Friday, December 06, 2013

Tom Regan, Patterns of Resistance

Here is a final extra credit assignment: a detailed summary AND reaction to Tom Regan's historical essay "Patterns of Resistance." Due by the final time on Wednesday, with your final exam.

Study Guide

Incomplete Study guide, to be completed by you! 

Make sure you know all the issues, arguments, objections and responses discussed in these readings below and class discussion regarding these papers and issues; they are posted in order from more recent to less recent:

John Simmons, "Reasonable Humans and Animals" (online)

Peter Singer's "All Animals Are Equal" OR Alastair Norcross's " Torturing Puppies and Eating Meat: It's all in Good Taste!"

Michael Huemer “America’s Unjust Drug War”: he argues in favor of drug legalization. What were his arguments?

Michelle Alexander: what are some of the most important claims she argues for?

What is the moral theory utilitarianism? What are some arguments against it?

What is the trolley problem?

Peter Singer, "The Singer Solution to World Poverty". What is his argument? What is his conclusion? What are his premises, or what reason(s) does he give in favor of those conclusions?

BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN, IN DETAIL WHAT AT LEAST ONE OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS DOES:
Giving What We Can
GiveWell
Against Malaria Foundation (AMF)
GiveDirectly
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI)
80,000 Hours
The Life You Can Save
Kiva
Effective Animal Activism

Here is a Handout on all the major concepts from this class:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vdeqj70mtma1vff/PHILOSOPHICAL%20ETHICS%20handout.pdf
Be sure you are able to explain all these concepts and the methods of addressing moral issues that we have used over the semester.


What is the moral theory known as Ethical Egoism? What are some arguments against it, i.e., that it is false?

About writing and communicating philosophy / moral ideas:
- how have you been encouraged to organize and structure papers/presentations?
- you have been encouraged to put outlines / section headings in papers. Why?
- What is James Pryor's guidance on how to write philosophy?

WHAT ARE BASIC, MAIN METHODS OR TECHNIQUES THAT WE HAVE USED IN THIS CLASS? What has been the main process or approach? 

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Final Exam

Final exam:
Here is the relevant final exam schedule:
12:00 PM MWF Wednesday, December 11th 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
1:00 PM MWF Monday, December 9th 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Your final exam will be then. It will cover everything since the last exam. Details forthcoming!
For this exam, you will be allowed to use a one page (8.5" by 11"; one side) study guide. 
If anyone is interested, we can have a review session Friday at noon. Let Dr. Nobis know! :)
Final writing assignment:
In this course, we have discussed a variety of moral issues. In this final writing assignment, I would like you to reflect on how we thought about these moral issues and develop a "Top 10 List" of helpful things to do and not do when thinking about moral issues: what helps? What hinders? For each tip, please explain and illustrate with at least one paragraph with examples, to show how your suggestion is a useful one. Due at the time of your final exam. Your paper should be around 3-4 pages. This must be submitted by Turnitin also, and your receipt attached, or else it won't be graded.