Ethics in America
What the domain tests
Ethics in America asks you to recognize major normative theories, apply them to concrete moral disputes, and connect moral reasoning to American traditions of liberty, equality, pluralism, and constitutional government. Expect scenario questions about censorship, discrimination, punishment, markets, medicine, war, or environmental policy-not a request for one correct moral outlook.
Core frameworks
- Utilitarianism: Bentham and Mill judge acts by overall welfare; distinguish act from rule utilitarianism. Cost-benefit reasoning can protect aggregate welfare but may threaten minority rights.
- Kantian deontology: universalizability and the humanity formula; intentions and duties matter, not only results.
- Virtue ethics: Aristotle's character, habituation, and practical wisdom; ask what a prudent, just person would do.
- Social contract and natural rights: Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau; Locke's consent, rights, and justified resistance shaped American founding arguments. Rawls adds the veil of ignorance.
- Relativism and pluralism: distinguish descriptive cultural relativism from the normative claim that we ought to tolerate differences.
Worked example
A city council debates whether to allow a hate group to march. A utilitarian might restrict the march if feared violence outweighs expressive benefits. A Kantian asks whether the restriction could be universalized and whether it respects citizens' autonomy. A virtue approach asks what courage, civility, and tolerance require. The constitutional tradition sharply limits viewpoint-based suppression. A strong answer separates moral justification from legal permissibility and identifies the stakeholders.
American applications
Church-state separation, free speech, affirmative action, capital punishment, economic justice, bioethics, and just-war debates typically turn on conflicts among rights, consequences, and civic virtue. In each, identify whether the argument appeals to rights, aggregate welfare, character, or a social contract; then test consistency.
Traps that cost marks
Conflating legality with morality; calling utilitarianism selfish; making Kant outcome-driven; ignoring rule versus act utilitarianism; inferring tolerance from relativism; treating the golden rule as a complete theory. On applied items, follow the theory's decision procedure rather than naming it.