PHIL 314 Varner 2018a Midterm exam Page 1 Your FIRST name: Your LAST name: Part one (multiple choice, worth 15% of course grade): Indicate the best answer to each question on your Scantron by filling in one and only one bubble. Note that where the best answer is Both (A) and (C) but not (B) or All of the above, no partial credit will be given for any other answers. 1. Which conception of philosophy (or being philosophical ) did we adopt for purposes of this course? (A) Philosophy refers to all systematic, rational knowledge (as in doctor of philosophy i.e. Ph.D. ). (B) Being philosophical means sounding profound. (C) Philosophy is, or at least ought to be, limited to the analysis and clarification of language. (D) Being philosophical means thinking rationally about an event rather than responding emotionally to it. (E) Philosophy is the systematic, rational study of certain non-empirical but enduring questions emphasizing carefully formulated arguments and analysis of key terms. CORRECT 2. As stipulatively defined in moral philosophy, what does the term utilitarian mean? (A) It is used to describe something as no frills but gets the job done. (B) CORRECT It refers to what maximizes aggregate happiness. (C) It means capable of gainful employment. (D) It refers to practically (as opposed to theoretically) rational. 3. The basic principle of equality requires what, according to Singer? (A) Equal rights (B) Equal treatment (C) CORRECT Equal consideration of interests (D) Both (A) and (B), but not (C). (E) All of the above. 4. In this most famous summary statement of Leopold s land ethic: A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and of the biotic community, which word or phrase goes in the blank? (A) intrinsic value (B) instrumental value (C) fecundity (D) beauty CORRECT 5. Callicott uses the terms moral humanism and humane moralism to refer to what two positions? (A) moral humanism = anthropocentrism humane moralism = holism (B) moral humanism = anthropocentrism humane moralism = animal liberation CORRECT (C) moral humanism = sentientism humane moralism = animal liberation 6. Who wrote the following? The community is a fictitious body composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting... its members. The interest of the community then is, what? the sum of the interests of the several members who compose it. (A) J. Baird Callicott (B) Aldo Leopold (C) CORRECT Jeremy Bentham 7. Which historical philosopher does Callicott say had a view that was a version of holism? (A) Aristotle (B) Descartes (C) Nietzsche (D) CORRECT Plato 8. What is the title of the essay in which Leopold describes shooting at a female wolf and her pups? (A) The Land Ethic (B) June (C) Arizona and New Mexico CORRECT 9. What does the principle of universalizability require us to do? (A) Act consistently with all duly enacted state and federal laws. (B) Enact environmental standards that apply to both private citizens and corporations. (C) Universally respect the rights of all sentient creatures. (D) Make similar moral judgments of similar cases. CORRECT
PHIL 314 Varner 2018a Midterm exam Page 2 10. Which were said to take a descriptive approach to studying ethics? (A) Anthopologists (B) Philosophers (C) Sociologists (E) Both (A) and (C), but not (B). CORRECT 11. Which of the following is/are holists? (A) Singer (B) Callicott s reading of Leopold CORRECT (C) Regan (E) Both (A) and (C), but not (B). 12. Which of the following is/are sentientists? (A) Singer (B) Callicott s reading of Leopold (C) Regan (E) Both (A) and (C), but not (B). CORRECT 13. Which things have intrinsic value according to a pure holist? (A) Individual human beings (B) Species (E) Both (B) and (C), but not (A). CORRECT 14. Which things have intrinsic value according to a pluralistic holist? (A) Individual human beings (B) Species (E) Both (B) and (C), but not (A). 15. Which things have intrinsic value according to an anthropocentrist? (A) Human beings CORRECT (B) Animals that are capable of suffering and/or enjoyment (E) Both (A) and (B), but not (C). 16. Which things have intrinsic value according to a sentientist? (A) Human beings (B) Animals that are capable of suffering and/or enjoyment (E) Both (A) and (B), but not (C). CORRECT 17. What did Callicott say was important about Leopold s use of the word accretions? (A) Accretion is a slow process, so that an accretion takes a very, very long time to develop. (B) Stones and other geological phenomena that are described as accretions are not sentient. (C) Without accretions, there would be no stability in either a geological or moral system. (D) In contrast to an expanding circle, later accretions leave intact earlier layers. CORRECT 18. As stipulatively defined by Peter Singer, what does the term sentient mean? (A) Responsive to sensory stimuli. (B) Has sensation or feeling. (C) CORRECT Capable of conscious suffering and/or enjoyment. (D) Self-aware/self-conscious. (E) Feels physical pain.
