Moral Issues in Business, 13th Edition Test Bank

Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 1. Consequentialism a. is best represented by Ross’s theory of ethics. b. states that sometimes the consequences of our actions can be morally relevant. c. states that the moral rightness of an action is determined solely by its results. d. differs from nonconsequentialism because nonconsequentialism denies that consequences have any moral significance. ANSWER: c POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 56 2. If you adopt egoism as your moral code, then a. you can never act honestly or be gracious or helpful to others. b. you must endorse hedonism. c. you must always avoid any unpleasant or painful experiences. d. you believe that it is morally right to do whatever promotes your best interest. ANSWER: d POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 57 3. According to the text, psychological egoism a. is derived from alleged fact that human beings are by nature selfish creatures. b. is the same principle of morality as ethical egoism. c. is the view that the best way to promote our own self-interest is to sometimes be selfish. d. is based on hedonism. ANSWER: a POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 58 4. Which of the following represents a utilitarian belief? a. We must always support what most people want, i.e., by majority rule. b. We should bring about the most happiness for everyone affected by our actions. c. We should concern ourselves only with the immediate results of our actions. d. We must always disregard our own happiness when deciding what to do. ANSWER: b POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 60 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 1 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 5. According to act utilitarianism, an action is morally right if and only if a. it makes the person who does it happy. b. everyone prefers that action to any other action. c. it maximizes total, net happiness. d. it brings only happiness and causes no pain. ANSWER: c POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 61 6. Utilitarians believe that a.knowledge, friendship, and aesthetic satisfaction are intrinsically valuable (or inherently good). b we can predict with certainty the future consequences of our actions. . c.an action that leads to unhappiness is morally right if any other action that you could have performed instead would have brought about even more unhappiness. d an action can’t be right if the people who are made happy by it are outnumbered by the people who are made . unhappy by it. ANSWER: c POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 61 7. Which of the following considerations about utilitarism is correct? a. The great 19th century utilitarians, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, believed that pleasure and happiness were different things. b. Bentham was concerned with the quantity of pleasure that an action produces, not with distinctions based on the type of the pleasure. c. Act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism consistently agree upon which actions are morally right. d. Utilitarians believe that we can’t compare one person’s happiness with that of another. ANSWER: b POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 60 8. The case of the “death-bed promise” shows that a. utilitarianism may lead to conclusions that conflict with our ordinary ideas of right and wrong. b. keeping your promises never maximizes happiness. c. it was wrong to have made the promise in the first place. d. utilitarianism reduces effectively to egoism in practice. ANSWER: a POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 64 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 2 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 9. Utilitarianism is appealing as a standard for moral decision making in business. Which of the following provides a reason for this? a. Utilitarianism provides an objective way of resolving conflicts of self-interest. b. Utilitarianism provides a rigid approach to moral decision making. c. Utilitarianism provides a fuzzy standard for formulating and testing policies. d. Utilitarianism gives us firm rules to follow, rules that don’t permit exceptions. ANSWER: a POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 62 10. Which of the following is true regarding Immanuel Kant’s beliefs? a. He defended a consequentialist theory of right and wrong. b. He believed that all duties are prima facie duties. c. He believed that moral principles rest on empirical data, on observation and experiment. d. He believed that reason by itself can reveal the basic principles of morality. ANSWER: d POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 66 11. According to Kant a. good will is the only thing that is good in itself. b. an action has moral worth if it is consistent with the categorical imperative. c. only actions based on feeling or sentiment have moral worth. d. a self-interested person can never do the right action. ANSWER: a POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 68-69 12. Imagine a shopkeeper who is honest because being honest is good for business. When the shopkeeper refrains from cheating a customer, Kant would say this action a. was wrong because its motive was impure. b. was in accordance with duty, but not done from duty. c. displayed a high level of moral worth. d. shows that he was following the categorical imperative. ANSWER: b POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 68-69 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 3 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 13. “If you want to go to law school, then you must take the LSAT exam.” This statement is an example of a. the transcendental imperative. b. the categorical imperative. c. a hypothetical imperative. d. irrational behavior. ANSWER: c POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 71 14. Kant believed that we should always act a. in such a way that we can will the maxim of our action to be a local law. b. in a way that treats success as an end in itself, never merely as means. c. in a way that would be universally unacceptable to all rational beings. d. in a way that moral beings give the moral law. ANSWER: d POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 71 15. According to W. D. Ross’s