PHIL 150C1 Spring 2022 midterm exam
Date and time
The midterm exam will occupy our regularly scheduled class on Friday 8th April.
If you can’t be in class that day because you have another University-sanctioned activity, you must send me your Dean’s Excuse by Wednesday 6th April, and I will arrange for you to take the exam at another time.
If you can’t take the exam in class because you need more than fifty minutes and this has been pre-approved by DRC, you must contact me to arrange this by Wednesday 6th April, and I will arrange for you to take the exam at another time.
If you can’t be in class that day because of illness, you must e-mail me as soon as you become ill and you must address your e-mail to both me and to the Dean of Students,
<DOS-deanofstudents@email.arizona.edu>. This is in conformity with the most recent University-wide class absence policy.E-mails stating that you cannot attend because you are ill which are not addressed to both me and the Dean of Students will not count.
No other reasons for not sitting the exam along with everyone else will be accepted. The date for the midterm has been on the syllabus since the start of the semester; you must plan around it.
If you miss the exam and do not fall into one of the categories described above, or in any case you request a make-up exam after the regular exam has already occurred, you will get a zero as your score for the exam.
Equipment
You must bring a blue book, as purchased at the UA BookStore, and it must have no writing in it. I will swap your blue book for one of mine.
If you do not bring a blue book, you will two choices. Either you can walk over to the BookStore and buy one and then return to sit the exam, or you can wait until 12:20pm. At that point I will hand out the spare blue books I have, and you will have to sit the exam in less time than everyone else.
Format
The exam is closed-book.
Write in ink not pencil.
There are seven possible exam questions, listed below.
For the exam, I will select four of them.
You must write answers to two of them.
Thus, you must prepare answers to at least five questions. We will talk about how to do this in class.
Your two essays should be the same style as the essay you wrote at home on Gorgias. There are only three differences:
the essays will be shorter, obviously
no assessment, evaluation or opinions; just explanation
when grading, I will not pay attention to grammar and spelling, so long as I can still understand what you meant.
If you have questions about the material, attend my office hours to discuss it. I will not be able to help you by e-mail.
Questions
I will write the numbers of four questions on the whiteboard. You must answer two of those four, in fifty minutes—not any of the others. Most people should write approx. 500 words for each answer.
If you answer both question 5 and question 6, you must be careful not to repeat material, as you can only get credit once. For example, you can’t discuss alienation in significant detail in your answer to question 5 unless you don’t answer question 6 at all.
What is Hobbes’s argument that the state of nature would be a state of war of all against all? Explain Hobbes’s thesis and his argument to establish that thesis.
Be sure to include: What does Hobbes mean by “state of nature” or “natural condition”? What is the sense of “war”? In what sense does he think people are equal? What are the other sources of war? What is his theory of human motivation, and how does it support the argument?
How does Hobbes think we can escape the state of nature, and what is life like in the Hobbesian commonwealth? Why does Hobbes thinks is has to be that way?
Be sure to include: What is the Hobbesian social contract, and what is the Hobbesian commonwealth? How do we form them? Who and who isn’t is party to the contract, and why? What powers does the sovereign have? Why is sovereignty to be both unlimited and undivided? Why may the sovereign limit freedom of expression and religion? Why can’t the sovereign ever treat his citizens unjustly? Why don’t property rights, or law, limit the sovereign? Why does Hobbes think that separate branches of government are a bad idea?
Locke thinks that one is only obligated to comply with the laws of a society if one has consented to be a member of that society. Explain this thesis and Locke’s arguments for it.
Be sure to include: What does Locke mean by “state of nature”? What are the natural rights and duties of persons? How do we know about those? In that sense does Locke thinks we are equals? How, then, can someone legitimately tell someone else what to do, according to Locke? What is the relevant notion of consent – explicit, or tacit? Explain each of these.
When does Hume think justice is a virtue, and when is it not a virtue? Explain his thesis and arguments.
Be sure to include: What is a virtue? When does Hume think things are virtues? What does Hume mean by “justice”? Why does Hume think that the status of justice as a virtue depends on our actual circumstances (contra Rawls)? When is it a virtue, and why? When is it not a virtue, and why? What is the source of our appreciation for justice?
Compare and contrast Smith and Marx’s conceptions of capitalism and its division of labour, excluding Marx’s theory of alienation. What do they agree and disagree on about how it works, and its ethical implications?
Be sure to include: What is capitalism, according to each thinker? What is the role of competition, and the difference between natural price and market price? What are the groups of people involved, and what do they do? What is the division of labour? What are its benefits? What are its downsides, according to each thinker? What does each of think about the rectification of those problems? What is the labour theory of value, and how does it impact the arguments of each thinker?
Why does Marx think that capitalism inevitably results in workers engaging in unpaid labour and how does he think capitalism invariably results in four forms of alienation?
Be sure to explain: Marx’s labour theory of value, the value of labour, the value of labour power, and the concept of socially necessary labour. What exploitation is, and why the worker is vulnerable to exploitation – how is this connected with the transition from life as peasants to life as industrial workers? Why does the worker inevitably end up doing unpaid work? Why might the worker think that they’re getting a fair deal of wages for labour, when in fact they are not? What is alienation? What are the four forms of alienation? How do these lead Marx to the conclusion that capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with good human lives?
Rawls’s difference principle is the thesis that any social or economic inequalities are unjust unless they are to the advantage of the worst off. Explain exactly what he means by this, and his argument for the view.
Be sure to include: What notion of justice is Rawls interested in? What is a principle of justice? What two principles of justice does Rawls think are correct, and what principles does he think we must reject? Explain why each of the rejected principles is incompatible with the difference principle – why don’t people behind the veil of ignorance choose a principle of average utility? What is the original position, and how is it meant to establish which are the true principles of justice?
Some questions are adapted from a midterm exam set by Prof. Thomas Christiano for this course.