Use this free practice quiz with 20 questions to review 03/10 Consequentialist Ethics, test your knowledge, and prepare for your next test or exam.
A relief organization can use its limited medicine either to give ten people small but significant benefits or to give one person a larger benefit. According to act consequentialism, what should determine which option is morally right?
Choose the action required by an absolute rule, regardless of its effects.
Choose the action that best expresses the agent's personal character.
Choose the action with the best overall consequences among the available alternatives.
Choose the action that benefits the decision-maker's own group most.
True or false: Under classical utilitarian impartiality, a stranger's equally serious injury should not count for less than a friend's injury merely because the stranger is unfamiliar.
True
False
What is the name of the consequentialist approach that asks which rules would produce the best consequences if generally accepted and followed?
A consequentialist evaluates an outcome by asking whether people get what they rationally or informedly want. Which theory of welfare is being used?
Hedonism
Preference satisfaction
Objective-list theory
Quantitative hedonism
In consequentialist theories of welfare, holds that welfare consists in pleasure and the absence of pain.
Which three steps belong in the structured consequentialist procedure described in the material? Select all correct choices.
Identify realistic available options.
Ignore effects on future people because they are not currently present.
Identify direct and indirect affected parties.
Consider indirect and long-term consequences.
True or false: The demandingness objection claims that strict consequentialism can turn substantial sacrifices of money, time, comfort, or personal opportunities into moral obligations whenever those sacrifices would produce more welfare.
True
False
What term describes the claim that the value of an outcome does not depend on whether it benefits the decision-maker, a loved one, or a stranger?
A policy increases the total amount of welfare but lowers the average welfare per person because it increases the population. Which approach would favor the outcome with the greater total amount of value?
Total consequentialism
Average consequentialism
Prioritarianism
Egalitarianism
Consequentialist theories that give extra weight to benefits received by people who are worse off are called .
Which three responses can a consequentialist give to the objection that strict act consequentialism requires impossible calculations in complex situations? Select all correct choices.
Rely on rules of thumb when they are more reliable than detailed calculation.
Use moral education and institutions to guide action.
Ignore uncertainty and assume every consequence can be predicted precisely.
Use established practices when they are reliable ways of producing good results.
Apply consequentialist reasoning to this case: a counselor learns that a client may seriously injure another person. Explain how a consequentialist should analyze whether to maintain confidentiality, warn the potential victim, or contact authorities, and identify the assumptions that would affect the conclusion.
Which scenario best illustrates the justice and rights objection to consequentialism?
The theory cannot evaluate policies or institutions.
The theory requires all pleasures to be bodily pleasures.
The theory may permit violating rights or punishing an innocent person for greater overall benefits.
The theory gives no role to probability or long-term effects.
According to act consequentialism, when is a particular action morally right?
An action is right when it follows the agent’s strongest personal commitment.
An action is right when it produces consequences at least as good as those of the available alternatives.
An action is right when it conforms to the most widely accepted tradition.
An action is right when it is performed from a sense of duty, regardless of its effects.
What question is central to rule consequentialism?
Which rule is most traditional in the agent’s society?
Which rule is easiest for individuals to follow in every situation?
Which rules would have the best consequences if generally accepted and followed?
Which rule gives decision-makers the greatest personal freedom?
Which claim best expresses Mill’s qualitative hedonism?
Some pleasures may be more valuable because of their quality, not merely their quantity.
All pleasures have exactly the same value if they last equally long.
Only physical pleasure contributes to welfare.
Pleasure is irrelevant unless it benefits the person who acts.
A hospital can prevent one equally serious injury to a close friend or two equally serious injuries to strangers. Assuming all other factors are equal, which judgment best reflects strict impartial consequentialism?
A decision-maker may always favor close relationships over strangers.
Only the interests of people in the decision-maker’s community count equally.
Strangers’ interests count only when no friend or relative is affected.
Comparable interests should receive comparable weight regardless of personal relationship.
True or false: A consequentialist must perform a detailed calculation of every consequence before every action in order to apply the theory.
True
False
What term names the consequentialist idea that the value of an outcome does not depend on whether it benefits the decision-maker, a loved one, or a stranger?
What consequentialist approach gives extra weight to benefits received by people who are worse off?