1.The statement “Civil engineers should design safe constructions”
a) Is a descriptive statement because it is true
b) Is a descriptive statement because it refers to what is or is not actually the case
c) Is a normative statement because it is true
d) Is a normative statement because it refers to what is desirable
2. Which of the following statements is entailed (implied) by the rejection of ethical relativism?
a) Ethical judgments are context independent
b) One’s own moral views are the only right ones
c) The most important moral principles should be the same for everybody
d) There cannot be different moral views
3. Which of the following statement about the precautionary principle is true?
a) According to the precautionary principle, measures to cut the emissions of CO2 are only to be taken if the greenhouse effect it is scientifically proven, not earlier
b) The precautionary principle implies a reversal of the burden of proof in the sense that the people who want to introduce a new technology must prove, or at least make it somehow credible, that the risks and possible hazards of that technology are acceptable
c) The precautionary principle implies that the government has to be cautious in issuing measures against technological risks in order not to slow down economic growth
d) None of the above statements is true
4. Which famous philosopher is often seen as a main representative of deontological ethics?
a) Aristotle
b) Jeremy Bentham
c) John Stuart Mill
d) Immanuel Kant
5. “Safety” is
a) A norm
b) A value
c) A virtue
d) None of the above
6. Which of the following statements about limited liability is true?
a) Limited liability of corporations means that corporations are only liable when they are at fault
b) Limited liability of corporations means that only the managers of a corporation can be held liable for the activities of the corporation
c) Limited liability of a corporation means that the liability of the corporation’s managers for the activities of a corporation is limited to amounts specified in the law
d) Limited liability of corporations means that the liability of the shareholders for the activities of a corporation is limited to the amount of the (nominal) value of their shares
7. Which of the following statements about the technological fix is false:
a) According to the reader, not all social problems can be solved by a technological fix
b) A ‘technological fix’ can be used to refer to a quick and dirty solution, generally leading to more, often unforeseen, problems than previously
c) A ‘technological fix’ originally meant: a technological means for solving social problems
d) A technological solution is only a technological fix if it has no unforeseen risks
8. According to the tripartite model:
a) Engineers are only responsible for technical decisions not for value decisions
b) Engineers should blow the whistle on unsafe technologies
c) Engineers should take precautions in taking up new technological possibilities and challenges
d) The governance of society should be based on technical and scientific principles
9. Which of the following statements is true for deductive-nomological model of explanations but
false for the probabilistic-statistical model of explanations:
a) The model can be used to explain scientific laws
b) The model can be used to explain observations
c) The explanans should contain a reference to a scientific law
d) The explanandum follows logically from the explanans
10. Which of the following statements about induction and deduction are true
a) Induction reasons from the specific to the general, while deduction reasons from the general to the specific
b) Induction is logically invalid, while deduction is logically valid
c) Induction plays a role in scientific reasoning, while deduction plays no role in scientific reasoning
d) Both a and b are true
11. Consider the following argument: “John is not a civil engineer and, since all civil engineers design
safe constructions, it follows that John doesn’t design safe constructions”
Now define:
A: ‘John is a civil engineer’
B: ‘John designs safe constructions’
Which of the following statements about the above argument is true?
a) The above argument is invalid and can be formalized as:
Not A, A -> B, So not B
b) The above argument is invalid and can be formalized as:
Not B, A -> B, So not A
c) The above argument is valid and can be formalized as:
Not A, A -> B, So Not B
d) The above argument is valid and can be formalized as:
Not B, A -> B, So Not A
12. Answer this follow-up question on the Cassini
Some else come up with the following argument in relation to the Cassini mission:
“I consider the mission unacceptable because it is a sign of human hubris (arrogance). Who are we, human beings, to discover, and later exploit or colonize, the universe? We should be more modest and refrain from this kind of space mission”.
In terms of which ethical theory, can this argument best be understood?
a) Consequentialism
b) Deontological ethics
c) Right ethics
d) Virtue ethics
13. Which of the following statements is true?
a) A valid argument cannot contain a false conclusion.
b) An invalid argument contains at least one false premise.
c) The conclusion of an invalid argument must be false.
d) The premises of an invalid argument must all be true.
14. The statement “We should build a new nuclear power plant”:
a) is a descriptive statement because it is not true.
b) is a descriptive statement because it refers to what is or is not actually the case.
c) is a normative statement because it is not true.
d) is a normative statement because it refers to what is desirable.
15. Which of the following statements is true?
a) Cost/benefit analysis only takes financial aspects of a new technology into account.
b) Flexibility of meanings implies that various social groups attribute different meanings to a technology.
c) ‘Second-order’ effects refer to technological developments that adapt to important changes in society.
d) Demand/market pull means pulling the market in order to make sure that a new technology will be accepted.
16. Consider the following two statements:
(I) Awareness TA is aimed at influencing the process of technological change.
(II) A surprise free scenario does not take sudden/extreme occurrences into account.