theory a. a prima facie obligation is absolute and can never be overridden. b. what we should do in any specific set of circumstances will always be self-evident. c. it would be wrong to lie to a murderer even to save the life of a friend. d. we have various moral duties that can’t be reduced to a single, overarching obligation. ANSWER: d POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 73 16. Nonconsequentialists like Ross believe that a. we have no obligation to promote general welfare. b. utilitarianism doesn’t require us to sacrifice as much as we should to help other people. c. morality permits each of us a sphere in which to pursue our own plans and goals. d. people’s so-called “moral rights” are unimportant when determining the right course of action. ANSWER: c POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 73-77 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 4 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 17. Supererogatory actions are a. actions that are normally wrong to do, but can sometimes be right. b. actions that it would be good to do but not immoral not to do. c. actions that we are morally required to do, all things considered. d. actions that are wrong even though they produce some good. ANSWER: b POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 74 18. The statement that best defines rights is a. all moral rights are legal rights. b. a negative right is a right to receive certain benefits. c. a right is an entitlement to act or to have others act in a certain way. d. all moral rights are human rights. ANSWER: c POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 74 19. Which of the following statements is true regarding human rights? a. Human rights are equal rights; if X is a human right, then everyone has this right. b. Human rights are transferable and thus “alienable”. c. Human rights rest on particular roles and special relationships. d. Human rights are not natural but are always grounded in a specific legal or political system. ANSWER: a POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 75 20. Rule utilitarians a. believe that the optimal moral code will not normally produce 100% compliance. b. believe that the optimal moral code would consist of only one rule, namely, always act so as to maximize happiness. c. assume that everyone will always follow the rules, all the time. d. believe that an action is wrong if it fails to maximize happiness. ANSWER: a POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 78 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 5 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 21. For those who are trying to make moral decisions a. it is impossible to make progress on controversial ethical issues unless everyone shares the same moral theory. b. endorsing a moral principle doesn’t require you to apply it in all similar situations. c. moral judgments don’t have to be related to some general moral principles. d. in a moral discussion, clarifying the facts and spelling out the principles to which people are appealing can help us to reach a solution. ANSWER: d POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 80 22. A practical basis for discussing moral issues involves taking account of a. effects, ideals, and obligations. b. effort, duties, and organization. c. compassion, intellect, and patience. d. compliance, contribution, and consequences. ANSWER: a POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 80 23. The only accurate statement about consequentalism is: a. Utilitarianism is a nonconsequentialist ethical theory. b. Utilitarianism is an egoistic normative theory. c. Consequentialism says that the moral rightness of an action is determined solely by its results. d. Nonconsequentialists deny that consequences have any moral significance. ANSWER: c POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 76 24. A key idea of Immanuel Kant’s ethical theory is that: a. all duties are prima facie duties. b. the moral permissibility of our actions depends entirely upon their consequences. c. we should treat people as ends in themselves, never merely as means. d. only pleasure has intrinsic value. ANSWER: c POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 70 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 6 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 25. Which of the following is true regarding utilitarian beliefs? a. Utilitarians wish to maximize happiness not simply immediately, but in the long run as well. b. Utilitarians contend that we can determine with certainty what the future consequences of our present actions will be. c. When choosing among possible actions, utilitarianism requires us to disregard our own happiness. d. For the hedonistic utilitarian, knowledge, friendship, and aesthetic satisfaction are inherently good. ANSWER: a POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 74 26. Adam Smith made the point that individual pursuit of self-interest (egoistic conduct), even when subject to rules and constraints, always undermines the utilitarian goal of producing the most good for all. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 65-66 27. Rule utilitarianism applies the utilitarian standard, not to individual actions, but to moral codes as a whole. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 78 28. When a utilitarian like Jeremy Bentham advocates “the greatest happiness for the greatest number,” we must consider unhappiness or pain as well as happiness. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 60 29. The connection between rights and duties is that, generally speaking, if you have a right to do something, then someone else has a correlative duty to act in a certain way. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 74-75 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 7 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 30. According to Immanuel Kant, moral reasoning is based on factual knowledge. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 66 31. According to Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, pleasure is the one thing that is intrinsically good or worthwhile. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 60-61 32. The rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights are positive rights, not negative rights. