Morality and Social Policy Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life Chapter 7

Famine, Affluence, and Morality, Singer ► (1) Suffering and death from a lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad. ► (2) If we can prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing something of comparable moral worth, we ought to do it.

Singer ► (3) We can prevent such suffering and death by giving to famine relief. ► (C) We ought to give to famine relief.

Singer ► Proximity and distance don’t matter. ► Does the argument have an absurd consequence? ► The argument calls for a change in our moral categories.

World Hunger and Moral Obligation: The Case Against Singer, Arthur ► Arthur calls into question Singer’s “greater moral evil rule”. ► Rights and desert also carry moral weight.

Arthur ► A moral code that is rational to support must be practical.

For God’s Sake, Please Stop the Aid!, Shikwati ► Aid is ineffective, and in fact harmful. ► Aid encourages poverty, dependence, and indebtedness.

Shikwati ► African farmers and small businesses suffer, because they lose the market for their products. ► Aid must have accountability, because of corruption.

An Almost Absolute Value in History, Noonan ► The most fundamental question in the abortion debate is, “How do you determine the humanity of a being?” ► Noonan’s criterion: if you are conceived by human parents, then you are human.

Noonan ► Viability is a faulty criterion. ► The claim that humanity depends on formation by experience fails to justify abortion. ► An appeal to the sentiments of adults is also faulty. ► The criterion of social visibility also fails.

On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, Warren ► There is a fallacy in the standard anti- abortion argument. ► The term “human” has a genetic sense and a moral sense.

Warren ► Genetic humanity is not sufficient for moral humanity. ► Traits that are central to moral personhood: consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated activity, capacity to communicate, and the presence of a self-concept.

Warren ► A being that satisfies none of these traits is not a person. ► The rights of actual persons always outweigh the rights of potential persons. ► Infanticide

A Defense of Abortion, Thomson ► Abortion may still be permissible, even granting that a fetus is a person at conception, with the right to life. ► Imagine the case of the famous unconscious violinist.

Thomson ► My having a right to life does not entail that others must do whatever it takes to sustain my life. ► The case of the people-seeds ► The Good Samaritan and the Minimally Decent Samaritan

Why Abortion is Immoral, Marquis ► In order to resolve the abortion controversy, we need a theoretical account of the wrongness of killing. ► It is wrong to kill adult human beings because it deprives them of a future of value.

Marquis ► Marquis offers 4 points in support of this account of the wrongness of killing. ► Fetuses have a future of value, a future like ours. ► Given this, abortion is usually seriously morally wrong. ► Is contraception also wrong?

On Duties to Animals, Kant ► Direct vs. Indirect Duties ► We have no direct duties to animals, they exist merely as means to an end – man. ► We have indirect duties to animals, because this inclines us to also treat other human beings well.

A Moral Defense of Vegetarianism, Rachels ► Rachels rejects Kant’s views regarding the ethics of cruelty to animals. ► Cruelty to animals is wrong because of its direct effects on the animals. ► There is an incredible amount of animal suffering caused by how we raise and slaughter animals. ► This treatment is standard practice; it is not out of the ordinary. ► We should not participate in such an immoral social practice.

Down on the Factory Farm, Singer ► The ideal farm life of animals is almost completely mythical. ► Singer gives a detailed description of the suffering and maltreatment of animals in factory farms. ► The reasons for these practices do not justify them.

The Case for Affirmative Action, Barbara Bergman ► Do the good effects of affirmative action outweigh the bad? ► The presence of hostility in the workplace ► Affirmative action and the laziness objection ► Quantitative study on the feelings of African-Americans ► Affirmative action and the production of anger objection

What’s Wrong with Affirmative Action?, Shelby Steele ► Affirmative action appears to be reformist, corrective, even redemptive. ► Good intentions don’t outweigh negative effects.  Racial development not equivalent to racial representation  Demoralization and self-doubt  Exploitation of victimization  Fosters an illusion