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CHAPTER 11
THE UNIVERSALIST: IMMANUEL KANT
INSTRUCTIONS: Select the best answer according to the text.
TRUE/FALSE
1. The word moral comes from a Latin root meaning
custom, manner, or conduct.
2. Amoral and immoral mean the same thing.
3. Kant s moral philosophy was influenced by his Pietist
background.
4. Kant tried to follow Descartes s example and write in a
simple style so that his work would be widely read.
5. Kant s philosophical work began as a response to Hume s
skepticism.
6. Kant completed the epistemological turn.
7. Kant argued that science alone could restore dignity to
human beings.
8. According to Kant, reason alone cannot give us
knowledge of the external world.
9. According to Kant, experience alone cannot give us
knowledge of the external world.
10. Kant based his epistemology on the empirical theory
of truth.
11. Kant s philosophy is called critical philosophy because
it attacks and criticizes other philosophies.
12. Phenomenal reality is Kant s term for the world as we
experience it.
13. Noumenal reality is Kant s term for phenomenal reality
when we understand it.
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14. According to Kant, the idea of self is a regulative idea.
15. According to Kant, the idea of cause is a regulative idea.
16. According to Kant, we know God through reason, not
experience.
17. According to Kant, theoretical reason produces religious
feelings based on knowledge of moral conduct.
18. John Rawls s A Theory of Justice is an attempt to refute
Kant s moral theory.
19. Rawls uses the term veil of ignorance to refer to the
process that should be used whenever governments
modify basic human rights.
20. The original position is an imaginary setting, not an
actual historical setting.
21. Susan Moller Okin criticizes Rawls for being ambiguous.
22. Okin criticizes Rawls for being sexist.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
23. The moral nonmoral distinction is _____ .
a. descriptive
b. prescriptive
c. categorical
d. subjunctive
24. The moral immoral distinction is _____ .
a. descriptive
b. prescriptive
c. categorical
d. subjunctive
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25. The nature of the Critique of Pure Reason required Kant
to _____.
a. write in everyday language so that the average
citizen could understand it
b. convert to Roman Catholicism
c. coin new terms and give new meanings to old ones
d. embark on a speaking tour to defend its claims
26. Kant understood that _____ must be refuted if
Enlightenment faith in reason were to be justified.
a. Descartes
b. Locke
c. Copernicus
d. Hume
27. Kant rejected the supremacy of science over philosophy
because _____ .
a. philosophy was more scientific than science
b. science could only uncover mechanistic laws that
had no place for God, freedom, or moral dignity
c. science and philosophy must both be transcended by
a religious leap of faith
d. None of the above; Kant accepted the supremacy of
science.
28. Kant s critique of knowledge is _____ .
a. a validation of rationalism
b. an analysis of how knowledge is possible
c. a survey of true and false beliefs, arranged by topic
d. a validation of Hume
29. Kantian formalism is the theory that knowledge _____ .
a. occurs when we least expect it
b. comes directly from God, without the need for
informal interpretation
c. is a result of the interaction between the mind and
sensation
d. must be derived from formal experience of science
30. According to Kantian formalism, knowledge _____ .
a. of the self is impossible
b. of God is impossible
c. is structured by biochemical laws
d. is structured by categories
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31. According to Kant, when a theory results in conclusions
that are inconsistent with experience, _____ .
a. real-world evidence must outweigh theoretical
consistency
b. theoretical consistency must outweigh real-world
evidence
c. we must modify our experiences accordingly
d. we should ignore the inconsistency and thus avoid
frustration
32. According to Kant, scientific method _____ .
a. is based on the neutral, passive recording of
observations
b. cannot provide knowledge of the external world
c. can uncover irrefutable laws of morality
d. suggests that knowledge is a kind of interaction
between the knower and the known
33. _____ is the name Kant gave his attempt to discover
whether a priori knowledge is possible.
a. Transcendentalism
b. Kantianism
c. Critical philosophy
d. Noumenal philosophy
34. According to Kant, Hume confused _____ with
knowledge that is based on experience.
a. knowledge that is superior to experience
b. cause and effect
c. a posteriori ideas
d. knowledge that is triggered by experience
35. _____ is an effort to assess the nature and limits of
pure reason unadulterated by experience.
a. Critical philosophy
b. Transcendentalism
c. Apriorism
d. Rationalism
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36. According to Kant, knowledge is formed by _____
and _____ .
a. phenomena/noumena
b. tabulae rasae/esse percipi
c. actual experience/faculties of judgment
d. common sense/scientific method
37. _____ is Kant s term for the world as we experience it.
a. Noumenal reality
b. Phenomenal reality
c. Empirical reality
d. Confusional reality
38. Noumena are _____ .
a. the direct objects of experience
b. things that are new to us
c. things as they exist independently of us
d. phenomena in mental form
39. According to Kant, transcendental ideas _____ .
a. always involve contradiction
b. bridge the gap between the phenomenal and
noumenal worlds
c. exist only on the noumenal level
d. exist only on the phenomenal level
40. According to Kant, regulative ideas _____ .
a. are discovered scientifically
b. are a special type of transcendental ideas
c. govern moral choice
d. are mere figments of philosophers minds
41. There are _____ regulative ideas, according to Kant.
a. two
b. three
c. four
d. many
42. Which (if any) of the following is a regulative idea?
a. truth
b. goodness
c. cosmos
d. none of these
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43. According to Kant, pure reason synthesizes all of our
psychological activities into a unity by positing the idea
of _____ .
