ethics quiz 1

Question 1

Utilitarianism

Answer 1

Greatest good/happiness for the greatest amount of people with the least amount of pain.

Question 2

Theodicy

Answer 2

Divine justice (or, defense of the highest wisdom against the charge of what is counterpurposive)

Question 3

Deontology

Answer 3

Non-Hindu (i.e., Western) ethical term for the study or practice or duty

Question 4

Poverty

Answer 4

Mill suggests that this may be completely extinguished by the wisdom of society

Question 5

Lying

Answer 5

Einstein suggests that this destroys confidence, without which social cooperation is impossible

Question 6

Pain

Answer 6

Levinas: “The justification of the neighbor’s _____ is certainly the source of all immorality.”

Question 7

Yajna

Answer 7

Hindu practice of devotion or self-“sacrifice,” serving other’s before serving oneself.

Question 8

good

Answer 8

yes

Question 9

Teleology

Answer 9

end or goal,

Question 10

Emotions

Answer 10

Einstein: scientific concepts do not express what?

Question 11

Trimurti

Answer 11

Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), and Shiva (destroyer)

Question 12

Love

Answer 12

Levinas suggests that this might be “a non-useless suffering.”

Question 13

Dike

Answer 13

This is the name of the Greek god(dess) of Justice, often represented as blindly weighing a scale.

Question 14

First Cause

Answer 14

The cosmological argument for the existence of god (Aristotle) rests finally upon this.

Question 15

Tridevi

Answer 15

Saraswati (knowledge), Lakshmi (fertility), and Parvarti (energy/love)

Question 16

Pain

Answer 16

Einstein: ethical axioms are derived from our inborn tendencies to avoid what?

Question 17

Utilitarianism

Answer 17

In the Mine Analogy… this ethical strategy would simply choose to save the most people

Question 18

Egalitarianism

Answer 18

this ethical strategy might simply flip a coin to decide whom to save

Question 19

Meritarianism

Answer 19

this strategy would save one’s mother or partner, regardless of which mine they are in.

Question 20

Egalitarianism

Answer 20

The Bhagavadgita’s insistence (chapter 5) that the Brahman, cow, dog, and a dog-eater
are all one, might be considered a radical Hindu form of this ethical strategy.

Question 21

The Categorical Imperative

Answer 21

Act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a universal law of nature

Question 22

To whom is the categorical imperative attributed?

Answer 22

Immanuel Kant

Question 23

In the gospel of John, [after asking if he is king/chief of the Jews] what does Pontius Pilate (Spear of the Great Waters) ask Jesus (Creator Sets Free)?

Answer 23

What is truth? [John 18:38]

Question 24

What is Jesus’ answer?(What is truth?)

Answer 24

Jesus gives no answer.

Question 25

What would Einstein’s answer be?(What is truth?)

Answer 25

“Truth is what stands the test of experience.”

Question 26

What is Daya’s core counterargument to Nathan for the Templar possibly being an angel (or more than human)?

Answer 26

The Templar desires no reward, gratitude, thanks, or status (merit) of being considered courageous for his action. Simply, the Templar wants nothing in return; his incentive or intention for doing a good deed has nothing to do with what he might gain in return for doing so. He seems to think that wanting any such reciprocal incentive would annul the deed of its goodness (or kindness or generosity or virtuousness).

Question 27

In Nathan the Wise, what is the secret about Recha that Daya knows (and exposes)?

Answer 27

Recha is not Jewish. She was born (and baptized as) Christian before being adopted by Nathan.

Question 28

How does Daya know (or learn) this secret?

Answer 28

On her deathbed, Recha’s original “nurse” (perhaps nanny) told (“intrusted it to”) Daya. (Lessing, p. 103)