PHIL 314 Varner 2018a Midterm exam Page 3 In answering questions ## 19-21, refer to this chart and assume that: (a) each -10 and each -1 represents the harm that one individual would suffer if that option were chosen in the given situation, and (b) a -10 harm is non-comparably worse than a -1 harm. Option #1 Option #2 Situation A -10 Situation B -1-1 -1-1 -1 Situation C -1-10 -1-1 -1-1 -1-1 -1-1 19. In situation A, which of Regan s principles would apply and what would it require you to do? (A) The miniride principle applies and requires that you choose option #1. (B) The miniride principle applies and requires that you choose option #2. (C) The worse-off principle applies and requires that you choose option #1. CORRECT (D) The worse-off principle applies and requires that you choose option #2. 20. In situation B, which of Regan s principles would apply and what would it require you to do? (A) The miniride principle applies and requires that you choose option #1. (B) The miniride principle applies and requires that you choose option #2. CORRECT (C) The worse-off principle applies and requires that you choose option #1. (D) The worse-off principle applies and requires that you choose option #2. 21. In situation C, under which option is there a worse-off individual? (A) Option #1 CORRECT (B) Option #2 (C) Both options #1 & #2 (D) Neither of options #1 & #2 22. Which conception of intrinsic value did Varner endorse in his essay on Biocentric Individualism? (A) Intrinsic value exists independently of its being perceived by any conscious valuer. CORRECT (B) Intrinsic value is actualized in the relationship between a conscious valuer and the valued thing. 23. Which conception of intrinsic value did Callicott endorse in his essay Ecoholism and the Problem of Ecofascism? (A) Intrinsic value exists independently of its being perceived by any conscious valuer. (B) Intrinsic value is actualized in the relationship between a conscious valuer and the valued thing. CORRECT 24. Who coined the term categorical imperative? (A) CORRECT Immanuel Kant (B) Jeremy Bentham (C) R.M. Hare (D) Peter Singer (E) Aldo Leopold
PHIL 314 Varner 2018a Midterm exam Page 4 25. Who held that we incur guilt every time we harm a living thing, even when we do so to preserve human life? (A) Aldo Leopold (B) CORRECT Albert Schweitzer (C) Peter Singer (D) Gary Varner 26. How, according to most modern evolutionary biologists, do you determine the biological function of an organ or subsystem of an organism? (A) By finding out what God intended it to do for the creature in question. (B) By looking forward and determining what would help the organism survive. (C) CORRECT By determining what effect it had that helped the organism s ancestors reproduce. 27. A question is empirical if (A) its truth can be assessed independently of observation and/or experimentation. (B) it is true or false in virtue of the meanings of the words in it and how they are logically related in it. (C) CORRECT it can be answered through casual observation and/or scientific experimentation. 28. Hedonistic utilitarianism was defined as the form of utilitarianism that... (A) CORRECT... defines happiness in terms of getting pleasure and avoiding pain. (B)... defines happiness in terms of some kind of integrated satisfaction of one s preferences. (C)... holds that moral agents should maximize their own happiness rather than the happiness of others. (D)... holds that moral agents should not take their own happiness into consideration when deciding what maximizes aggregate happiness. 29. Whose theory stresses moral rights as trump cards against utilitarian arguments? (A) Peter Singer (B) Tom Regan CORRECT (C) Aldo Leopold (D) Baird Callicott 30. Which of the following is a necessary condition for having interests, according to Singer? (A) Being able to use language. (B) CORRECT Being capable of suffering and/or enjoyment. (C) Being able to think about ethics and morality. (D) Each of the above. (E) Both (A) and (C) but not (B). 31. Which of the following is a sufficient condition for having interests, according to Singer? (A) Being able to feel physical pain. (B) Being able to enjoy playing a sport. (C) Being able to suffer psychological depression. (D) CORRECT Each of the above. (E) Both (A) and (C), but not (B). 32. Which of the following best expresses what Singer means by speciesism? (A) A speciesist is one who treats members of different species differently. (B) A speciesist is one who believes that non-human animals are not capable of all the things humans are. (C) CORRECT Speciesist is one who ignores or does not treat as equally important, the similar interests of members of different species. 33. What was the expression ground projects used to refer to? (A) The ecological background conditions necessary for human projects. (B) Basic functions of organs that sustain the life of an individual organism. (C) CORRECT Human beings most complex and long-term interests. (D) A way of projecting future ecological impacts on endangered species.
