ETHICS IN AMERICA DSST STUDY GUIDE 2026
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM PACK QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
◉ Cosmogony. Answer: The study of the origin of the universe.
◉ Pythagoras. Answer: A pre-Socratic philosopher, mathematician and
cosmologist who wrote nothing himself, but is historically thought to
have believed in the magic of numbers and reincarnation.
◉ Sophists. Answer: A group of traveling teachers from the fifth century
BC who were paid to lecture on a variety of topics. They can be
considered the first relativists, and gained a reputation for being
untrustworthy thanks to their reliance on persuasion over truth.
◉ Relativism. Answer: The belief that every point of view and standard
of behavior is equally valid.
◉ Thucydides. Answer: A Greek historian who wrote The History of the
Peloponnesian War, which presented a mixture of facts and fact-based
fictionalization. In it he raises questions of the ethics of war. He equated
freedom with happiness and courage.
◉ Socrates. Answer: One of the most famous thinkers of all time, not for
his beliefs, but his dialectic method of teaching. He never wrote
, anything himself, but was memorialized in the works of his student,
Plato. For him, virtue and knowledge were the same, and all wickedness
stemmed from ignorance. The Athenian government saw him as a threat
and had him executed.
◉ Dialectic. Answer: Also known as the Socratic Method, a method of
argument in which one person asks the other questions to try to get them
to realize their own answers or the flaws in their argument.
◉ Plato. Answer: Founder of the Academy and writer of the Republic.
◉ Allegory of the Cave. Answer: An extended metaphor created by
Plato. It describes a group of prisoners in a cave, chained so their backs
are to the entrance. They believe that the shadows (sensed reality) before
them are reality, until someone manages to get free, turn around and see
the source of the shadows (the real world, which can only be
experienced intellectually).
◉ Aristotle. Answer: A philosopher and Plato's student who concentrated
on empirical knowledge. He believed that change is necessary and
natural, and everything has a purpose. He wrote Nicomachean Ethics,
and that balance was the key to happiness.
◉ Stoics. Answer: Followers of Zeno, Greeks who believed that
absolute laws and destiny ruled the universe, and that since humans
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM PACK QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
◉ Cosmogony. Answer: The study of the origin of the universe.
◉ Pythagoras. Answer: A pre-Socratic philosopher, mathematician and
cosmologist who wrote nothing himself, but is historically thought to
have believed in the magic of numbers and reincarnation.
◉ Sophists. Answer: A group of traveling teachers from the fifth century
BC who were paid to lecture on a variety of topics. They can be
considered the first relativists, and gained a reputation for being
untrustworthy thanks to their reliance on persuasion over truth.
◉ Relativism. Answer: The belief that every point of view and standard
of behavior is equally valid.
◉ Thucydides. Answer: A Greek historian who wrote The History of the
Peloponnesian War, which presented a mixture of facts and fact-based
fictionalization. In it he raises questions of the ethics of war. He equated
freedom with happiness and courage.
◉ Socrates. Answer: One of the most famous thinkers of all time, not for
his beliefs, but his dialectic method of teaching. He never wrote
, anything himself, but was memorialized in the works of his student,
Plato. For him, virtue and knowledge were the same, and all wickedness
stemmed from ignorance. The Athenian government saw him as a threat
and had him executed.
◉ Dialectic. Answer: Also known as the Socratic Method, a method of
argument in which one person asks the other questions to try to get them
to realize their own answers or the flaws in their argument.
◉ Plato. Answer: Founder of the Academy and writer of the Republic.
◉ Allegory of the Cave. Answer: An extended metaphor created by
Plato. It describes a group of prisoners in a cave, chained so their backs
are to the entrance. They believe that the shadows (sensed reality) before
them are reality, until someone manages to get free, turn around and see
the source of the shadows (the real world, which can only be
experienced intellectually).
◉ Aristotle. Answer: A philosopher and Plato's student who concentrated
on empirical knowledge. He believed that change is necessary and
natural, and everything has a purpose. He wrote Nicomachean Ethics,
and that balance was the key to happiness.
◉ Stoics. Answer: Followers of Zeno, Greeks who believed that
absolute laws and destiny ruled the universe, and that since humans
