Question Description

There are ten questions. Each question is worth 35 points. Try not to use more than 15 sentences for an answer.

1. Define what retributive justice is. Then define what procedural justice is. Then explain how Plato argues that procedural justice is better than, and important then, retributive justice.

2. It is important to Plato to make sure that giving each citizen what he or she is fairly owed is built into the Ideal City’s system of social justice – why does the Ideal City accomplish this aim?

3. Explain four good reasons, according to Plato, why his Aristocracy form of government provides more justice than the Democracy form of justice.

4. Explain how Plato’s theory of the Divided Line with its four parts corresponds to the Allegory of the Cave and its four key features.

5. Define what ‘dualism’ is. Then explain how Descartes proves that he knows for certain that he is a thinking mind, better than he knows that he has a body.

6. How does Descartes attempt to prove that a God must be real?

7. Explain why Kant believed that his Categorical Imperative, if used by everyone, would create a “Kingdom of Ends” where all humanity agrees on human rights.

8. Explain (with lots of details!) whether this maxim is morally right according to the Categorical Imperative: “I should let my friend help me cheat on this exam, so I can pass this class.”

9. Describe how John Stuart Mill uses his standard of Utilitarianism to uphold the idea that there is a “best” culture that advances human progress the most.

10. Define ‘cultural relativism’ and ‘cultural imperialism’. Then explain how Cosmopolitanism attempts to create a compromise between these two extreme positions.