Applied Philosophy Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Dilemmas arise because the way in which technologies are used may be ethically problematic.

The same technology, such as genetic testing or surveillance software, can be used to help or to harm. Ethical dilemmas arise from choices about how, by whom and for what purpose it is used, where values such as privacy, autonomy and safety can conflict.

Usefulness alone raises no dilemma, the claim that technology is value-neutral would remove ethics from the technology itself, and shaping our understanding of the world is a general effect, not the primary source of dilemmas.

Answer: B

It comprises the study of issues arising out of the use of information and development of electronic technologies.

Information technology ethics (computer ethics) deals with the moral questions raised by creating, storing, using and sharing information through digital technology: privacy, intellectual property, security, access and responsibility for automated systems.

Methods of generating information belong to computer science, and the questions of who has a right to information or to the technology are single topics within the field, not its whole scope.

Answer: D

The question represents the issue of paternalism.

Paternalism is interfering with a person's choices for their own good, without their consent. A physician who treats a patient for their benefit but without informed consent acts paternalistically, overriding the patient's autonomy.

Confidentiality concerns keeping patient information private, honesty and deceit concern truth-telling; none of them is the issue of acting for someone's good without their consent.

Answer: A

The school is casuistry.

Casuistry, revived in bioethics by Jonsen and Toulmin, reasons from paradigm cases. Moral knowledge comes from comparing a new case with clear settled cases and their particular features, rather than by applying general principles from above.

Feminist ethics emphasises relationships, care and power; virtue ethics focuses on character; deontology works from duties and principles. Only casuistry makes cases foundational.

Answer: B

A premise against euthanasia is that deliberate killing of innocent persons is always wrong.

The standard argument runs: it is always wrong to deliberately kill an innocent person; euthanasia is the deliberate killing of an innocent person; therefore euthanasia is always wrong. The qualification 'innocent' is essential.

'Killing is always wrong' and 'deliberate killing is always wrong' are too broad, since they would forbid killing in self-defence, which most opponents of euthanasia accept. 'Deliberate killing is not always wrong' would support euthanasia rather than oppose it.

Answer: D

This belief is theocentrism.

Theocentrism places God at the centre of value: the world belongs to God, and human beings are stewards who must care for it as God intends. The stewardship view of the environment is theocentric.

Anthropocentrism makes human interests the measure of value, biocentrism extends moral standing to all living things, and ecocentrism to whole ecosystems; none of them grounds human care for the world in the will of God.

Answer: A

It is known as intrinsic value.

Something has intrinsic value if it is valuable in itself, for what it is, independently of whether anyone values it or of what it leads to. Environmental ethicists who ascribe intrinsic value to nature mean exactly this.

Instrumental value is value as a means to something else, subjective value depends on someone's valuing it, and aesthetic value is value as beauty, which may or may not be intrinsic.

Answer: B

The principle violated is confidentiality.

An organisation that collects people's personal information has a duty to keep it secure and to disclose it only with consent or legal authority. Failing to protect it breaches confidentiality, the obligation to keep entrusted information private.

Autonomy concerns people's right to make their own decisions, freedom is a broader political value, and non-maleficence is the duty not to cause harm; a data breach may cause harm, but the principle specifically violated is confidentiality.

Answer: B

One of the most systematized modalities is Logic-based therapy.

Logic-based therapy, developed by Elliot D. Cohen, is a method of philosophical counseling that works in set stages: identifying the faulty reasoning behind a client's emotional distress, refuting it, and finding an uplifting philosophy and a virtue to counter it. Its step-by-step structure is why it is described as one of the most systematized forms of philosophical counseling.

Existential therapy, rational emotive behaviour therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy are forms of psychotherapy, not philosophical counseling modalities.

Answer: D

Human rights are needed where all three disparities exist, so the answer is all the three, option D.

Inequality of caste, of creed (religion) and of culture each divides society into groups that are treated unequally, and human rights are claimed to protect every person against discrimination on those grounds. They are rights that belong to a person as a human being, whatever the caste, the faith or the culture.

Options A, B and C each name only one of these disparities, so each is incomplete.