Which of the followings statements is true?
a) Both statement (I) and (II) are true.
b) Statement (I) is true; statement (II) is false.
c) Statement (II) is true; statement (I) is false.
d) Both statement (I) and (II) are false.
17. Which of the following statements is true?
a) Backcasting defines the situation that somebody would like to reach and then aims at developing a route that could lead to that situation.
b) The control dilemma states that we cannot really control technology because often we only know the undesirable effects of a technology once it has become intrinsically embedded in society.
c) A positive feedback loop in technology development means that technological designs are adapted by criticism that aims at improving the design.
d) Both a) and b) are true.
18. Which of the following statements is true:
a) Traditionally, technology is seen as a ‘zero-sum game’: in the end there are just as many people who lose from a new technology as people who win from it
b) Second and higher order effects are mainly caused by with changes in human behavior as a result of the introduction of a new technology
c) The difference between the traditional style and the new style of TA is that the new style of TA is much more directed towards convincing users to take up new technologies
d) The Delphi method tries to articulate a diversity of opinions among experts about a future development.
19. Which of the following statement(s) about induction and deduction is/are true
a) Entrenchment refers to the hardship to change technologies, because other technologies and
organizations are attuned to these ‘entrenched’ technologies.
b) The idea of technological determinism assumes that technologies will always provide the most
efficient solution, and therefore people have no freedom to choose for a certain technology.
c) The reformulation of a reverse salient into a critical problem is necessary to facilitate system
growth.
d) Both a), b), and c) are true.
20. Which of the following statements is true:
a) Kondratieff’s ‘long waves’ describe a wave pattern in the development of the economy having a period of about 50 years.
b) Large infrastructure projects can be seen as examples of ‘technology push’.
c) The evolutionary approach to technology development describes this development as a process
that always leads to the most efficient technology (‘survival of the fittest’).
d) The technological regime consists of the legal restrictions that interfere with technological
development, for instance the ban on genetically modified crops in the European Union.
21. Which of the following statements is false?
a) Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) is geared towards influencing the process of technological change. This approach aims at making technology development conform to social needs and wishes.
b) The SCOT model (‘social construction of technology’) states that inventors have to socialize in order to become successful.
c) A surprise free scenario excludes sudden/extreme events from consideration.
d) The control dilemma makes clear why policy makers are often hesitant to introduce regulation in concern with new technologies.
22. Which of the following statements is false?
a) A market without entry restrictions for producers and customers makes the existence of technological monopolies impossible.
b) A technological trajectory means a path of development of a technology that is governed by a specific technological paradigm.
c) Niche management is the creation of a protected environment for a new technology, in the sense that it is not subject to direct competitive market forces.
d) Backcasting is a form of ‘blue-print thinking’, it provides a means to reach a specific sociotechnical.
23. Which of the following statements is true?
a) Sustainable development is about meeting the needs of presently living people without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs.
b) Realizing a sustainable world implies that everybody will end up living in the same way.
c) If we want to achieve a sustainable society, we have to reduce our dependency on technology.
d) Engineers do not have to worry about the sustainability of their products, because it is the end user who determines whether a product is used in a sustainable way or not.
24. Which of the following statement(s) is/are true?
a) A reverse salient is that part (or parts) of a technological system, which is lagging behind in development and therefore limit the growth of the system as a whole.
b) The production function indicates how much products can be produced with a certain amount of capital.
c) Path dependency means that all technologies always develop through the same phases.
d) Both a) and c) are true.
25. The statement “Civil engineers should design safe constructions”
a) Is a descriptive statement because it is true
b) Is a descriptive statement because it refers to what is or is not actually the case
c) Is a normative statement because it is true
d) Is a normative statement because it refers to what is desirable
26. Which of the following statements is entailed (implied) by the rejection of ethical relativism?
a) Ethical judgments are context independent
b) One‟s own moral views are the only right ones
c) The most important moral principles should be the same for everybody
d) There cannot be different moral views
27. Which of the following statement about the precautionary principle is true?
a) According to the precautionary principle, measures to cut the emissions of CO2 are only to be taken if the greenhouse effect it is scientifically proven, not earlier
b) The precautionary principle implies a reversal of the burden of proof in the sense that the people who want to introduce a new technology must prove, or at least make it somehow credible, that the risks and possible hazards of that technology are acceptable
c) The precautionary principle implies that the government has to be cautious in issuing measures against technological risks in order not to slow down economic growth
d) None of the above statements is true
28. Which famous philosopher is often seen as a main representative of deontological ethics?
a) Aristotle
b) Jeremy Bentham
c) John Stuart Mill
d) Immanuel Kant
29. “Safety” is
a) A norm
b) A value
c) A virtue
d) None of the above
30. Which of the following statements about limited liability is true?
a) Limited liability of corporations means that corporations are only liable when they are at fault
b) Limited liability of corporations means that only the managers of a corporation can be held liable for the activities of the corporation
c) Limited liability of a corporation means that the liability of the corporation‟s managers for the activities of a corporation is limited to amounts specified in the law