PHIL 314 Varner 2018a Midterm exam Page 5 34. In Biocentric Individualism, how does Varner define interests? (A) Animals have interests in the fulfillment of their biological functions. (B) correct An entity has interests if and only if the fulfillment of its needs and/or desires creates intrinsic value. (C) Persons have interests because they can conceive of themselves as conscious individuals with a past, a present, and a future. (D) Organisms have interests if and only if they have desires or would have certain desires if adequately informed and impartial across phases of their lives. 35. Which of the following passages from Leopold best expresses the thinking of a pure holist? (A) A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. CORRECT (B) In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such. (C) An ethic may be regarded as a mode of guidance for meeting ecological situations so new or intricate, or involving such deferred reactions, that the path of social expediency is not discernible to the average individual. Animal instincts are modes of guidance for the individual in meeting such situations. Ethics are possibly a kind of community instinct in-the-making. 36. Which of the following passages from Leopold best expresses the thinking of a pluralistic holist? (A) A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. (B) In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such. CORRECT (C) An ethic may be regarded as a mode of guidance for meeting ecological situations so new or intricate, or involving such deferred reactions, that the path of social expediency is not discernible to the average individual. Animal instincts are modes of guidance for the individual in meeting such situations. Ethics are possibly a kind of community instinct in-the-making. 37. In Callicott s essay Holistic Environmental Ethics and the Problem of Ecofascism what does SOP-1 say? (A) That moral equality requires us to treat similar interests similarly. (B) That stronger interests generate duties that take precedence over duties generated by weaker interests. (C) That a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community; it is wrong when it tends otherwise. (D) That duties generated by membership in older, more intimate communities take precedence over those generated by membership in newer, less intimate communities. CORRECT 38. Which was the method of reflective equilibrium said to be? (A) A deontological approach to justification in ethics. (B) A consequentialist approach to justification in ethics. (C) A foundationalist approach to justification in ethics. (D) A fundamentalist approach to justification in ethics. (E) A coherentist approach to justification in ethics. CORRECT 39. How did Darwin explain the evolution of ethical thinking in humans? (A) He appealed to divine creation as imbuing humans with a moral conscience. (B) He pointed to models of ethical behavior in a wide variety of non-human animals. (C) CORRECT He argued that groups of humans who lived cooperatively would out-compete those who don t. 40. Where is the Leopold shack located? (A) An arid mountain range in Arizona (B) The Great Plains (C) The northern shore of Lake Michigan (D) The Texas Panhandle (E) Along a river in Wisconsin CORRECT
PHIL 314 Varner 2018a Midterm exam Page 6 41. Which philosopher claimed that his view provided the philosophical foundation for the contemporary animal rights movement insofar as his view supports the abolition of slaughter-based animal agriculture? (A) Tom Regan CORRECT (B) Peter Singer (C) J. Baird Callicott Survey-only questions: You will receive credit for each of the remaining multiple choice questions, as long as you indicate one and only one answer on your Scantron. 42. Which view most approximates your own view in ethics? (A) Anthropocentrism 1 (B) Sentientism 6 (C) Biocentric individualism 8 (D) Holism 24 (E) I don t know or I d rather not say. 5 43. True or false: Texas state law requires bicycles to be operated on sidewalks rather than roadways wherever a sidewalk is available? (A) True 9 (B) False 24 (C) I don t know 11 (D) I d rather not say 0 44. If you had to eat every meal for the rest of your life in just one of the following four restaurants, which one would you choose? (A) C&J Barbeque (College Station) 5 (B) Kluay Kluay (Thai restaurant in Bryan) 7 (C) Taz (Indian restaurant in College Station) 5 (D) Fuego Tortilla Grill (Mexican restaurant in College Station) 24 (E) I d rather not say. 3 End of multiple choice part, continue to the essay part >