Assignments
- Assignment 1: Due Tuesday, 9/3/02, 5 p.m.
- Fischer and Ravizza suggest that rule utilitarianism seems to have the
resources to give a more acceptable (to our intuitions) answer of what is
to be done in the case they call "Transplant" (see p.2 and summarized on
p.26) than act utilitarianism. p.35. Explain this "Transplant" case, what
an act utilitarian would say about it, and how what a rule utilitarian
would say about it would differ. Critically discuss.
- Assignment 2: Due Tuesday, 9/10/02, 5 p.m.
- Why, on Kant's view, is murder wrong? (If you don't think it is wrong
according to Kant, you can explain why it is not wrong on his view.)
Explore the issue by appealing to his first version of the categorical
imperative (Cf. P 13) and the second version (Cf. P 16).
- Assignment 3: Due Thursday, 9/12/02, 5:00 p.m.
- Glover in "Against the Sanctity of Life Doctrine" [not his
title] distinguishes "direct"
objections to killing from "side effects" objections. Explain this
distinction. Consider some side effects objections to (at least some
kinds of) killing. What would be a good "direct" objection to (at least
some kinds of) killing? Why?
- Assignment 4: Due Thursday, 9/19/02, 5:00 p.m.
- Thomas Aquinas considers five "objections" to his view that suicide is
morally wrong (his wording: "it is unlawful to kill oneself," but he is
not talking of civil law). Explain in your own words each of these
objections and Aquinas's reply to each of them.
- Assignment 5: Due Thursday, 9/26/02, 5:00 p.m.
- Richard Brandt ("On the Morality and Rationality of Suicide") explores
the question of whether it is ever (and if so, under what conditions) it
is rational to commit suicide. Explore what he means by
rationality. Explore the issues that he thinks
are involved in considering the rationality of such an act. Critically
discuss.
- Assignment 6: Due Thursday, 10/3/02, 5:00 p.m.
- Consider some example used
by Judith Jarvis Thomson in
"Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem." Explain the example.
Say what Philippa Foot's theory (as explained by Thomson) says about
the example (whether a certain action would be morally right or wrong and
why), what Thomson's theory says (whether a certain action would be
morally right or wrong and why, and finally what you say:
Is a certain action right or wrong here and why?
- Assignment 7: Due Thursday, 10/10/02, 5:00 p.m.
- James Rachels argues against passive euthanasia. Carefully explain
his argument (being sure to clarify important distinctions). Critically
discuss.
- Assignment 8: Due Thursday, 10/17/02, 5:00 p.m.
- John Noonan argues that
conception is the dividing point between when it is right or not
right to kill a human being (or rather "the decisive moment of
humanization"). Explicate his argument for this. Critique
that argument. Critically discuss.
- Assignment 9: Due Thursday, 10/24/02, 5:00 p.m.
- In "A Defense of Abortion" Judith Jarvis Thomson
uses several
examples. These include: the violinist, the tiny house, Smith's coat,
Henry Fonda's touch, some example involving chocolates, the burglar, and
people seeds. Choose one of these examples other than the violinist.
Explain the example. Explain the general point Thomson is trying to make
by using the example. (Not just: she's making an analogy with abortion.)
Explain how the argument is supposed to work. Critique and evaluate the
argument. (Don't just explain that "Abortion is different."; indeed for
most of these you'll probably do a better job if you put abortion out of
your mind when you write the paper.)
- Assignment 10: Due Thursday, 10/31/02, 5:00 p.m.
- Do (a) or (b):
- (a) Henry Gensler in "The Golden Rule Argument Against
Abortion"
considers (and replies to) six objections to his argument. Explain the
fourth of these objections. How is it an objection to his
position? (To do this, you'll have to explain his initial argument, of
course.) Explain his reply. (Don't simply quote it. I can read.
I want you to explain it to me.) Is his reply adequate? Why or why
not?
- (b) In "The Perversities of Cloning" (in "The Wisdom of
Repugnance")
Leon Kass offers several arguments against the moral permissibility of
the cloning of humans. Carefully lay out of of his arguments in that
section. Critique and critically discuss it.
- Assignment 11: Due Sunday, 11/10/02
- Do either (a) or (b) [and be sure to indicate which]:
- (a) Attend a talk at the Arkansas
Philosophical Assocation meetings.
Write a paper explaining some of what was said. Critically discuss some
points raised in the paper.
- (b) Explain Taurek's argument for claiming that the numbers
should not count. Critically discuss.
- Assignment 12: Due Thursday, 11/14/02, 5:00 p.m.
- Give a careful account of the best argument you know (whether
yours or someone else's) for or against the moral permissiblity (in
some
circumstances) of capital punishment. By a "careful account," I mean one
which lays out premises clearly and makes clear the inferential relations
among the premises which yield a valid or strong argument.
- Assignment 13: Due Thursday, 11/21/02, 5:00 p.m.
- According to Immanuel Kant, "Our duties towards animals are merely
indirect duties towards humanity." What does Kant mean by this? What are
"indirect duties?" In what way are duties toward animals "indirect?" Give
examples. Critically evaluate Kant's position.
- Assignment 14: Due Sunday, 12/01/02, 5:00 p.m.
- Garrett Hardin in "Lifeboat Ethics" talks of "the ratchet effect."
Explain what this ratchet effect is. What does Hardin think we therefore
should do about starving people? Do you agree? Why or why not?
Critically discuss.
- Assignment 15: Due Thursday, 12/5/02, 5:00 p.m.
- Do either (a) or (b) [and be sure to indicate which]:
- (a) Is death a bad thing? Why? Should it be feared? Why or
why not? Do Jeffrie Murphy's criteria for when it is rational to fear
something show that it is rational to fear death? Why or why not?
Explore critically.
- (b) Is it morally wrong to kill? If so, when (i.e., under
what circumstances)? Explain and defend your answer.
Richard Lee,
rlee@uark.edu,
last modified: 2 December 2002