View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Original Position.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the maxim of Utilitarian philosophy?
(a) The greatest good for the greatest number.
(b) Might makes right.
(c) The greatest good to the deserving.
(d) The greatest good to the wealthiest.

2. What does the Individual lose from the Social Contract?
(a) The right to own property.
(b) Complete freedom.
(c) All their freedoms.
(d) The right to defend themselves.

3. How does the ignorant chooser know what is fair and what is not, according to Rawls?
(a) Because they are taught what to believe.
(b) Because the monarch told them so.
(c) Because of an innate knowledge of fairness.
(d) Because God told them so.

4. In what era was the theory of the Social Contract in favor?
(a) The Dark Ages.
(b) The Renaissance.
(c) The Enlightenment.
(d) The Modern Era.

5. Why is the argument called the Original Position?
(a) Because it is about the first thing that a person sees when they wake up.
(b) Because it was a very early argument that Rawls revived.
(c) Because it comes before everything else.
(d) Because it was the first argument Rawls thought of.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the first virtue of social institution, according to Rawls?

2. What is John Stuart Mill's Theory of Higher Pleasures?

3. Why does Utilitarian thinking not really understand the difference between persons?

4. What does Rawls accept about his own theory?

5. What is the implicit assumption that the Social Contract theory makes?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 370 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample