Problem
A. Why do contemporary philosophers (believers and nonbelievers alike) think that the problem of evil poses a particularly strong challenge to theism? Using examples, explain why all three of the main responses do not seem to answer the problem even if they are correct.
B. Describe what classical utilitarianism proposes as a criterion for determining whether or not an action is morally right. What factors must be considered in order to determine (or calculate) whether an action is right? Give two objections to classical utilitarianism.
C. Immanuel Kant claimed that our moral obligations derive from a rule that every rational being must accept. What is that rule? Give at one example of how to apply it and one objection to using this rule to determine whether an action is morally permissible.
D. Immanuel Kant gave a new twist to an old theory about the justification of punishment. In general, what kind of justification of punishment does Kant offer? What sorts of justifications of punishment are not open to Kant? What are the two principles that Kant says punishment should be based upon? The new twist Kant offers relates his justification of punishment to the rule that he says every rational being must accept (the rule in the other Kant essay question). What is this new twist?
E. Some contemporary philosophers have argued that traditional normative ethical theories like those developed by Kant and the utilitarians are bankrupt because they focus on questions that should not be considered central to ethics. These philosophers suggest that we return an older conception of ethics-virtue ethics. Proponents of virtue ethics claim that certain features of ethics are better accounted for on virtue ethics than on these traditional theories. What are those features? Give an example of how virtue ethics accounts for each of these features (give examples corresponding to the three features).
F. Explain how social contract theory assumes that any moral duties that a person has stem only from a duty to look out for one's own self-interest. Then provide two objections to social contract theory that arise from this assumption and explain why they arise from it.
G. How do we determine which rules members of any society are obliged to follow, according social contract theory? How does social contract theory explain why breaking unjust laws is morally acceptable?
H. Do animals have rights? Explain what the implications of utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and social contract theory are for animal rights and why each of these theories has that implication.