Reading Assignment for 1/23

Here's your reading assignment for class on Wednesday, January 23. Take notes on the presentation and bring them to class with you. Let me know if you have any questions.



Here's a link to the presentation, in case you can't view it here.

Welcome!

Welcome to Philosophy 110: Introduction to Ethics! This is one of my favorite classes - I hope you'll all learn a lot, think hard, and have fun doing it. Philosophy makes your brain work hard, but it's great fun.

Here's a link to your syllabus and schedule for this semester. The college is making a big effort to save paper, so I'll only have a few copies of the syllabus for those who don't have access to a printer, or regular access to a computer. If you'd like a printed copy of the syllabus, please print one out and bring it to class.

This is the course blog - bookmark it so that you can find it easily later. We'll be using it a lot this semester.

If you're the eager type who likes to get started early, your first assignment is already posted below. Just scroll down and you'll see it.

Let me know if you have any questions, or if you have trouble opening the linked syllabus.

Forum Assignment #1 and Group Work for Wednesday

Here's a link to the case study for your first forum assignment, and for group work on Wednesday (it's actually a discussion of several related cases).

Your forum assignment has two parts. Please complete Part 1 by no later than midnight on Monday night. Your colleagues will need time to read your comment and respond. Please complete Part 2 by no later than midnight on Tuesday night. Everyone in the class will need a chance to read all of the comments and response by class on Wednesday.

Part 1

Read the article carefully and think about it for at least 10 minutes before you begin to write anything. Walk around and mull it over for a while.

Now, jot your thoughts down in a word processing file or on a piece of scrap paper. I still don't want you to write anything in comments, yet. Think about all of the complicated issues that arise on each side of this issue. What do you think are the best reasons to give people who have severe anorexia nutrition against their wishes? What do you think are the best reasons to follow the wishes of those with severe anorexia, who don't want to ingest any calories? What might someone object to the reasons you've written?

Okay, now compose your best answer to the questions below. Write your answer in a word processing program so that you can edit it easily, and so that it doesn't get lost if there's a glitch in uploading your comments. Include your first name and last initial at the top of your comment.

1. What do you think the default rule should be, with regard to people with severe anorexia, who will starve to death without nutrition, but who object to any nutrition? Should they be "fed" against their will (this usually involves a stomach tube or an intravenous line)?
2. Why do you think so? Give your best three reasons.

I'd like you to spend at least 30 minutes thinking about and composing your answer, not including the time it took you to read the article. A good answer will show careful reflection on the question; will demonstrate that you've thought about some of the complexities involved and that you've taken seriously issues that arise on both sides of the issue. Further, a good answer will include a detailed explanation of your reasoning. Each of your reasons should constitute at least a paragraph of text. This part of the assignment is worth 75 points.

Once you've finished composing your answer, save it, and then copy it. Click on the "comments" link (in orange) below (the link will say "no comments" if you're the first person to answer, or "# comments" once others have posted). Copy your answer into the text box that appears. Right underneath the comment box, you'll see a drop down menu that says "comment as." Choose "anonymous" and then click on "Publish." Your comment should appear beneath the post. If you comment doesn't appear, send me an email.

Part 2

Give your colleagues several hours to post their own answers to the questions above, and then come back and read the comments. Choose a comment that you think is particularly interesting, and that you think you can respond to in an interesting way.

Type your response in a word processing program. Include your first name and last initial at the top of your response.

A good response will push the discussion forward in some way. You might (politely and respectfully) disagree with the person you're responding to and say why; you might ask that person a question to help flesh out her/his idea; you might take the original comment as a jumping off point and add some new ideas of your own. DON'T just tell someone that you agree with his/her comment and repeat their points using slightly different words.

Your response should show carefully consideration and reflection, and should include a detailed account of your own reasons for the ideas you express.

Once you've finished composing your response, save it, and then copy it. Find the original comment that you're responding to (NOT your original comment - your colleague's comment). Click on "reply," below that comment. Paste your response into the comment box that appears. Choose "anonymous" from the drop down menu, and then click on "publish."

I'd like you to spend at least 20 minutes thinking about and composing your response, aside from the time it took you to read your colleagues' comments. This part of the assignment is worth 50 points.

Let me know if you have any trouble opening the link.

Progress Report - Course Grade Updates

Here's a link to your current grade report for the course.

Your grades are in sets of 4 sheets.


The first set is your overall grade so far in the course. The second column from the right is the total number of points you have so far in the course. 1725 is the highest total number. The column furthest to the right shows your current percentage grade as a decimal point. Anything from .895 and up is an A; .795 and up is a B; etc. This is your current grade – it will change as we complete more assignments. I have dropped one quiz grade, so a few of you have over 100%.


The next set is your term paper grade.


The next set is your exam grade; you’ve completed two exams so far; the third one is the Rawls exam that's due on May 26.


Etc. Each set is labeled with the category.


Look for your grade with your student ID number. This was a ton of data entry, and I’m not good at data entry – double check your grades carefully to be sure I haven’t made a typo or missed entering a grade. It’s very easy to fix now, so just send me an email if you see a mistake.

Term Paper Responses

Here's the list of responses we talked about in class today. If you look at the bottom left corner of the last page of your paper, you'll see a number or several numbers. You can look up the number on the list here.

