In this article, we will look into 30 Important Questions on Western Modern Thinkers and Philosophy. Ethics and Philosophy are very important topic for UPSC Mains Examination hence it is very important to understand the questions that can be asked from these topics. Many famous Western thinkers like Aristotle, Socrates, Plato etc gave tremendous contribution in Ethics and Philosophy. We will go through all those contributions and will also look into the type of questions that can be asked from that.

Western Modern Thinkers and Philosophy

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1. Who expressed Epicureanism in verse form in De Natura ?

Ans. Lucretius, Famous Roman Poet

2. Who propounded the concept of Summum Bonum or the ultimate objective which men seek ?

Ans. Aristotle

3. Which Philosophy Epicureanism and stoicism schools of moral philosophy followed ?

Ans. Aristotelian Philosophy

4. Who was the founder of Stoic School ?

Ans. Zeno

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5. How Stoicism Philosophy different from Platonic Philosophy ?

Ans. Platonic philosophy describe mind as the source of knowledge and the senses as the source of error and illusions whereas Stoicism philosophy mention the mental activity is solely limited to the materials received from the senses. So the knowledge consists of these sense impressions which get imprinted in the mind.

6. Who were the famous Roman Stoics ?

Ans. Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus.

7. What are the three doctrines Moore propounded in his famous work Principia Ethica ?

Ans. Three doctrines are:-

• Ideal Utilitarianism
• Naturalistic Fallacy
• Moral Intuition

8. Which Philosophical School A.J Iyer belongs to ?

Ans. Logical Positivism

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9. Who developed Natural Law Philosophy ?

Ans. St. Thomas Aquinas

10. Who had Originally introduced the Philosophy of Hypothetical Imperatives ?

Ans. Immanuel Kant

11. What is the assumption of Virtue Ethics ?

Ans. Virtue Ethics assumes that men are naturally good or at least are morally neutral. Hence they can acquire a moral character through practice.

12. Who is known as the first Systematic proponent of virtue ethics ?

Ans. Aristotle

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13. What is the moral theory of R.M Hare's ?

Ans. Prescriptivism

14. Who introduced the term Persuasive definition ?

Ans. Stevenson

15. Who is the founder of Classical Liberalism ?

Ans. John Locke. More on Locke Philosophy.

16. What is the Primary difference between Liberalism and Neoliberalism ?

Ans. Neoliberalism is comparison to Liberalism does not talk about using Laissez-faire economic policy instead it talks about bringing Strong Market Reforms in every aspect of the Society.

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17. Which Philosopher wrote the famous book "A Theory of Justice" ?

Ans. John Rawls

18. According to R.M Hare when does people follow Prima Facie principles ?

Ans. People follow this approach when they do not have enough time for Critical Thinking or when they do not trust their critical Faculties.

19. Which Particular species of ethics John Rawls examined ?

Ans. Justice

20. Which Philosopher said that the moral judgement does not describe the facts ?

Ans. C.L Stevenson

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21. Which book contains the ideas of A.J Ayer ?

Ans. Language, Truth and Logic

22. Who said that every natural object has a natural purpose or function ?

Ans. Aquinas

23. What is Meta-ethics ?

Ans. It is a study to understand the meaning of Moral Judgement.

24. Which are the main branches of Ethics ?

Ans. There are four main branches of Ethics :-

• Descriptive Ethics
• Normative Ethics
• Meta Ethics
• Applied Ethics

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25. Which are the some of the famous theories in Normative Ethics ?

Ans. Few of the famous theories are :-

• Aristotle Virtue Ethics
• Kant deontological ethics
• Bhagwad Gita's Nishkam Karmayoga

26. Which Ethics focuses on the rightness and wrongness of the actions rather than the consequences of those actions ?

Ans. Deontological Ethics

27. According to Kant, which two principles moral rules should follow ?

Ans. Two principles are:-

• Universality
• Principle of Reciprocity

28. What are the Key domain of Applied Ethics ?

Ans. There are basically Six domains of Applied Ethics :-

• Decision Ethics
• Professional Ethics
• Clinical Ethics
• Business Ethics
• Organizational Ethics
• Social Ethics

29. What is the Major Criticism of Kant theories ?

Ans. Kant Ethics are based on abstract laws or pure principle and ignores the material values.

30. What is the Major Criticism of Virtue Ethics ?

Ans. It assumes that men are naturally good and morally neutral hence they can acquire the moral character through practice.

 

 

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