Normative Ethics - Past IB Exam Questions

1. In what ways can an ethical approach, which concentrates on man’s natural characteristics, be a help or hindrance when dealing with moral problems?

2. “The various moral theories are like a variety of lenses. Each one helps us focus on specific aspects of human behaviour and when taken together, they give us the best means to evaluate leading a good life.” Discuss and evaluate this claim.

3. Neither duty nor the benefit of the majority are adequate principles for a moral theory because they undervalue the role of personal sentiments and emotions. Explain and discuss.

4. Critically evaluate the view that ethics should be more concerned with who you are than what you do.

5. “Morality requires a person to act for the good of others.” Evaluate this claim.

6. To what extent can the responsibility for the predictable consequences of our actions be a moral principle?

7. Critically evaluate the claim that we should never treat a person as a means to an end.

8. With reference to one or more example(s) of applied ethics, evaluate the view that what makes an action right should be judged by the consequences of that action.

9. Are moral values necessarily, and without exception, dependent on ends? Critically evaluate.

10. Evaluate the claim that ethical judgments could be founded on self-interest alone.

Bentham Kant Aristotle