PHI 2630 01 Final Exam Questions Directions Answer one of each number One of the 1s one of the 2s etc Each question is worth 8 75 points for a total of 35 points or 35 of your overall grade You should answer all questions as completely as you can You should be writing between 1 1 5 pgs per question give or take a bit 1 Poverty and World Hunger would do to that cycle a Explain Hardin s population cycle and what he thinks the World Food Bank i Hardin s population cycle theorizes that a population will always return to a carrying capacity when overpopulation occurs In the population cycle when governments do not put population limits or nothing is done to control a nation s population the population grows out of its carrying capacity and is in a state of overpopulation When an emergency happens such as a crop shortage the inhabitants die and the population returns back to carrying capacity Hardin views the World Food Bank as one way transfer from rich affluent countries to poverty stricken nations and peoples Hardin argues that without the help of the World Food Bank poverty stricken nations would go through the cycle repeatedly He argues that the World Food Bank is not allowing populations of poor nations to return to their carrying capacity and instead is raising the reproduction rate of these nations As population size increases so does the magnitude of accidents Despite the fact that the World Food Bank could prevent the cycle from repeating itself in the end the catastrophe caused by the Bank will be greater than the natural repetition of the cycle One food shortage could cause millions to die instead of thousands if the natural cycle was not disrupted by the World Food Bank b Compare Singer s and O Neill s arguments that we in industrialized nations ought to provide aid to alleviate the famine and hunger of those living in extreme poverty i Singer argues that suffering and death from lack of food shelter and medical care is bad If it is in a nation s power to prevent something bad from happening without sacrifice anything nearly as important it is wrong not to do so By donating to aid agencies industrialized nations can prevent suffering and death from lack of food shelter and medical care without sacrificing anything nearly important Therefore if industrialized nations do not donate to aid agencies they are doing something wrong O Neil argues that industrialized nations are treating the poor as a mere means rather than an end and that is the root of poverty in the world Industrialized nations she argues use tactics of coercion to give low wages to the poverty stricken and to take advantage of Third World nations and their people which is wrong If industrialized nations O Neil argue user the categorical imperative by treating people as an ends rather than a means by providing education to the poor and providing them with tools to reach a good life then poverty can be drastically reduced 2 Abortion show about abortion a Explain Thomson s people spores example What is this example supposed to i Suppose that people seeds drift about in the air like pollen and if you open your window one may drift in and take root in your carpets or upholstery You don t want children so you fix up your windows with fine mesh screens the very best you can buy As can happen however and on very very rare occasion does happen one of the screens is defective and a seed drifts in and takes root Does the person plant who now develops have a right to the use of your house Surely not despite the fact that you voluntarily opened your windows you knowingly kept carpets and upholstered furniture and you knew that screens were sometimes defective Someone may argue that you are responsible for its rooting that it does have a right to your house because after all you could have lived out your life with bare floors and furniture or with sealed windows and doors But this won t do for by the same token anyone who can avoid a pregnancy due to rape by having a hysterectomy or anyway by never leaving home without an army Thomson argues that a woman has the right to her body and to what happens to it but it can be established at most that there are some cases in which the unborn person has a right to the use of its mother s body and therefore in some cases in which abortion is an unjust killing b What is Warren s space explorer example who is captured by alien scientists supposed to show Explain the example i If aliens could turn the astronaut into thousands of new people does he have a duty to give up his life a year of his freedom or even a day for their existence This is the central questions of Warren s space explorer example Warren argues that the astronaut does not have a duty to give up his life or any part of his freedom for the thousands of potential live he could create Furthermore Warren argues that even if he was put in the situation by his own carelessness or even deliberately he would not be morally obligated to stay for the potential lives that could come into existence Warren s example goes to show that the rights of a woman will outweigh by a similar margin whatever right to life a fetus may have by virtue of its potential personhood Thus neither a fetus s resemblance to a person nor its potential for becoming a person provides any basis whatsoever for the claim that it has any significant right to life Consequently a woman s tight to protect her health happiness freedom and even her life by terminating an unwanted pregnancy will always override whatever right to life it may be appropriate to ascribe a fetus even a fully developed one Therefore Warren concludes that any law that does not permit a woman to have an abortion is directly and unjustifiable violated a woman s most basic moral and constitutional rights c What does Marquis mean by a future like ours What is his response to someone who says that his view entails that contraception is wrong i Marquis begins his approach the immorality of abortion by asking what makes killing a human being wrong Marquis argues that what makes killing wring is the loss to the victim of the value of the victim s future Marquis explains that experiences projects activities and enjoyments constitute a future of human beings Even experiences that are not valued in the present or that are not enjoyable can come to be valued as someone grows older Therefore Marquis points out that the prospect of a future a future like ours makes killing morally wrong Marquis applies
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