Machiavelli
What's the difference between the "Is" & the "Ought"?
The "Is" describes how people actually behave while the "Ought" is aspirational morality which is not really possible.
What does Nietzsche mean by "the heaviest weight"?
If you were told you had to relive the same day over for eternity, how would you react. Nietzsche recognizes that such a sentence would crush the weak, but the "Overman" would own it and use it to his advantage.
What is the school of ethical thought commonly associated with John Stuart Mill?
Utilitarianism
Who describes virtue as "activity in accord with right reason" or "the mean between two extremes"?
Aristotle
What is the song which plays at 6:00 every day of Phil's loop?
Who sings it?
"I've got you, babe" by Sonny & Cher
Why does Machiavelli say he may be held "presumptous" in discussing moral matters?
What does Nietzsche mean by "herd instinct" with regard to morality?
The idea that morality is just a construct relative to each community and what it perceives it needs to survive. There are no objective moral standards.
How does Mill define Happiness or what is the "Greatest Happiness Principle"?
The ultimate end is a life as free as possible from pain and as full as possible of pleasure for the greatest number of people.
What does Aristotle say are the criteria for a virtue being a virtue?
Know the good
Deliberate about and choose to do the good
Do the good from a firm disposition
Take pleasure in doing the good
What causes Phil to despair? Why does he try to destroy himself and the groundhog?
Despite the realization that he can have endless pleasures without any consequences, nothing he does brings him any happiness.
What does Machiavelli mean by the "effectual truth" of a thing?
What is expedient and important to know in order to get what you want.
How does the "will to power" relate to Thrasymachus' argument in the Republic?
"Might makes right" means that the strongest will always rise to the top. This is what Nietzsche is advocating (rule by will vs. rule by reason).
With regard to pleasure, how does Mill distinguish between "quantity" and "quality"? Which is better & why?
"A being of higher faculties requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering, and is certainly accessible to it at more points, than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade of existence."
What are the theological virtues? Name and describe them.
Faith--knowledge of God
Hope--desire for spending eternity with God
Charity--God's kind of love: willing the good of the other
After spending a wonderful day together, Phil says to Rita, "The worst part is that tomorrow you won't remember any of this and you'll treat me like a jerk."
When Rita denies this, what does Phil say in response?
"That's ok, I am a jerk."
What is the phrase Machiavelli uses in describing what will happen to a prince who clings to virtue?
He will "come to ruin."
Nihilism--there is no objective meaning or good/evil. The individual creates him/herself and invents his/her own way of life.
How does Mill think the cultivation of higher pleasures by at least some people benefits the rest of the community including those who seek lower pleasures?
Mill claims the standard for Utilitarianism is "not the agent's own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altogether; and if it may possibly be; doubted whether a noble character is always the happier for its nobleness, there can be no doubt that it makes other people happier, and that the world in general is immensely a gainer by it."
Temperance--self-mastery with respect to lower pleasures
Fortitude/Courage--being disciplined with respect to fear so as to be able to stick it out in rough situtations
Prudence--practical reason or knowing how to put the good into practice (in the right circumstances)
Justice--giving what is due/fitting to other people
On what basis does Rita claim to know that Phil is definitely not a god?
"This is 12 years of Catholic school talking here."
Where have we seen (what other text) this Machiavellian argument before?
Plato's Republic: Glaucon's challenge (which rehearses Thrasymachus' assertion that might makes right
Instead of viewing human beings as having a nature and a corresponding end (goal), what is the word Nietzsche uses to describe the potential for man to make himself into anything?
"Man is a bridge."
What is the name of the original author of the moral theory of Utilitarianism?
Jeremy Bentham
What does the term "teleology" refer to in morality?
It means that things have a nature which is prescriptive for what they are meant to be. In terms of morality, teleology describes the way human beings reach their full potential: Happiness.
Consider the scene near the end when Rita "buys" Phil off the auction block with every penny she's got. What is the theological/biblical word we use which means literally "buying back"?
Redemption!