Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Final assignments:

1. Study guide for last quiz: due at time of final

2. Paper:
First, read this “Guidelines on writing a philosophy paper”:
http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html

Then write a paper! Due at time of final (or possibly later.. let me see)
Topic: homosexuality, abortion, world poverty or eating animals/vegetarianism (pick one and only one!)

Your paper must have an introduction, a thesis and be well organized and argued. You must raise and respond to objections. You should present at least 5 arguments in logically valid form on the topic and explain whether they are sound or not.

3. Extra credit paper: 
top 10 list for helpful do's and/or don't's for thinking critically about moral issues. Due at time of final (or possibly later.. let me see)

Give the do or don't and a paragraph to explain it, using examples.
 

Monday, November 14, 2011

Some people have an erroneous copy of the article for Wednesday because it has two page 3's. Here is the correct version:
"Reasonable Humans and Animals," John Simmons:
http://sites.google.com/site/aphilosopher/veg.pdf

Again, a detailed summary of the arguments and objections should be sent to the homework email address, available on the blog.
Thanks!

Friday, November 04, 2011

For Monday, please formulate these objections in the form of logically valid arguments; submit to nobishomework@gmail.com following the directions from below.

Worksheet on Objections to the Singer Solution to World Poverty

The argument:
1. If there are (a) very bad things happening, (b) there is something that we can do that will prevent some of these bad things from happening and (c) we can do these things without sacrificing something of comparable moral significance, then we are morally obligated to do so.
2. (a) There are very bad things happening (e.g., children starving, etc.)
3. (b) We can do something to prevent some of these bad things from happening (e.g., by donating).
4. (c) In doing this, we wouldn’t sacrifice something of comparable moral significance.
5. Therefore, we are morally obligated to donate (and it’s wrong not to).

Some objections to work through:
Directions: State these objections as valid arguments. Add the missing premise(s) needed to make them valid. Explain whether the arguments are sound (i.e., valid with true premises) or not and so whether these objections show that Singer’s argument is not sound.

If an argument below is sound, then that implies that a premise in Singer’s argument above is false. If any argument below is sound, which premise above is false? Explain.

Objection 1: “Hypocrisy! “Singer doesn’t perfectly practice what he preaches, so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Objection 2: “Others aren’t helping! Very few people give anything, much less a lot, to help starving people. Therefore, I (or we) am not obligated to help.
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Objection 3: “Saving people is the job of governments so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Objection 4: “The child is a stranger so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Objection 5: “The child is a far away so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Objection 6: “I/we did not cause their problem so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Objection (observation?) 7: “People will not accept this argument, i.e., they won’t do what Singer argues they should, so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Objection 8: We can’t help any of these people so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Objection 9: If everyone helped out, I wouldn’t have to give very much, so I don’t have to give very much (certainly much less than Singer says). Although we might be obligated to donate something, we are not morally obligated to donate a lot.”
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Objection 10: “People have a moral right to spend their money however they’d like so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Objection 11: “Singer is forcing people to help the starving, so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Objection 12: “If we would give to help starving children, we would be sacrificing something of comparable moral significance (e.g., ______) so we are not morally obligated to donate.”
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Other objections:
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Thursday, November 03, 2011

Assignments

In addition to these assignments below, please check out the page for Peter Singer's book THE LIFE YOU COULD SAVE:
http://www.thelifeyoucansave.com/

Thanks!

1. Sign up for email group @ blog; philosophy302.blogspot.com
2. Set up email forwarding in TigerMail
3. Check out TheTenDollarClub.org

The Life You Can Save . com

4. Read and re-read the Singer Solution to World Poverty
5. Read and re-read EMP Ch. 5
6. Read and re-read Mylan Engel's "9-11 and Starvation"