These questions are taken from the wording of the specitication, meaning they could all actually come up in the exam. They are roughly sorted into easy, medium and hard.
Find revision notes for Ethics here.
Natural Law
Easy
Does natural law provide a helpful method of moral decision-making?
Assess Aquinas’s natural law ethics.
Medium
Can judging something as right or wrong be based on whether it achieves its telos?
Is reducing ethics to telos the best way to make moral decisions?
Does human nature have an orientation towards the good?
‘Ethics can be derived from human nature’ – Discuss
Assess Aquinas’ claim that there is a tier of natural law between human and divine.
How ethical are the primary precepts?
Are there any primary precepts?
Is there a moral law of God within human nature that is discoverable by reason?”
Is human nature a source of moral guidance?
Evaluate Aquinas’ view that human law should be related to the natural law.
“Human law should be based on the divine law” – Discuss
Hard
Is the universe designed with a telos?
How ethically valid is the doctrine of the double effect?
Does the doctrine of the double effect justify actions like killing in self-defence?
If human nature is sinful, can natural law theory work?
Analyse Aquinas’ four tiers of law.
“The eternal, divine and human laws are the only valid laws” – Discuss.
Critically assess Aquinas’ religious development of Aristotle’s concept of telos.
Very hard
“[Telos / the primary/secondary precepts / the key precept / the four tiers of law] are the most important part of natural law” – Discuss
Situation Ethics
Easy
‘Situation ethics provides a helpful method of moral decision-making’ – Discuss
Can judging something as right or wrong be based on the extent to which, in any given situation, agape is best served
“Any action can be good, so long as the result is love” – Discuss
Medium
Is Fletcher’s understanding of agape really religious?
Does Fletcher’s view of agape reduce to wanting the best for the person involved in a given situation rather than a religious view.
‘The rejection of absolute rules makes situation ethics entirely individualistic and subjective’ – Discuss.
Assess whether love should be the ruling norm in ethical decision-making.
Is love the only intrinsically good?
“If love is the end, that justifies the means” – Discuss
“With the guiding principle of agape, moral laws are an unnecessary burden” – Discuss
“Persons, not laws or anything else, are at the centre of ethics” – Discuss
“the laws of Christian ethics are relative” – Discuss
Hard
How successfully do Fletcher’s six propositions give rise to situation ethics?
“Fletcher’s four working principles should be applied to all moral actions” – Discuss.
Is conscience a verb or a noun?
Is Fletcher correct that conscience is a term the describes attempts to make decisions creatively?
“The laws of christian ethics cannot be relativised” – Discuss.
“Persons should be at the centre of ethics” – Discuss.
Does Fletcher have the most convincing theory of the conscience?
Very hard
“[Agape / The six propositions / The four working principles / conscience] is the most important part of situation ethics” – Discuss
Kantian Ethics
Easy
Does Kantian ethics provide a helpful method of moral decision-making?
Can judging something as right of wrong be based on the extent to which duty is best served?
Is ethics deontological?
Medium
‘Excluding empathy and love from moral decision making is wrong’ – Discuss.
Are categorical imperatives our duty?
“Moral action is based on whether a maxim can be estabished as a universal law” – Discuss.
Should we take a deontological and absolutist approach to ethics?
Should our moral framework require treating others as ends?
Are acts good in themselves regardless of consequences?
Hard
To what extent is Kantian ethics is too abstract to be applicable to practical moral decision-making?
Critically assess Kant’s view that the hypothetical imperative cannot be the imperative of morality.
Is Kant correct that consequences are irrelevant to the morality of an action?
“The three postulates must be accepted in obeying a moral command” – Discuss.
Does ethics require postulating the existence of freedom, immortality and God?
“Kantian ethics is overly reliant on reason” – Discuss.
“Kantian ethics unduly rejects the importance of sympathy, empathy and love in moral decision-making” – Discuss.
Should morality be based on hypothetical imperatives?
Does Kant succeed in showing that hypothetical imperatives are not the imperatives of morality?
“Consequences are irrelevant to moral decision-making” – Discuss.
“When obeying a moral command, we accept the existence of immortality” – Discuss
Would humanity’s highest ethical achievement be a kingdom of ends?
Evaluate Kant’s distinction between hypothetical and categorical imperatives.
Very hard
“[Duty / hypothetical / categorical imperatives / the first/second/third formulations / the three postulates] are the most important part of Kantian ethics” – Discuss
Utilitarianism
Easy
Does utilitarianism provide a helpful method of moral decision-making?
Can moral judgement be based on the extent to which, in any given situation, utility is best served?
Medium
Is it possible to measure good or pleasure and then reach a moral decision?
“The moral action is the one which has the greatest balance of pleasure over pain” – Discuss.
Is moral action a matter of following accepted laws that lead to the greatest balance of pleasure over pain?
Is an action morally justified if it produces the greatest amount of good over evil?
Assess whether rule utilitarianism successfully improves on act utilitarianism.
Critically compare act and rule utilitarianism
Hard
How morally valid is the hedonic calculus?
“Morality is not based on utility” – Discuss.
Should Utilitarianism aim to promote the greatest overall balance of good over evil or the greatest amount of good over evil?
“The morality of a law depends on the consequences of following it” – Discuss
Very hard
“[Utility, hedonic calculus, Act utilitarianism, Rule utilitarianism] are the most important part of utilitarianism” – Discuss
Euthanasia
Easy
Assess whether natural law is helpful for dealing with the issue of euthanasia
Assess whether situation ethics is helpful for dealing with the issue of euthanasia
‘euthanasia can be the loving choice in some situations’ – Discuss.
‘euthanasia goes against God’ – Discuss
Can euthanasia ever be justified?
