Exam 7: Plato Why Should We Be Good

Aristotle says, "Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with ________, lying in a mean, i.e., the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it."

According to Kant, "Virtue, however, is not to be defined and esteemed merely as habit, and as a long custom acquired by practice of morally good actions."

According to Mill, "The main constituents of a satisfied life appear to be two, either of which by itself is often found sufficient for the purpose," are tranquility, and excitement.

An act which it would be good to do, but not wrong not to do is called:

According to Nietzsche, "we succeeded in explaining our entire instinctive life as the development and ramification of one fundamental form of will-namely, the ..."

Kant says, "The impulses of nature, then, contain hindrances to the fulfilment of duty in the mind of man, and resisting forces, some of them powerful; and he must judge himself able to combat these and to conquer them by means of ..."

According to Singer, "The issue here is: Where should we draw the line between conduct that is required and conduct that is good although not required, so as to get the best possible result? This would seem to be _____________ question, although a very difficult one."

Explain what Aristotle means when he says that most people "take refuge in theory and think they are being philosophers and will become good in this way, behaving somewhat like patients who listen attentively to their doctors, but do none of the things they are ordered to do. As the latter will not be made well in body by such a course of treatment, the former will not be made well in soul by such a course of philosophy."

According to Aristotle, virtues and vices are innate forms.

Aristotle says, "With regard to pleasures and pains-not all of them, and not so much with regard to the pains-the mean is temperance, the excess self-indulgence." Explain how the concept of "temperance" fits into Aristotle's ideas concerning virtues.

According to Wong, "that there exists extensive diversity of moral judgment across time, societies and individuals, and that it concerns central moral values and principles," is the doctrine of ..."

According to Mill, "the ultimate end, with reference to and for the sake of which all other things are desirable (whether we are considering our own good or that of other people), is an existence exempt as far as possible from pain, and as rich as possible in enjoyments, both in point of quantity and quality," is called the ...

According to Hanley, "there is nothing intrinsic to human cloning which justifies the repugnance which many feel toward it."

According to Rachels, "The AMA policy statement isolates the crucial issue very well; the crucial issue is 'the intentional termination of the life of one human being by another.' But after identifying this issue, and forbidding 'holistic aids,' the statement goes on to deny that the cessation of treatment is the intentional termination of a life."

The point of the Ring of Gyges story was to show that ...

Explain what Hume means when he says, "No satisfactory answer can be given to any of these questions, upon the abstract hypothesis of morals; and we must at last acknowledge, that the crime or immorality is no particular fact or relation, which can be the object of the understanding, but arises entirely from the sentiment of disapprobation."

According to Huxley, "The science of ________ professes to furnish us with a reasoned rule of life; to tell us what is right action and why it is so."

Nietzsche says, "To be sure, an ominous new superstition, a peculiar narrowness of interpretation, attained supremacy precisely thereby: the origin of an action was interpreted in the most definite sense possible; people were agreed in the belief that the value of an action lay in the value of its intention."

Singer offers a simple principle: "if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it." Singer then goes on to say, "The uncontroversial appearance of the principle just stated is fatalistic. If it were acted upon, even in its qualified form, our lives, our society, and our world would be fundamentally changed."

Explain what Aristotle means when he says, "Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e., the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it."