1. Flesh out the utility and disutility at more length

You’ve made some good basic points about the utility and disutility that might be brought about by the publication of the photos, but try to (1) give more detail about how and where you see the welfare being created or destroyed, and (2) see if you can think through more about the potential benefits that would be brought about, or the potential problems that would occur. So this was a good start, but you want to try to think it through in as much detail as you can muster. Particularly, you want to be sure that you’re thinking about the issue from all sides. In this case, there are important principles of journalistic freedom in play, as well as the potential for damaged reputations. The newspaper is an important vehicle by which ideas get exchanged, and the exchange of ideas is central to Mill’s reasoning, so giving the greatest possible leeway to the paper to publish what it finds newsworthy is something important in terms of the freedom of expression. Hiding the students’ identities does impose on the paper’s ability to tell the story, AND, it also means that those students might miss out on the opportunity to have people argue against them and thereby the opportunity to exchange their wrong ideas for right ones. Freedom of expression doesn’t mean freedom from being criticized and argued with (remember, Mill specifically says we can “argue with and remonstrate with” people we disagree with – to remonstrate means to forcefully and disapprovingly object to something). So there are serious aspects to both sides. You want to be sure you’re considering all of those when you make your case.

2. Show your calculation more

Show your work a little more in section three. That is, try to give reasons why you think one consideration is more important than another. For example, if you were arguing that the benefits to freedom of expression and belief are greater if we limit what the paper can publish (by enforcing a rule that they’ll blur potentially embarrassing photos of students), you might say something like “I think freedom of expression is better protected if we protect the identity of the students: first, students are at a more vulnerable stage in their lives socially, and I think the threat of being publically embarrassed will have a more chilling effect on their willingness to put forward ideas. Second, as Henry Johnson points out in the case study, publishing recognizable photos might shift the whole debate onto the individual culpability of the students pictured, and distract us from the important conversation about racism and privilege: since Mill’s argument about freedom of expression focuses on the importance for the greatest good that comes from having open discussions, anything that interferes with these discussions would be destroying welfare instead of creating it. So if we look at the reasons Mill has for supporting freedom of expression, we see that those reasons are best furthered by protecting the students’ identities rather than revealing them, even though it does impede the newspaper’s freedom to some extent.”

3. Make sure you follow the instructions

Be sure that you’re following the instructions very closely, so that you’re certain to answer all the important questions I want you to answer. This paper is partly showing your understanding of the arguments we covered by showing you applying those arguments in detail. In order to demonstrate your understanding, then, you want to be sure to really do the utilitarian calculation in detail. The instructions are a way of reminding you of all the important parts you have to cover in order to do that, so be sure you’re doing everything that’s listed. This is a good general start, but it doesn’t go into enough detail for me to really see you demonstrate a deep understanding of the material.

4. Be sure you include Mill’s reasons

Remember – don’t just include Mill’s reasons why he thinks freedom of expression is so important. Say how it relates to his specific concerns in On Liberty to the general Utilitarian principle and be sure to use those reasons when you’re thinking about what the paper’s policy should be (rather than just general ideas about welfare). By focusing on Mill’s reasons about expression instead of just his conclusion and the general Utilitarian principle, you (1) can illustrate the connection between those ideas; (2) can get more particular about your argument – there will be some interference with total free expression no matter what happens in this case (either the students will be embarrassed and might possibly be less willing to express their opinions in the future, or the paper will have to stifle part of the story to protect the students’ identities), so just saying that we’re concerned to encourage free expression doesn’t do any work here – the reasoning behind why we’re concerned with free expression gets you further, because you can see which considerations will most further those reasons and why.

5. Organization

Reread your draft for organization once you’ve finished a rough draft. Often, the order in which you organize ideas makes a huge difference to how easy it is to follow your reasoning and/or the reasoning of the philosopher you’re explaining. For example, if you bring up someone’s conclusion, you should explain his/her reasons in support of that conclusion right away, rather than mentioning the conclusion in one paragraph and then talking about the support later in the paper. Similarly with your own conclusions – give your reasons in support of your conclusions immediately before or after you say what your conclusion is, rather than mentioning what you conclude about an issue on one page, going on to talk about something else for a while, and then circling back around to provide some reasons. The connections between ideas become extremely hard to follow if the ideas that connect up to one another are scattered around, so be sure to organize ideas together with their reasons so that your reasoning is clear and persuasive.

Rawls Exam

Here's a link to the last Midterm of the semester (sniff...)

Philosophy 110: Rawls Exam

It's due no later than 1 p.m. on May 26 (Thursday) in my office, PS-117.

If you want to turn the exam in early, feel free. If I'm not in my office, slip your exam under my office door AND send me an email with an electronic copy of the exam attached. Make sure that you hear back from me by Thursday verifying that I got your exam; if you haven't head back from me, contact me right away to make sure you get me your exam on time.

Let me know if you have any questions while you're working on the exam.

Good luck; have fun!

Extra Credit

Earn 10 points for each excellent answer, up to 100 points. Type and double-space your answers and submit them to me no later than May 26 by 1 p.m.

Plato: Euthyphro

• Socrates claims that he doesn’t know anything. If that’s the case, how does he respond to the definitions his interlocutor puts forward?
• Euthyphro tweaks his definition and comes up with: what is dear to all the gods/God is pious and what is hated by all the gods/God is impious. Socrates doesn’t think that explains anything. Why not?

Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill On Liberty)

• What are the four major problems that arise for act utilitarianism?
• How does Rule Utilitarianism address those four problems?
  
• What is the difference between act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism?

Kantian Ethics

• Why does Kant think you should recognize that you must always treat other rational beings as ends in themselves, and never merely as means?

Virtue Ethics (Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics)

• What are the two parts to developing into a person who can find the Golden Mean, and why are both parts necessary?
• What do virtue ethicists think about ethical principles?

Justice as Fairness (Rawls)

• What are two major worries Rawls has about Utilitarianism?
• Why is the veil of ignorance important to get the Original Position to "work"?