Thomas Nagel Is Professor of Philosophy at New York University

question 11

Multiple Choice

Thomas Nagel is professor of philosophy at New York University and the author of several works in moral and political philosophy. In this selection Nagel challenges the Kantian way of viewing morality, which assumes that we are all equal rational participants in the moral enterprise, each having the same opportunity to be moral. Nagel suggests that this view is simplistic and fails to take into account the manner in which external factors impinge upon us. They introduce the idea of moral luck, which he defines thus: "Where a significant aspect of what someone does depends on factors beyond his control, yet we continue to treat him in that respect as an object of moral judgment, it can be called moral luck."
Four types of moral luck are considered: constitutive luck, circumstantial luck, consequential luck in which consequences retrospectively justify an otherwise immoral act (or fail to justify an otherwise moral act) , and consequential luck in which the consequences affect the type of blame or remorse (or moral praise) .
-According to Nagel, the problem of moral luck is based on the conflict between (i) our intuition that someone's moral status cannot be altered by luck and (ii) the possibility that luck

• A) can indeed affect someone's moral status.
• B) is destructive of moral decision-making.
• C) plays no role at all.
• D) makes morality obsolete.

Identify the psychological mechanisms behind conformity and how it is affected by group influences.

Analyze the ethical implications and psychological effects of obedience and authority experiments.

Grasp the principles of group polarization and groupthink, and their outcomes on group decisions.

Recognize the role of altruism in human behavior and the factors influencing it.