MEJO 141 Final Exam Review UPDATED
Actual Exam Questions and CORRECT
Answers
Aristotle's Golden Mean - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔- Happiness (flourishing) is the
ultimate good
- The ultimate good can be achieved by exercising "virtue"
- Virtue is the mean between two extremes
- Virtue is relative to situation
- Golden Mean: The golden mean or golden middle way is the desirable middle between two,
one of excess and the other of deficiency
Plato and Aristotle Picture - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔- Plato's right hand pointing to the
heavens and Aristotle's hand gesturing down to earth
- Plato is carrying his book Timaeus, a sophisticated treatment of space, time, and change,
including the Earth, which guided mathematical sciences for over millennium
- Int he painting Aristotle carries his Ethics, which he denied could be reduced to a
mathematical science
- Aristotle, with his four elements theory, held that all change on Earth was owing to motions
of the heavens
- Plato's philosophy was abstract and utopian
- Aristotle's approach was empirical, practical, and commonsensical
Golden Mean Examples - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Deficiency (cowardly, lethargic,
secretive, apathetic)
Excess
(Reckless, selfish, blatant, insensitive)
Balance
(Courageous, industrious, honest, empathetic)
Patterson Intro to Ethical Decision Making - Aristotles Golden Mean - CORRECT
ANSWER- ✔✔For Aristotle, the highest virtue was citizenship, and its highest practitioner
,the statesman, a politician who exercised so much practical wisdom in his daily activity that
he elevated the craft of politics to art
Golden mean (Media Application) - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔- Instead of totally banning
all tobacco advertising or deciding not to regulate it at all, the FTC chose a middle ground
- The FTC banned cig ads from TV and required that warning labels be included in print ads
on cigarette packs
Immanuel Kant's Categorical - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔- Act as if the choices you make
could become universal law
- Treat each individual as an end and never as merely a means ("Do unto others as you would
have others do unto you")
- Ethics is absolute and lies in the act not individual
- Categorical Imperative: an unconditional moral obligation which is binding in all
circumstances and is not dependent on a person's inclination or purpose
Categorical Imperative: - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔For Kant moral acts are duty and must
be carried out at all time regardless of situation
- Strict duties: Not to murder, not to lie, not to break promise
- Meritorious duties: Help others, show gratitude, develop one's talents
Categorical Imperative Media Applications - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔- Journalists can
never lie or invade someone's right to privacy to get a story
- Deception by advertisers to sell a product is always wrong
- Dishonesty in public relations is never right even if telling the truth hurts the company's
reputation
Categorical Imperative (Kant) - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Kant teaches the Categorical
Imperative, which encourages people to act as if what they do will become a universal law
Utilitarianism - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔- Happiness (pleasure) or absence of pain is the
only moral end
- The consequences of actions are important in deciding whether they are ethical
, - Utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that promotes actions that maximize
happiness and well-being for all affected individuals
- the most moral acts are those which maximize happiness (pleasure) for the most number of
people and minimize pain
- In Utilitarianism, the outcome determines whether an act is moral "the need of the many
outweigh the few"
Utilitarianism Media Applications - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔The Principle of Utility
would suggest that it's acceptable to lie to get a story if it results in the greater good for
society, that is if more people are helped by uncovering the information than are hurt by the
lie to get the information
Principle of Utility - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔Mill teaches the Principle of Utility, which
seeks the greatest good for the greatest number of people
Ethical or Value Pluralism - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔- Good is an objective quality
- Right is an action derived from correct reasoning
- A right action may, or may not, be good
- A right action is our duty
- Ethical pluralism (also known as value pluralism or moral pluralism) is the idea that there
are several values which may be equally correct and fundamental, and yet in conflict with
each other
Ethical or Value Pluralism - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔- Prima Facie ["at first appearance"]:
Duties that seem right because of the nature of the act : returning a found wallet
- Duty Proper: Duties that are paramount and should be carried out given the circumstances :
fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, beneficence, self improvement, and not harming others
Prima facie principles - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔- the four prima facie principles are
respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice
- Prima facie approach: English philosopher W.D. Ross introduced the "Prima facie," [at first
appearance] the principle as binding unless it conflicts with another moral principle. If it does
we have to choose among them.
- This approach presents a common set of moral commitments, a common moral language,
and a common set of moral issues to choose between these principles when they conflict