To what extent is euthanasia morally good?
What determines the value of life?
Medium
Should a person have complete autonomy to choose euthanasia?
Is quality of life a basis on which euthanasia might be justified?
‘Life should never be ended because it is sacred’ – Discuss.
Can it ever be morally justifiable to end a person’s life without their consent?
Must human life possess certain attributes in order to have value?
Is euthanasia in the case of incurable illness morally justifiable?
“The sanctity of life trumps autonomy” – Discuss
What should we do with patients who are in a persistent vegetative state?
“A person’s life can be justifiably ended at their request” – Discuss
Is a secular approach best regarding euthanasia?
“Religious approaches to euthanasia are better than secular ones” – Discuss
Hard
“consent is the key factor in the ethics of euthanasia” – Discuss
‘The religious concept of sanctity of life has no meaning in twenty-first century medical ethics’ – Discuss
Is there a moral difference between euthanasia for incurable verses terminal illnesses?
Critically compare sanctity of life with autonomy as principles for judging the issue of euthanasia
Is there a moral difference between active and passive euthanasia?
Critically compare the morality of voluntary with non-voluntary euthanasia
“Non-voluntary euthanasia is the easiest type to justify” – Discuss
Business Ethics
Easy
How useful is utilitarianism in dealing with issues in business ethics?
Assess whether Kantian ethics applies successfully to business ethics
What does it take for business to be ethical?
Medium
Does the principle of utility lead to ethical business?
‘the categorical imperative leads to ethical business’ – Discuss.
Is Corporate social responsibility just ‘hypocritical window-dressing covering the greedy profit motive of business.
Can human beings flourish in the context of capitalism and consumerism?
Assess whether corporate social responsibility makes business ethical
To what extent is whistle-blowing ethical?
How successful is Kantian ethics at dealing with the issue of (CSR/Whistleblowing/Globalisation)?
How helpful is Utilitarianism at dealing with the issue of (CSR/Whistleblowing/Globalisation)?
“Employees have no rights” – Discuss
Hard
Assess whether globalisation encourages or discourages the pursuit of good ethics as the foundation of good business.
Is good ethics good business?
Should whistle-blowing be considered good ethical business practice?
How should a business treat its stakeholders?
What ethical significance do stakeholders have?
What does morality have to say about the contract between employee and employer?
Is profit-making moral?
Very hard
Is the integration of economies with markets a greater ethical issue with globalisation than its integration with policy-making?
Meta-ethics
Easy
Assess whether ethical terms such as good and bad have an objective factual basis that makes them true or false in describing something.
Do ‘good’ and ‘bad’ reflect only what is in the mind of the speaker?
Is the word ‘good’ meaningless?
‘Ethical naturalism is true’ – Discuss.
Assess intuitionism
Assess emotivism
Medium
Does common sense suggest that people just know within themselves what is good and bad?
“Values can be defined in terms of some natural property in the world” – Discuss.
“Basic moral truths are self-evident” – Discuss.
Can the word “good” be defined?
“Ethical terms evince approval or disapproval” – Discuss.
Hard
“What is meant by the word ‘good’ is the defining question in the study of ethics” – Discuss.
Very hard
Critically compare relativism with absolutism
How fully can emotivism be applied to relativism?
Is meta-ethics the most important topic in ethics?
Conscience
Easy
Critically compare Aquinas and Freud’s view of the conscience
Are the workings of God present in the conscience?
Medium
‘Freud makes more sense of the concept of guilt than Aquinas’ – Discuss.
Does a theological approach to conscience work better than a psychological approach?
Critically compare Aquinas and Freud’s views on the process of moral decision-making.
Whose voice is the voice of conscience?
Hard
Does conscience exist at all or is it an umbrella term for culture, environment, genetics and education?
Is conscience merely an umbrella term for the psychological factors involved in moral decision making?
Critically assess Freud’s psychosexual approach.
What are the consequences for our understanding of the conscience of our having instinctive impulses.
Is the conscience essentially the superego
“Conscience is separate from reason” – Discuss
“The conscience does not exist” – Disucss
Is culture the most important factor in accounting for the conscience?
Very hard
Does the feeling of guilt imply that there is one we feel guilty to?
Does Aquinas’ theory of the conscience actually need his distinction between vincible and invincible ignorance?
“[Ratio / synderesis / conscientia / vincible & invincible ignorance] are the most important part of Aquinas’ theory of the conscience” – Discuss
“[The Id/ The Ego / The super-ego / psychosexual development] is the most important part of Freud’s theory of the conscience” – Discuss
Sexual ethics
Easy
Are secular views on sexual ethics superior to traditional religious views?
‘Secular sexual ethics are an improvement on traditional religious views’ – Discuss
Assess religious views on sexual ethics
How useful is natural law in dealing with issues in sexual ethics?
How useful is situation ethics in dealing with issues in sexual ethics?
How useful is Kantian ethics in dealing with issues in sexual ethics?
How useful is utilitarianism in dealing with issues in sexual ethics?
Medium
Do religious views on sexual ethics have a continuing role today?
Are normative theories useful for issues within sexual ethics?
Should sexual behaviour be entirely private or a matter of public norms and legislation?
Assess Aquinas’ on sexual ethics
Should sexual ethics be judged based on the loving thing to do in each situation?
How successful is the categorical imperative applied to sexual ethics?
‘Issues in sexual ethics should be judged based on the principle of utility’ – Discuss.
Can premarital sex ever be ethical?
Can extramarital sex ever be ethical?
Can homosexuality ever be ethical?
Hard
To what extent are traditional religious views on sexual ethics relevant today?
‘Developments in religious views on sexual ethics have had a significant impact’ – Discuss.
Have religious view on sexual ethics changed for the better?