yet accepted Christianity.  Conversion, however, should never be enforced.


 

5.    Be able to describe some of the philosophical ideas that Leon-Portilla believes were found among the Nahuatl wise men.  Also be able to explain why what counts as philosophy is itself a philosophical question.

 
There will be extra credit questions on current events.