Study questions

Ethics: PHIL 202
Lecturer: Sandy Berkovski

Bilkent University
Spring 2026

1  Rawls.sensejustice

1. What is the connection between moral and natural attitudes?
2. What is the difference between the morality of authority and the moralities of association and principles?
3. What is the role of the precepts of authority in the child's primitive morality?
4. What is the role of the utilitarian principle in the sense of justice?
5. What is the role of the natural attitudes in the development of moral feelings?
6. What is the role of the art of perceiving the person of others in the interpretation of behavior?
7. What is the role of the ability to put oneself in another's place in the development of moral attitudes?
8. What is the role of abstract reasoning in the development of moral attitudes?
9. What is the role of exemplars in the development of moral feelings?
10. What is the role of the sentiment of justice in the ideal state of affairs?
11. What is the role of the aspiration to realize the ideal state of affairs in the natural sentiments?
12. What is the role of the full knowledge and experience of the ideal state of affairs in the rational human beings?
13. What is the role of the principles of justice in the morality of principles?
14. What is the role of the four-stage sequence in the understanding of the principles of justice?
15. What is the role of the attachment to particular individuals and communities in the morality of principles?
16. What is the role of the sense of justice in the acceptance of the principles of justice?

2  Haidt

1. Summarise the reasons given by the social intuitionist model for doubting the role of rationality in moral judgements.
2. Does this model declare reason irrelevant for moral judgement?
3. How does Hume's philosophy, according to Haidt, provide initial support for the social intuitionist model?
4. Outline Kohlberg's view of moral judgement.
5. What is the social interactionist model?
6. What are the principal differences between the social intuitionist and the social interactionist models?
7. What is moral dumbfounding?
8. What are the chief characteristics of the moral judgement, according to the social intuitionist model?
9. What is moral reasoning?
10. What is the contrast between reasoning and intuition?
11. Briefly explain each link in the social intuitionist model.
12. How does the social intuitionist model explain the possibility of moral change?
13. Under what conditions does is the moral judgement automatic? Under what conditions does it involve reasoning?
14. How does the social intuitionist model integrate the dual-processing heuristic system?
15. What are the biases in moral judgement?
16. Give examples illustrating post-hoc moral reasoning.
17. Does post-hoc reasoning rule out the possibility of rational moral disagreement?
18. How does the social intuitionist model interpret the causal mechanics of moral action?
19. What are the "gut feelings"?
20. What is the role of metaphor in intuitive reasoning?
21. In what sense, according to the social intuitionist model, are moral intuitions innate?
22. How does culture shape moral intuitions?
23. Give an example that illustrates the proposed integration of moral intuitionism and moral rationalism.

3  Greene

1. How to describe the debate between deontologists and consequentialists?
2. "Deontology and consequentialism are psychological natural kinds." Explain.
3. What does the Elder miss when he "misses the big picture" (38)?
4. What are the "characteristic judgements" of deontology and consequentialism?
5. What is the "hidden essence" of deontology?
6. In what sense is cognition behaviourally neutral?
7. What is the distinction between cognition and emotion?
8. How does Greene describe his disagreement with Haidt's views?
9. Describe the trolley and the footbridge dilemmas.
10. What are the traditional explanations of the different moral responses in the two cases?
11. What is Greene's explanation of these responses?
12. What are the two forms of violence implicit in Stalin's motto?
13. What is the neuroscientific evidence for the two forms of violence?
14. How does neuroscientific evidence account for response conflicts?
15. How do cognition and emotion elicit moral judgements, according to Greene?
16. How in general does Greene's account help to deal with Singer's dilemma?
17. What is the empirical evidence for Greene's account of that dilemma?
18. What are the two competing views of punishment?
19. What are people's most frequent responses to punishment dilemmas?
20. What is the role of outrage in these responses? How does it explain people's behaviour in ultimatum games?
21. Describe the different scenarios of "harmless crimes". Connect them to our earlier discussion of incest.
22. What are the factors likely influencing people's reactions to harmless crimes?
23. How does the earlier discussion of disgust connect to the problem of harmless crimes?