Monday, March 31, 2008

Monday.: Marquis on abortion from RTD.

Wed: Thompson on abortion from RTD.

A 'mad libs' abortion argument worksheet. See also my Powerpoint on abortion.

Some notes on Marquis:

He thinks whether abortions are wrong or not does not depend on whether any fetuses are
”persons.”

He thinks to understand whether it’s wrong to kill fetuses, we should think about why it’s wrong to kill us. He thinks the best explanation of why it’s wrong to kill us is this: (a) we have valuable futures and (b) killing us deprives us from experiencing these valuable futures.

If (1) fetuses have valuable futures like our valuable futures, and if (2) it is wrong to deprive something from experiencing its valuable future, then abortion is wrong, he arguments (because abortion prevents something that has a valuable future from experiencing its valuable future).

We can prevent the argument like this:

1. Fetuses have valuable futures like our valuable futures.

2. It’s wrong to prevent something from experiencing its valuable future, or deprave them from that valuable future.

Therefore, C.

Some questions about the premises.

Regarding (1) we should think about what our futures are like and why they are valuable. We should think about how fetuses futures’ are similar and different from our futures.

Although both fetuses and us have futures – in the sense that there is (hopefully) good stuff that we will experience – there is a difference between our futures in that we are currently, consciously aware of our futures and are looking forward to them. We have plans and hopes for the future; fetuses do not. Maybe that makes a difference. Maybe that means that fetuses do not have valuable futures that are quite like our’s, and maybe they are not (so) valuable because of that.

Regarding (2), we might wonder what implications this principle has for contraception and even abstinence. One might reply that birth control and abstinence do not prevent something from experiencing its valuable future, or deprave them from that valuable future, because what birth control does is prevent there from being that something or someone. One might reply that there are things like this: interesting metaphysical “objects” that consist of an-egg-and-the-sperm-that-would-fertilize-it and that these objects have valuable futures which contraception prevents from being experienced. If so, then (2) implies that contraception and abstinence are wrong. You might think this is a false implication of (2) and so the argument is unsound.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Friday: No intro to ethics class.

For Monday.

Read RTD: "Why Abortion is Immoral" by Don Marquis. OPS writing assignment due on this essay.

For Wed:
Read RTD: "A Defense of Abortion" by Judith Thompson. OPS writing assignment due on this essay.

Extra credit OPS due Monday. Tom Regan's "Patterns of Resistance" (link below on blog)

Monday, March 24, 2008

Due Wed.
Read EMP pp. 62-67 on abortion. OPS writing assignment due on this section as well.

Extra credit OPS assignment: Mary Anne Warren, "On The Moral and Legal Status of Abortion"
http://aphilosopher.googlepages.com/warren-on-abortion.pdf
Due Wed.

For Friday.
Read RTD: "Why Abortion is Immoral" by Don Marquis. OPS writing assignment due on this essay.

For Monday:
Read RTD: "A Defense of Abortion" by Judith Thompson. OPS writing assignment due on this essay.
Extra credit OPS assignment, due Monday:

Tom Regan, “Patterns of Resistance,”

http://aphilosopher.googlepages.com/patterns-of-resistance.pdf

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

For Monday:
Paper 2 is due in class and online via the turnitin thing..

Read EMP pp. 62-67 on abortion. OPS writing assignment due on this section as well.

Extra credit OPS assignment: Mary Anne Warren, "On The Moral and Legal Status of Abortion"
http://aphilosopher.googlepages.com/warren-on-abortion.pdf
Due today or Wed.

For Wed.
Read RTD: "Why Abortion is Immoral" by Don Marquis. OPS writing assignment due on this essay.

For Friday: nothing new

For Monday:
Read RTD: "A Defense of Abortion" by Judith Thompson. OPS writing assignment due on this essay.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Extra Credit book report option

Students wishing to earn extra credit can write a book report on John Robbins’ The Food Revolution or his Diet for a New America. The book report should provide a purely descriptive content summary of Robbins’ book: your report should be purely descriptive in nature, devoid of any evaluative or editorial remarks. Simply report the content of the assigned book as fairly, precisely, and accurately as possible. Students who elect to do the book report can have up to 18 points (8%) added to their final average for the course. The exact number of points added will depend on the quality and comprehensiveness of the report. To get the maximum number of points, the summary of each chapter will likely have to be at least a few pages, if not more.

There is a section of Food Revolution that you may skip, chapters 16-19. That leaves 16 chapters (including chapter 20, the Conclusion) and the Forward. The book report is due at the time of the final, third exam.

Robbins' Food Revolution is a updated version of his earlier book Diet for a New America. Diet for a New America is older, but you could write a book report on that book instead of Food Revolution if you would prefer. The books are similar in many ways, but the Food Revolution has newer and more current information and examples in it. For Diet for a New America, you should do a report on the entire book: no chapter should be skipped.

Both these books are available in many public libraries, at local bookstores, and are available for sale online, often used and very inexpensive. Here is Amazon's page on The Food Revolution; see the links to find it used and cheapest there:

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Revolution-Your-Diet-World/dp/1573247022

AbeBooks.com also sells used books:

And here is the Amazon page for Diet for a New America, the updated version from 1998:

http://www.amazon.com/Diet-New-America-Choices-Happiness/dp/0915811812/ref=sr_1_4/002-5522498-1191241?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1172863483&sr=1-4

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Gregory Pence's Ethics Program Lecture, "Why Not Enhance Humans?" has been rescheduled for Monday, March 10, at 7:30 p.m. on the Agnes Scott College campus in Evans Hall, rooms ABC. The talk is free and open to the public.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Today at about 12:05 we had to take a mandatory impromptu field trip to hear this speaker, Jim Wallace:
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=about_us.display_staff&staff=Wallis
Sorry for the confusion, especially for the 1 PM class.

Friday we'll be able to get back on track with the divine command theory!

And I have a 2 page handout of a writing by Dr. Franklin.

If you have anything to turn into me, please get it to me Friday or just put it in my box in the philosophy dept.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Monday:
Read EMP Ch. 3, first sections on simple subjectivism and emotivism

Wed.
Read EMP Ch. 4. first two sections on morality and religion and, most importantly, the Divine Command Theory of ethics.
OPS writing assignment due on these two sections above.