a. the id
b. the personality
c. mind
d. self
44. _____ triggers the regulative ideas.
a. Experience
b. Reason
c. Doubt
d. Philosophy
45. According to Kant, pure reason lends unity to experience
by synthesizing all events into a single totality known
as _____ .
a. reality
b. identity
c. cosmos
d. self
46. Kant distinguished between two functions of reason:
_____ and _____ .
a. scientific reason/philosophical reason
b. survival/understanding
c. factual reason/theoretical reason
d. theoretical reason/practical reason
47. _____ reason is a function of reason confined to the
empirical, phenomenal world, according to Kant.
a. Theoretical
b. Scientific
c. Practical
d. Moral
48. _____ reason begins with knowledge about moral conduct
and produces religious feelings and intuitions, according
to Kant.
a. Theoretical
b. Scientific
c. Practical
d. Moral
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49. According to Kant, the moral law _____ .
a. must be based on our actual behavior if it is to be
realistic
b. cannot be discovered in actual behavior
c. changes slowly over time, and so we must not
continue to follow outdated moral codes from
the past
d. takes second place to laws of nature
50. For Kant, goodness depends on _____ , not _____ .
a. our will/our behavior
b. our behavior/our will
c. our religious faith/our intelligence
d. God s grace/human ability
51. According to Kant, morality is a matter of _____ .
a. the consequences of our actions
b. motives
c. natural law
d. inclinations
52. According to Kant, duty is defined as _____ .
a. the burden of enlightenment
b. acting with full consideration of the consequences of
our actions
c. the necessity of acting from respect for the moral
law
d. the obligation of every citizen to be informed and to
participate in the common good
53. _____ are propositions that tell us what to do under
specific, variable conditions.
a. Theoretical injunctions
b. Categorical imperatives
c. Practical imperatives
d. Hypothetical imperatives
54. If you re cold, then close the window is an example
of a _____ .
a. theoretical injunction
b. categorical imperative
c. practical imperative
d. hypothetical imperative
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55. Act as if the maxim of thy action were to become a
universal law of nature is a formulation of _____ .
a. a categorical imperative
b. the categorical imperative
c. a practical imperative
d. Kant s moral rule of thumb
56. By maxim, Kant meant _____ .
a. a handy rule of thumb
b. a commonly held idea or proverb
c. the rule which is willed categorically
d. opposite of minim
57. Kant held that _____ possess intrinsic worth.
a. all creatures
b. only good people
c. all rational creatures
d. only superior people
58. The _____ commands us to always treat ourselves and
others as ends.
a. categorical imperative
b. practical imperative
c. principle of intrinsic worth
d. principle of humanity
59. According to John Rawls, the fundamental principles of
justice are those principles _____ .
a. to which free and rational persons would agree
b. that result in basic equality of fact
c. of fairness, love, and order
d. of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
60. A thought experiment is _____ .
a. any inquiry into rationality that relies on the
scientific method
b. a way of using imagination to test a hypothesis that
cannot be tested in fact
c. a method for de-gendering language
d. another term for a priori principle
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61. _____ is Rawls s term for an imaginary setting in which
we can objectively identify fundamental principles of
justice without succumbing to personal biases.
a. Thought experiment
b. Veil of ignorance
c. Inclusive way of knowing
d. Original position
62. The _____ is a problem-solving device that prevents us
from knowing our social status and the like.
a. thought experiment
b. veil of ignorance
c. inclusive way of knowing
d. original position
63. Among other points, Susan Moller Okin suggests that
Rawls s theory of justice pays too little attention to _____ .
a. the family
b. fathers
c. animal rights
d. logical consistency
64. Okin criticizes Rawls for overlooking the effects of _____
on society.
a. the Constitution
b. gender
c. race
d. education
65. Okin asserts that Rawls s language is _____ .
a. ambiguous
b. powerful but misleading
c. sexist
d. racist and sexist
66. Okin argues that the veil of ignorance is pierced if _____ .
a. it does not apply to children
b. it allows for social roles
c. we discuss it privately
d. we retain knowledge of our gender
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Chapter 11
THE UNIVERSALIST: IMMANUEL KANT
1. Briefly describe how Kant completed the epistemological turn
begun by Descartes and progressively developed by Locke,
Berkeley, and Hume.
2. Distinguish between phenomena and noumena. Give examples
of each. Why did Kant think it necessary to posit the existence of the
noumenal world as a response to what he called a scandal in
philosophy ? What, precisely, was the scandal that so troubled
Kant? What do you think of his alternative? Explain.
3. How does Kant answer Hume s bundle theory of the self? Do
you think he is successful? Explain. *
4. Describe the moral dimension as Kant understood it. Explain the
reasoning behind Kant s efforts to make morality a matter of
motives, not consequences. *
5. What are the major real-life advantages and disadvantages of
focusing chiefly on motives or consequences in matters of morality
and responsibility? Identify contemporary political, legal, familial,
and cultural policies that give more weight to motives than
consequences and vice versa. *
6. Why does Kant claim that the only thing good-in-itself is a good
will? Exactly what does he mean? Is he right? Explain. *
7. What is the categorical imperative? What is the practical
imperative? Show how they are related by applying them to a few
contemporary moral issues. *
8. Why does Susan Moller Okin say that Rawls s theory of justice
is ambiguous? What is Okin s chief criticism of Rawls? Is she right?
Explain. *
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CHAPTER 11 ANSWERS