Study Questions for Chapter 2
Velasquez, Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases
Related web pages include: Revised March 16, 2005
Items on the web site Section F:
Rawls-related (F. 2),
Libertarianism-related (F.4),
Nussbaum (F.5),
Utilitarianism (F.7),
See especially "Common Mistakes" section
Care Theory (F.8)
Virtue Ethics (F.9)
Metaphorical Bases of Ethical Theories (G.4)
Key Concepts 2, 3, 4, and 51. What are rights generally? (90) Rights
2. human or moral rights? (91)
3. legal rights? (90)
4. With what do rights provide individuals? (92)
5. What are positive rights? (94)
6. negative rights? (93)
6b. What argument might be given against the claim that some rights are purely negative rights, i.e., rights that imply only negative duties on the parts of others. See The Concept of Rights (next-to-last section).
Libertarianism and Locke
7. Discuss libertarian ethics, making use of the distinction between negative rights and positive rights. (See 103-104, 115-116)
8. According to Locke [in many ways similar to today's libertarians], how does a material object become property in the first place? (176)
9. According to Locke, what is the primary purpose of government? (176-77)
Justice in General
10. State in complete sentences the following principles of distributive justice:
a. the fundamental or general (formal) principle (108)b. the egalitarian principle (109)
c. three capitalist/contributivist principles (111-12)
d. the "socialist" principle (113-15)
John Rawls' Theory of Justice
11. What are Rawls' two principles?
12. How do they combine other ideas of distributive justice? (116-118)
13. What does Rawls mean by "the Original Position"? (What sort of persons are in the O.P.? How are they imagined to be motivated?) What does Rawls mean by "the Veil of Ignorance"? How does this "veil" relate to the O.P.?) (118-19)
15. What do persons in the O.P. know? (See John Rawls on Justice.)
16. Why would persons in the O.P. choose the Principle of Equal Liberty? What is sometimes called the Difference Principle, i.e., the stem of the second principle plus (a)? the Equal Opportunity Principle, i.e., the stem of the second principle plus (b)? (119)
17. How do utilitarians argue against Rawls' theory? (120)
18. What advantages does Rawls' theory of justice have, according to its defenders? (120)
Utilitarianism
19. Define utilitarianism (75).
20. State the utilitarian principle (76).
21. How is it like ethical egoism? How unlike? (See chart on consequentialism.)
22. Why might utilitarianism be recommended as a general approach to ethical decision-making? (77-78)
23. How does Bentham's version of utilitarianism differ from the kind of utilitarianism that measures preferences? (Lecture)
24. What considerations might provide a reasonable basis for rejecting, at least sometimes, the use of utilitarianism as an approach to ethical decision-making? (78-80, 83-85)
Care Ethics
25. How is care theory different from, say, justice theories of ethics? (124)
26. What considerations shape our obligations, according to the care theory of ethics? (125)
27. With what conception of human nature does care theory operate? (126)
28. In what way is history important to care theory? (Interpretation of Malden Mills case.)
29. State some criticisms of care theory. (128-29)
Virtue Ethics
30. What are moral virtues? (135-36)
31. Given this definition, how do you think we should define "moral vices"? Moral virtues and moral vices are both character traits.
32. Relate the notion of moral virtue to reason and the emotions. (135-36)
33. Explain what is meant by saying that virtue is a middle ground. (135-36)
34. When, according to virtue ethics, is an act right? (139)
35. How can virtue theory be used to evaluate social institutions? (139)