Moral Foundations of Politics Coursera Quiz Answers

All Weeks Moral Foundations of Politics Coursera Quiz Answers

Week 01 of Moral Foundations of Politics Quiz Answers

Mini Quiz – Enlightenment Political Theory

Q1. True or False: Arendt developed the idea of the banality of evil because she thought that Eichmann was a monstrous person.

True
False

Q2. True or False: Governments sometimes claim that their acts are legitimate even though they are illegal because they believe there is a sufficient moral justification for action.

True
False

Q3. What is the central question of the course?

What makes government legal?
What makes government legitimate?
What is morality?
How should we interpret ancient philosophical texts?

Q4. This course will explore which 5 of the following traditions of political thought:

a. Ancient Political Thought

b. Utilitarianism

c. Marxism

d. the Social Contract

e. Critical Theory

f. the Anti-Enlightenment

g. Neo-Liberalism

h. Democratic Theory

a, b, c, d, f
b, c, d, f, h
b, c, d, e, g
b, d, e, f, h

Q5. Fill in the blanks: The two basic assumptions of the Political Enlightenment are that, first, ____________________ is the greatest good, and second, ___________________ provides the guiding principles of politics.

freedom, biblical interpretation
equality, biblical interpretation
equality, science
freedom, science

Q6. Beginning with the least certain, and in ascending order, how would you order these three propositions according to an early Enlightenment point of view?

1. individuals have a right to own that with which they mix their labor

2. the planets of our solar system orbit the sun

3. the interior angles of a square add up to 360 degrees 1 point

3, 2, 1
3, 1, 2
2, 1, 3
2, then both 3 and 1

Q7. True or False: Locke’s workmanship ideal is egalitarian because God gave the world to mankind in common, which means that we all have the same claim on the common land.

True
False

Q8. What is the source of individual rights, according to Locke?

The principle of workmanship; we are mini-Gods on earth
Human equality: God gave the world to mankind in common
We all have access to God’s word in the Bible
All of the above

Q9. True or False: One of the distinctive aspects of this course is that it mixes the theory and application of political theory; i.e., the course is not limited to foundational questions, it also explores contemporary politics.

True
False

Q10. Which government captured Adolph Eichmann and brought him to trial?

Israel
The United States
Argentina
Germany

Week 02 Moral Foundations of Politics Quiz Answers

Utilitarianism: Classical and Neoclassical

Q1. According to Bentham, the two “sovereign masters” that govern mankind are:

Felicity and misery
Pain and pleasure
Happiness and sadness

Q2. True or False: Because Bentham believed we can make interpersonal comparisons of utility (ICU), he believed it would be possible to compute the merits of a policy by figuring out the suffering and happiness it causes in people and measuring one outcome against another.

True
False

Q3. The utility monster draws its import from the fact that:

Some people have a huge capacity for pleasure while others have almost none
Interpersonal comparisons of utility are easily measurable
Everyone has the same capacity for suffering

Q4. The Panopticon prison design is meant to maximize which of the following?

Efficiency of surveillance
Happiness
The ease of building a prison

Q5. If the extermination of one minority segment of the society maximizes the greatest happiness of the greatest number, could Bentham’s classical utilitarianism find it acceptable?

Yes
No

Q6. Bentham was radical because his belief in both diminishing marginal utility and our ability to make interpersonal comparisons of utility would lead him to re-distribute wealth until:

Rich people lose most of their wealth
Poor people are no longer poor
Absolute equality is achieved

Q7. True or False: Bentham was worried that redistribution could make the rich destroy their wealth before giving it away. This reflects the theory of loss aversion.

True
False

Q8. ‘Emotivist” philosophers argue that rational argument and proof can convince you that a moral proposition is true.

True
False

Q9. True or False: Bentham’s utilitarianism justifies some Pareto-undecidable redistributions of wealth.

True
False

Q10. Neoclassical utilitarianism is ______________ politically radical than classical utilitarianism in terms of the redistribution of wealth.

Less
More

Q11. Why does Mill say “It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied”?

Because he rates humans above animals in importance
Because he thinks that happiness is more than contentment, and pleasure is more than just physical
Because he thinks it would be horrible to be a pig

Q12. For Mill, Freedom leads to utility by promoting _____________________.

Pleasure
Happiness
Truth

Q13. True or False: Bentham is less sure about the truth of scientific principles than Mill.

True
False

Q14. In the negligence model of adjudicating harm, the _________________ allocate(s) externalities while in the strict liability model, the _________________ allocate(s) externalities.

market and common law, government
government, market and common law

Q15. True or False: Mill was a libertarian

True
False

Week 03 Moral Foundations of Politics Quiz Answers

Marxism, Its Failures and Its Legacy

Q1. Marx was an Enlightenment thinker, committed to the twin goals of science and individual freedom.

This statement is true.
This statement is false.
This statement is true, according to Professor Shapiro, though some scholars interpret Marx differently.

Q2. The opposite of freedom for Marx is what?

Capitalism
Exploitation
Revolution

Q3. Division of labor causes which condition, according to Marx?

