PHL 292 1nd EditionFinal Exam Study GuideThe final exam will have two parts for a total of 100 points. All potential questions will be given to you before the exam (see below) and a subset of these questions will appear on the exam. You will have 75 minutes to complete the exam. First, four of the following nine short-answers will be on the exam. A few sentences to one paragraph answer should suffice. Each question will be worth 10 points.1. What is a (moral) right? What is a positive right? What is a negative right? Give an example of a negative right. Briefly state how the notion of rights is used in an argument from a paper that we read (Arthur, Thomson, Regan, or Cohen). Negative rights: rights of noninterference, natural rights (from birth)o Examples: right to life, right to religious freedom Positive rights: rights of recipience (contracts, promises)o Examples: children under custody of biological parents are entitled to be fed, clothed, etc., employees are entitled to a paycheck Arthur maintains that all humans beings have natural rights (negative rights) Arthur says that DNS have no positive rights of recipience to the income of wealthy individuals (positive rights) According to Arthur, to require one to sacrifice his natural rights, and his body parts, is to show a lack of respect for persons2. What moral principle does Singer rely on in his argument for the claim that we ought to sacrifice any wealth surplus to help prevent world poverty, disease, and starvation? (State the principle exactly.) What does Singer mean by “wealth surplus”? Anytime anyone has a wealth surplus to his or her essential needs she ought to (has a moral obligation to) sacrifice that surplus to help prevent world poverty, disease, starvation, etc. Essential needs are those that are mandatory for the preservation of our lives and health Principle: “if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of (comparable) moral importance, we ought, morally to do it” This is called the “greater moral evil rule” Wealth surplus – anything you don’t need for survival “The formula is simple: whatever money you’re spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away”3. What does it mean to say that a fetus is a person? In her argument for the moral permissibility of abortion in a variety of types of cases, does Thomson assume that the fetus is a person? If so, why does Thomson grant this assumption? If not, why doesn’t she grant this assumption? Thomas grants that a fetus is a person in order to establish common ground with most of the pro-life side She doesn’t actually believe that the fetus is a person, she grants this for the argument Uses the violist case o Are you morally required to stay hooked up the violinist for 9 months? Is it ok for you to plug yourself, thereby causing the violinist to die?o Most people would think it was outrageous to claim that you were required tot stay hooked upo Thomas agrees with thato Is someone chooses to stay hooked up, it was be a Good Samaritan act Violinist case proves: a woman who is pregnant as a result of rape is not obligated to sustain the life of the fetus and has a right to an abortion If both mother and fetus have a right to life, which life is more important?4. According to Marquis, both pro-life and pro-choice arguments rely on problematic general moral principles. State either the typical pro-life or typical pro-choice argument that Marquis discusses (see also lecture slides). Briefly explain why the moral principle relied on in the argument is problematic. Pro-life argument: o P1: fetuses have the same biological properties as ordinary adult humans and young children do o P2: its wrong to kill all human biological life (pro-life general moral principle)o C: therefore abortion is wrong It is ok to kill some human biological life Examples: warts, cancer cells This principle allows us to kill not enough Pro-choice argument:o P1: fetuses aren’t rational, whereas, ordinary adult human beings and young children areo P2: its only wrong to kill rational beings (pro-choice general moral principle)o C: abortion is morally permissible Only rational beings? It leaves out infants and some mentally handicapped persons This principle allows us to kill too much5. Hursthouse argues that from a virtue ethics perspective, two of the dominant considerations in the traditional abortion debate are irrelevant as to whether it is morally wrong to have an abortion. State and briefly explain one of those considerations. Why does Hursthouse think that this consideration is fundamentally irrelevant as to whether having an abortion is morally wrong? Discards the “is a fetus a person” and the “is the killing of the fetus an unjust killing” The status of the fetus and a woman’s rights are irrelevant to the rightness and wrongness of abortion It is more a question of whether a woman who has an abortion acts viciously or virtuously The quality of the action is key to determining whether an abortion is morally right or wrong according to the virtue ethicist A virtue ethicist asked:o What is the mark of having the right attitude to these facts and what manifests having the wrong attitude to them? For Hursthouse, whether abortion is morally wrong in certain circumstances depends on the nature of the case In the second set, Hursthouse thinks that something is amiss in their lives so that the conditions are not right for them to pursue eudemonia and appreciate what constitutes a good life. ALL ABOUT THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TOWARDS FACTS, PARTICULARLY LIFE AND DEATH6. According to Regan, what is fundamentally wrong about our current animal practices (use of animals inscientific research, commercial animal agriculture, commercial and sport hunting and trapping)? We ought to abolisho The use of animals in scientific researcho Commercial animal agricultureo Commercial and sport hunting and trapping.o The use of animals in entertainment? Regan does not think that we can practice ethical treatment of animals by modifying the system We must abolish the system He doesn’t think the fundamental wrongness of our animal practices is the suffering inflicted on the animals He thinks the fundamental wrongness of our animal practices lies in our using beings of inherent value as resources Also thinks the
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