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 75 33. According to W. D. Ross, we have immediate intuitive knowledge of the basic prima facie moral obligations/principles. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 77 34. Richard Brandt defends a form of act utilitarianism. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 78 35. All moral rights are legal rights. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 75 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 8 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 36. By “maxim,” Immanuel Kant meant the subjective principle of an action, the principle that people in effect formulate in determining their conduct. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 67 37. In ethics normative theories propose some principle or principles for distinguishing right actions from wrong actions. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 78 38. Nonconsequentialist theories of ethics never consider the consequences of an action or rule when making a moral judgment. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 79 39. The view that associates morality with self-interest is egoism. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 57 40. Egoists only do what they feel like doing. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 57 41. Ethical egoism says that human beings are, as a matter of fact, so constructed that they must behave selfishly. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 58 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 9 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 42. Jeremy Bentham thought that a community is no more than the individuals who compose it and that the interests of the community are simply the sum of the interests of its members. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 60 43. One feature about utilitarianism that makes it appealing as a standard for moral decisions in business and nonbusiness organizations is that it provides a clear and straightforward basis for formulating and testing policies. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 62 44. According to Adam Smith, if business is left to pursue its self-interest, the good of society will be compromised and harmed. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 65 45. Immanuel Kant believed that it is only when we act out of feeling or sentiment that our actions have moral worth. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 66-68 46. A hypothetical imperative tells us to act as we would want everyone to act in that situation. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 68 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 10 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 47. Immanuel Kant believed that prostitution was immoral because, by selling their sexual services, prostitutes allow themselves to be treated as only a means to an end. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 71 48. A prima facie obligation is an obligation that can be overridden by a more important obligation. a. True b. False ANSWER: True POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 72-73 49. A supererogatory act is an act that would be good not to do to, but doing it is not absolutely wrong. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 74 50. W. D. Ross denied that we have immediate, intuitive knowledge of the basic prima facie obligations. a. True b. False ANSWER: False POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 73 51. What is the difference between legal rights and moral rights and between negative rights and positive rights? ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 74-75 52. According to Kant, when does an action have moral worth? ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 79-80 53. What is the difference between the categorical imperative and a hypothetical imperative? ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 68 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 11 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 54. State two alternative formulations of Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative. What are these two formulations? ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 70 55. Identify two forms of ethical egoism. What are these two forms and how do they differ from one another? ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 58-62 56. What is a prima facie obligation? ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 72-73 57. Human rights have at least four important characteristics. What are these characteristics of human rights? ANSWER: See referenced pages POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 74-75 58. Explain one of the three criticisms of utilitarianism.. ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 80-81 59. What is the difference between egoism as an ethical theory and psychological egoism? ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 58 60. According to Immanuel Kant, lying is never morally permissible. Why does he believe this? ANSWER: See referenced page. POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 62 61. Give a real life example of how obligations, ideals, and effects can be in conflict. Explain how to give resolution to this conflict. ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 80-82 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 12 Name: Class: Date: Chapter 2 – Normative Theories of Ethics 62. Choose two theories of ethics from the reading and explain how you would properly apply them to the “Hacking into Harvard” case on pages 86 and 87. ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Page 83 63. How would the six points of utilitarianism be applied to “The Ford Pinto” case to come to a proper resolution? ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 61-62 Pages 85-87 64. Choose a current day problem in business ethics and explain how Hare’s approach could be used to solve it. ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 90-96 65. Based on the reading, “When is “Everybody’s Doing It” a moral justification?, “ is ever an occasion when it is morally acceptable to follow others though some would say it is wrong? Justify your answer either way. ANSWER: See referenced page POINTS: 1 REFERENCES: Pages 90-104 Copyright Cengage Learning. Powered by Cognero. Page 13