Alienation
Progress
Communism

Q4. What theory does the following statement describe: When labor is purchased as a commodity (i.e. I buy the time of a worker), the consumption of this commodity (i.e. the worker creates something for me) leads to the creation of fresh exchange-value, which is where profit comes from.

Labor theory of value
Labor theory of surplus value
Law of supply and demand
Utilitarianism

Q5. What do Locke and Marx have in common?

They are both against the use of money
They both support majority rule
They both endorse a version of the workmanship ideal
They are both Liberal thinkers

Q6. True or false: A member of the working class (the proletariat), works for someone else by selling their labor for a wage, and they work out of necessity.

False
True

Q7. If you think you are bourgeois, but you are really in the working class, you suffer from which condition, according to Marx?

False-consciousness
Denial
Hope

Q8. What is the formula for exploitation?

(labor value)/(surplus labor value) = rate of exloitation
(surplus labor time)/(necessary labor time) = rate of exploitation
(wage)/(labor time) = rate of exploitation

Q9. Working-class consciousness comes about when

Workers realize that their share in the surplus of society is going down
Workers get poorer, and closer to subsistence
Conditions in the work-place become more and more unbearable

Q10. How does Marx think welfare should be distributed in a communist society?

From each according to his profits, to each according to his necessary labor time
From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs
From each according to his whimsy, to each according to what we can scrape together

Q11. Which element of Marx’s macro theory of crisis was correct?

Liquidity crises in capitalist economies inevitably lead to great crisis
The rate of profit in capitalist economies declines
Monopolies will gradually make industry decreasingly competitive
Under-consumption makes capitalist economies prone to depressions
Rising class-consciousness will make laborers pit themselves against the bourgeoisie
All of these elements of his macro theory are subject to counter-arguments that make them dubious

Q12. True or false: Marx underestimates the ability of the state to step in during crises in order to save capitalism from itself.

False
True

Q13. What is wrong with the theory of labor value?

It doesn’t explain the important value that is contributed from dead labor, capitalists, and those that support laborers (like family members)
Marx was wrong that laborers contribute value to the products of capitalism; it is only the capitalists that create value in the product

Q14. Marx’s commitment to the workmanship ideal, i.e. a person’s entitlement to the product of her work is expressed in which part of his theory?

The labor theory of value
His macro-theory explaining crises of capitalism
His commitment to animal rights

Q15. Marx’s theory of labor and exploitation is useful to us today is because:

His micro-theory of labor and value was correct
His understanding of freedom turns our attention to power relations in society
It is not useful

Week 04 Moral Foundations of Politics Quiz Answers

Q1. Which of the following is of primary importance to Robert Nozick?

Equality of outcome
Individual rights
Protecting individuals from the “war of all against all” in the state of nature

Q2. Which of the following philosophers had the greatest influence on both Rawls and Nozick?

René Descartes
Jeremy Bentham
Immanuel Kant

Q3. In Nozick’s theory of the minimal state, how are “independents” compensated for having their rights violated by being forcibly incorporated into the state?

Money
Tax deductions
Special laws permitting militias
None of the above

Q4. Considering Nozick’s philosophy, which of the following are true?

Compensation is backward looking, focused on harms that must have occurred for a state to be created.
Compensation is forward looking, geared to anticipating future harms to non-members of the society
Compensation aims to establish a just overall pattern of distribution in the society

Q5. Nozick’s Wilt Chamberlain example, which captures the idea that “liberty upsets patterns,” is meant to illustrate which of the following points:

When people are free to engage in transactions, they will make foolish decisions.
Even if we start off with a just distribution, allowing voluntary transactions will likely erode it.
It is unjust for one person to have so much more money than others, as Wilt Chamberlain did.

Q6. Whose state of nature does Nozick most directly draw from?

Hobbes
Locke
Rousseau

Q7. What is the conception of justice that Nozick builds upon?

Justice in acquisition
Justice in transfer
Justice in reification of past injustices
All of the above

E) None of the above

Q8. What is closest to Nozick’s conception of the state?

Site of redistribution through taxation
Individuals who consent to be governed
Natural monopoly pf coercive force

Q9. What kind of level of government infringement on individual rights does Nozick imagine?

Minimal
Intermediate
Heavily involved

Q10. What drives the state to incorporate independents?

Quest for power
Fear
Resource acquisition

Week 05 Moral Foundations of Politics Quiz Answers

Anti-Enlightenment Politics

Q!. True or false: Anti-Enlightenment thought is more of an outlook or disposition than a systematic theory.

True
False

Q2. Anti-Enlightenment thought is marked by:

Hostility to scientific theories of politics
Deemphasizing the individual in favor of the community
A commitment to overturning traditions
A and B are correct
A, B, and C are correct

Q3. True or false: All conservatives are reactionaries.

True
False

Q4. According to Edmund Burke, where do liberties come from?

Philosophical reasoning
We inherit them
Natural law

Q5. True or false: Burke supported the American Revolution.

True
False

Q6. Which of the following is the biggest problem with Lord Devlin’s idea that laws should reflect the dominant culture and morality of a society?

