Philosophy 180                                        

Summer 2004

Final Exam

 

Part One—twenty-four points

Short Answer: Answer all of the following questions. Answers should be 1 - 3 sentences long.

 

1 What is Nozick’s ‘entitlement theory’?

 

 

 

2. What is the ‘veil of ignorance’?

 

 

 

3. Briefly, what would the ‘state of nature’ be like according to Hobbes?

 

 

 

4. Briefly explain one reason Justice Thomas gives for rejecting affirmative action policies.

 

 

 

Part Two—forty points

Identification: Name the author of the following passage. Explain the passage, and explain the role of this selection in the author’s work as a whole.

 

1. Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into a law for all, a will, whose essential character and direction are determined by the economical conditions of existence of your class.

 

 

 

2. Thus, if a particular [African American] has not been injured by racism, and would not be injured if he were not awarded the position in question, it still might be possible to maximize the encouragement to others by awarding that position to that [African American].

 

 

 

Part Three—thirty-six points

Essay: Answer ONE of the following. Be sure to address all parts of the question.

 

1. What is ‘absolute poverty’? What responsibilities, if any, do we have to those living in ‘absolute poverty’? Offer a strong argument for your view, and a strong argument for the opposite view. Why does the opposite view not persuade you?

 

2. Explain Rawls’ criticism of theories like those of Plato and Mill. Why does Rawls consider their ideal societies to be unjust or imperfectly just? What does he view as just? How might either Plato or Mill respond to Rawls? Do you find Rawls’ view persuasive? Explain.