Review for week 1

Here are some questions you should be able to answer, given week 1. Being able to answer these questions will help you prepare for the first quiz.

- - what will we do in this course, according to the extended description?
- what are the course objectives? 

- what is an argument?
- what is it for an argument to be valid or logically valid? (What are at least 2 different ways to explain this concept?)
- can a valid argument have a false premise, or false premises? if so, give an example; if not, explain why not.
- what are the argument patterns modus ponens, modus tollens and universal generalization (or syllogism)?
- what is it for an argument to be sound?

- we will often ask, "Why think that?" and "What do you mean?" Why will we ask and answer these questions?

- although we will use the word 'wrong,' we do not use the word 'right' -- since it is ambiguous (what does that mean?) - but rather use 'morally permissible' and 'morally obligatory'. what do those terms mean? give examples to explain their meaning?

- what is a moral theory? what does a moral theory do or what question(s) does it attempt to answer?
- how did we try to develop a moral theory? what process did we use?
- give a list of actions that most people would think are morally wrong; what are some explanations for why these actions are wrong?

- what is utilitarianism?
- what is Kant's ethics?
- what is the social contract theory of ethics?