Chapter 2: Ethics from Antiquity to the Present

= Correct answer

Multiple Choice/Fill in the Blank

1. Ethics are the ________ to which we hold ourselves accountable in our professional and personal lives.

A. high-level manners

B. standards of behavior

C. utmost conduct

D. challenges in decision-making

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics, Application

1. As a form of philosophy, ethics was a major focus of ancient Athens leaders, including Aristotle, Socrates, and ________.

A. Pythagoras

B. Plato

C. Parmenides

D. Hippocrates

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Remember

AACSB: Ethics

1. Which of the following best exemplifies what Ancient Athenian ethicists believed?

A. Ethics applies solely to business decision-making.

B. Ethics is about what someone does.

C. Ethics is the guiding principle for dealing with others.

D. Ethics does not apply to the commerce and money.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Application

1. Virtue ethics is an ethical system based on the exercise of which virtues?

A. courage, decorum, and accountability

B. courage, honor, and loyalty

C. conscientiousness, honor, and accountability

D. courage, decency, and leadership

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics, Application

1. Which answer explains an aspect of teleology?

A. The goal of human beings is eudaimonia.

B. Happiness is attained through wealth.

C. The function of man is soulfulness.

D. Humans are genetically coded to be happy.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics

1. Which of the following are considered intellectual virtues? (Select all that apply.)

A. wisdom or sophíā

B. prudence or phronesis

C. eudaimonia or happiness

D. knowledge or epistḗmē

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Remember

AACSB: Ethics

1. How did Aristotle reconcile his distrust of business?

A. He viewed those outside economic and political circles as virtuous.

B. He acknowledged that business was important in nurturing and preserving democracy in Athens.

C. He believed one secures one’s own good outside of political science.

D. He thought money should only be allowed for those in trades.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Analyze

AACSB: Analytical

1. How do reason and control apply in a business context?

A. The culture of an organization requires a bottom-line mentality.

B. They bear directly on corporate culture, leadership, and management.

C. Strategic planning and wealth creation are virtue ethics.

D. Leadership is the guidepost for corporate change.

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Application

1. The basic unit of utilitarianism is a util, which acts as a ________.

A. management directive

B. monetary unit

C. harm principle

D. moral compass

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics

1. Which of the following describe John Rawls’s theory of justice? (Select all that apply.)

A. Maximizing wealth for everyone should be a goal.

B. Justice as fairness

C. The state is obliged to take care of the less advantaged.

D. Social contract theory deals with state autonomy.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Ethics, Application

1. The veil of ignorance ________.

A. increases bias and self-interest

B. is the condition of arriving at the original position without identity

C. is based on age, gender, education, income, ethnicity, or other characteristics

D. means that people are driven by instinct to be unfair

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Remember

AACSB: Ethics

1. Which of the following are conjectures or steps in justice theory? (Select all that apply.)

A. entering into and agreeing to the contract

B. including basic conditions in and ensuring stability of the contract

C. maximizing the welfare of all individuals and ensuring the government is fair

D. maximizing the welfare of the most disadvantaged individuals

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Analytical, Ethics

1. What is Rawls’s critique of utilitarianism?

A. The majority should prevail over the minority.

B. Anything done through coercion or force is acceptable.

C. A utility calculus can lead to tyranny.

D. There is no problem with redistribution.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Application, Ethics

1. How have Rawls’s principles of redistribution been challenged by other theorists? Select the best answer.

A. Redistribution of goods and services is made fair by community’s agreement.

B. Justice is clear about the circumstances in which services and goods are redistributed.

C. The notion of fairness is, indeed, innate.

D. The power of the state may not ethically deprive someone of rightful property.

Difficulty: Difficult

Blooms: Analyze, Evaluate

AACSB: Analytical, Application

1. The advantage of justice theory over other ethical systems is its ________.

A. implementation of values

B. set of cultural norms

C. methodology for arriving at the truth

D. emphasis on method as opposed to content

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Reflection

1. Which of the following best describes managerial ethics?

A. a way of relating to self and community that balances individual responsibility

B. a way of relating to employees and the organization that balances collective responsibility

C. a way of relating to self, employees, and the organization that balances individual and collective responsibility

D. a way of relating to stakeholders, the environment, and self that balances individual and collective responsibility

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Interpersonal, Ethics

1. A junzi is ________. (Select all that apply.)

A. a flourishing human being

B. a person who is gracious, cultured, and prudent

C. a person who is gracious, cultured, and magnanimous

D. a person focused on fairness, decency, and the greater good

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics, Application

1. Which statement best describes the golden mean in Aristotelian virtue ethics?

A. It is the aim of ethical justice.

B. It is the aim of ethical conduct for those in leadership.

C. It is a value between deficiency and ethics.

D. It is a value of freedom for mutual safety and benefit.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics, Analytical

1. Which of the following describe original position? (Select all that apply.)

A. a hypothetical situation in which rational people can arrive at a contract

B. a real-life situation in which people consider a moral dilemma

C. how to quickly arrive at a solution when there is a moral dilemma

D. how to distribute resources fairly and evenly

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Ethics, Application

1. The concept that preventing harm is the only purpose for which the state’s power can be justly used is called ________.

