PROFESSIONAL SPEAKING SKILLS b (24S)

Questions for final examination

RCDa: The Death of God (Blake Shedd)

1. Where do morals come from?

RCDb: Relativism (Blake Shedd)

2. What constitutes a person’s being?

RCD1: Egoism (Lucca Ventre & Julian Seer)

3. Does insincere reasoning discredit good deeds? If good deeds lead to personal gain, are those then
morally wrong?

RCD2: Evolutionary Theory (Christina Jakobitsch & Tina Matović)

4. What role does natural selection play in shaping moral instincts?

RCD3: Determinism & Futility (Anhelina Prykhodzka & Margit Schnattler)

5. Can free will coexist with determinism, or are they fundamentally incompatible?

RCD4: Unreasonable Demands (Marie Lagomarsino & Victoria Lenz)

6. What does Blackburn (2001, 50) mean by: “Ethics is very well, but perhaps we cannot afford it.”?

RCD5: False Consciousness (Anja Riegler & Alexander Rieger)

7. Can “ethics” be an instrument of oppression?

RCD6: Birth (Mehdina Mustafić)

8. What role should the father have in the decision of the birth since they are expected to be involved in
other parental decisions as well?

RCD7: Death (Verena Passath & Jana Lämmerer)

9. Is it morally right to allow someone to die peacefully through euthanasia if they request it?

RCD8: Desire and the Meaning of Life (Celina Linz & Thomas Karner)
10. “Vanity of vanities […], all is vanity. What profit hath a man for all his labour which he taketh under the
sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, qtd. in Blackburn 2001, 76). In what ways can an individual find fulfillment in
their work, although everything seems to be in vain?

RCD9: Pleasure (Anna-Sophie Diederich & Aruca Jiménez Baños)

11. How does Blackburn differentiate between pleasure and happiness? Which do you think is more
important for a moral theory, and why?