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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In what era was the theory of the Social Contract in favor?

3. What does the Individual lose from the Social Contract?

4. What does the Individual gain out of the Social Contract?

5. How, according to Rawls, does justice help to assign rights and duties?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why could Contract Theory be called pessimistic?

2. What is the difference between the 'good' society and the Eudaimon, of 'Good Life' that Aristotle and Plato advocated?

3. Why did Adam Smith believe that Utilitarian economics were the best possible system?

4. Why is Utilitarian theory so easy to maintain?

5. What is the implicit argument in Social Contract Theory?

6. What does it seem rational that the hypothetical person in the Original Position chooses?

7. What is the popular definition of a Utilitarian object?

8. In Rawls’ estimation, why is fairness the best virtue for society?

9. Is fairness always the same as equality, according to Rawls?

10. According to the chapter “The Original Position,” what do we have to assume about the individual's rational capabilities?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate Rawls’ claim that humans have a natural appreciation of fairness.

Essay Topic 2

Consider the political movements of the 20th and 21st Century (Gay Pride, Women's Liberation, Occupy, the Civil Rights Movement, etc.). How do these movements relate to Rawls’ theory of the Social Contract and the Original Position?

Essay Topic 3

How can we consider A Theory of Justice to be a work-in-progress?

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