A. justice as fairness

B. the unanimity of acceptance

C. the harm principle

D. the veil of ignorance

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Remember

AACSB: Ethics

1. According to Kantian ethics, how should the story Les Misérables best be understood?

A. Valjean is guilty as charged for stealing bread and should be incarcerated.

B. Extenuating circumstances need to be considered for empirical reasons.

C. Valjean’s motives and duty to his sister act as ends justifying means.

D. Valjean’s action was unethical, although perhaps not illegal.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Evaluate

AACSB: Ethics, Application, Reflection

1. Morality, as considered by Kant, ________.

A. leads people to treat others as a means to an end

B. means supporting dogmatic rationality

C. is an unattainable goal of perfect virtue

D. embraces freedom and a sense of divinity

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Remember

AACSB: Ethics

1. An action is ethical if it is ________. (Select all that apply.)

A. grounded in good will

B. provides for the greater good of personal achievement

C. provides more for others than one’s self

D. is grounded in reality and interpretation

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Analyze, Evaluate

AACSB: Application, Analytical, Ethics

1. Which is the best example of a recent company crisis caused by poor leadership?

A. Pizzagate

B. Stark Industries

C. Uber

D. Cyberdyne Systems

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Real-world

1. Why does a Kantian view typically not govern most management decisions?

A. People are a means to an end and need to be managed.

B. Individuals are human resources, a thought that reflects virtue ethics.

C. Individuals are the sum total of reactions to stimuli.

D. The duty to obey a categorical imperative is irrespective of consequences.

Difficulty: Difficult

Blooms: Application

AACSB: Real-world

1. Which of the following best describes how unconditioned ethics is a challenge to a global organization?

A. a domestic organization dealing with lobbyists and local political interests

B. a global organization dealing with suppliers and multiculturalism

C. a domestic organization dealing with governmental licensing

D. a global organization dealing with nongovernmental organizations and cross-border morality

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics, Analytical

True/False

1. True or false? Laws and regulations set the maximum standards by which society lives out ethical norms.

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics

1. True or false? Athenian philosophical theories of ethics are no longer applicable in contemporary times.

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Recall

AACSB: Ethics

1. True or false? Virtue emphasizes the formation of character.

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics

1. True or false? Individuals, in Aristotle’s view, are the most basic ethical unit.

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Remember

AACSB: Ethics

1. True or false? For utilitarianism, the intent of the actors and how humanely people are treated are the determining factors.

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Analytical, Ethics

1. True or false? An application of Rawls’s justice theory results in business ethics being the duty of a corporate compliance or ethics department.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Application, Real-world

1. True or false? Quan, in the context of a moral dilemma, means a practical consideration of the relative rightness of options.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Analytical, Application

1. True or false? A Kantian simplistic understanding of ethics prevails over utilitarianism in today’s business world because the former is more pragmatic.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Ethics, Application

1. True or false? Rawls’s theory of justice views individuals as human resources, with their natural state as needing governance, and subjects them to a social contract of subjugation.

Difficulty: Difficult

Blooms: Evaluate

AACSB: Analytical, Application

Short Answer

1. Explain how ethics and law can be both the same and different.

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Understand, Apply

AACSB: Analytical

1. What is the relationship between law and ethics? Provide at least two contemporary business examples of how an act can be legal yet unethical.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Evaluate

AACSB: Application, Real-world

1. How are the insights of Greek philosophers relevant today?

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Evaluate

AACSB: Application

1. What are moral virtues as identified by Aristotle? Please provide several examples and explain how they are manifested, as well as how they are distinct from intellectual virtues.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Analyze

AACSB: Ethics, Application

1. Explain how the principles and steps of Rawls’s justice theory relate to justice in contemporary business. Provide examples.

Difficulty: Difficult

Blooms: Evaluate

AACSB: Analytical, Real-world

1. Why is the Theranos case an issue of ethics?

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Evaluate

AACSB: Application, Real-world

1. Evaluate the Fat Leonard scandal and discuss how it was far reaching.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Analyze

AACSB: Application, Real-world

1. What are some of the ethical lessons learned from the Samsung smartphone explosions?

Difficulty: Difficult

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Application, Real-world

1. What is one of the most important aspects of John Rawls’s political philosophy?

Difficulty: Easy

Blooms: Understand

AACSB: Ethics

1. Explain how the veil of ignorance has progressed from historical philosophers to John Rawls.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Reflection, Ethics

1. How does utilitarianism justify the same principles as Rawls does in A Theory of Justice?

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Application, Ethics

1. Challenge Rawls’s theory of the veil of ignorance. Provide an explanation to the contrary of justice theory, from a business perspective.

Difficulty: Difficult

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Application, Ethics

1. How does utilitarianism apply in business, and does this secure an ethical outcome? Provide examples of situations where such an outlook has had negative consequences.

Difficulty: Difficult

Blooms: Analyze

AACSB: Real-world

1. Compare the virtues ethics of the west and the east.

Difficulty: Moderate

Blooms: Evaluation

AACSB: Application

1. Explain your opinion as to whether a crime can ever be overlooked because the offending act was for the greater good of others. Provide an example of when this might be the case, following a philosophical perspective.

Difficulty: Difficult

Blooms: Apply

AACSB: Analytical, Application

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