Minorities and those outside the dominant culture might be penalized unfairly.
There is no such thing as a dominant culture and morality of a society.
The man on the Clapham omnibus might lie about his values.

Q7. True or false: MacIntyre believes that current debates in the public sphere cannot be resolved because we have lost the assumptions and philosophical underpinnings that once gave moral arguments their coherence.

True
False

Q8. Which of the following philosophical tradition(s) did MacIntyre directly grapple with, and reject, in his career?

A The Enlightenment tradition
Marxism
Aristotelianism
A and C
A and B

Q9. MacIntyre believes that we live in an emotivist culture. Which of the following might be philosophical symptoms of that?

Rawls’s idea of the “fact of pluralism”.
Neo-classical utilitarianism’s denial of our ability to make interpersonal comparisons of utility
Nozick’s libertarian conception of rights as side constraints
A and B
All of the above

Q10. True or false: Practices, as conceived by MacIntyre, are determined by members all agreeing on how to cooperate and work together, much like a social contract.

True
False

Q11. What is MacIntyre’s choice between Aristotle and Nietzsche?

Unless we return to Aristotelian ethics, we will follow the road of emotivism all the way to Nietzschian nihilism.
Unless we embrace Nietzsche’s ethics, we will be stuck in a mode of Aristotelian nihilism.
It is not a choice. For MacIntyre, Nietzsche and Aristotle are very similar.

Q12. Which of the following are characteristics of practices, according to MacIntyre?

Practices contain internal goods
We can obtain virtue by realizing the goods that are external to practices
We can obtain virtue by realizing the goods internal to practices
A and B
A and C

Q13. According to MacIntyre, how should practices change ?

Practices should not be subject to change
From within
From without

Q14. For communitarians,________________.

The individual comes before the community
The group comes before the individual
Individuals don’t matter, and there is only a community

Q15. According to MacIntyre, what is one reason why the Enlightenment Project fails?

Enlightenment thinkers do not seek rational precepts to guide morality.
Enlightenment thought is “emotivist.”
Enlightenment thought lacks a “teleological” account of how humans might be transformed into people who can achieve their potential.

Week 06 Moral Foundations of Politics Quiz Answers

Democracy

Q1. Which of the following did Alexis de Tocqueville assert to be the greatest danger to American democracy?

The tyranny of the majority
Federalism
The Bill of Rights

Q2. The Federalist Papers were written to:

Stir up anti-British sentiments in America before the Revolution
Generate support for the American Constitution, which needed to be ratified
Generate support for the Declaration of Independence

Q3. Which of the following problems, faced by democracies, most concerned James Madison?

Factions will pursue their interests at the expense of others, which is particularly dangerous in the case that one faction represents the majority.
Representation makes a democracy only indirectly ruled by the people.
Private campaign spending makes elections unfair

Q4. Why might “cross-cutting cleavages” be beneficial to a democracy?

They stop the formation of radical political parties.
They make a permanent majority faction difficult to form, and so minorities have the chance to gain power in coalitions.
They help majority parties keep smaller factions out of power.

Q5. True or false: Madison thought that larger democracies (republics) were more prone to the “tyranny of the majority”.

True
False

Q6. “Veto points”, such as the separation of powers, a bill of rights, or supermajority requirements, are most important to which of the following types of government?

Democracy
Republicanism
Aristocracy

Q7. Which canonical thinker do we turn to for his idea of the “general will”?

James Madison
John Locke
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Q8. True or false: Condorcet’s paradox shows us that the aggregation of preferences through voting cannot yield collectively rational results.

True
False

Q9. Which of the following is an important difference between Rawls and Habermas:

Habermas believes in the importance of rational deliberation while Rawls does not.
In his “political, not metaphysical” mode, Rawls only asks that we agree on outcomes, while Habermas wants us to agree on the reasoning for the outcomes as well.
Rawls draws influence from Immanuel Kant while Habermas does not.

Q10. According to Professor Shapiro, has the problem of finding and measuring the general will been solved?

Q11. Schumpeter’s theory of democratic competition most resembles whose conception of deliberation/argument?

Jürgen Habermas
John Stuart Mill
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Q12. The median voter theorem tells us that with single member districts, all else equal:

In national elections, party platforms will become more radical.
In national elections, party platforms will converge towards the middle of the political spectrum.

Q13. What is one advantage of having two large diverse political parties?

Small parties cannot have a disproportionate influence on governments decisions.
Large diverse parties are more representative of the constituencies in the electoral stage.

Q14. Why can’t you “wring the politics out of politics”, according to professor Shapiro?

Philosophers are unwilling to acknowledge their political biases.
All knowledge is provisional, so we will always have something to debate over.
Every system of government is flawed, so we will never find the absolute best answer to the problem of governance.
All of the above

Only B and C are correct

Q15. Why are independent opposition parties important for democracy?

They help uncover corruption and facilitate the pursuit of truth through competition with those in power.
Independent opposition is not an indispensable component to a strong democracy.
Opposition parties successfully encourage court justices to rule in favor of minority rights.

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