Ethical Issues and Life Choices Exam 2 Study Guide You should understand and be able to explain the following terms arguments and ideas in detail as discussed in class HIGHLIGHTED SECTIONS CAN BE ASKED DURING THE REVIEW FOR CLEARIFICATION Philosophical Arguments Philosophical Argument A set of statements one or more of which are designated as premises and exactly one of which is designated a conclusion The premises provide reasons to believe the conclusion is true Deductive Validity A deductive argument is valid iff if and only if it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false Deductive Soundness A deductive argument is sound iff 1 it is valid and 2 all of its premises are true Notes Like validity soundness only applies to deductive arguments And only valid deductive arguments can be sound all invalid arguments are also unsound When people talk in ordinary English about a good argument they often are thinking about soundness If an argument is sound then its conclusion is true Why The argument is valid so it is impossible for the premises to be true while the conclusion is false The premises are true So the conclusion can t be false So the conclusion must be true Abortion Thomson Rights Rights are entitlements not to perform certain actions or not to be in certain states or entitlements that others not perform certain actions or not be in certain states The Argument against abortion Thomson considers So Thomson is going to grant the premise that the fetus is a person from the point of conception She thinks she can grant her opponents this premise and still argue that abortion is permissible An argument against abortion 1 Every person has a right to life 2 So the fetus has a right to life 3 The mother has a right to decide what shall happen to her body 4 But a person s right to life outweighs one s right to decide what shall happen to her body 5 Therefore an abortion should not be performed conclusion The violinist case and what it is supposed to show the violinist case only applies to cases of rape The growing baby case and what it is supposed to show when the mother s life is at stake No 3rd party help the woman has the right to defend her life However innocent the child may be you do not have to wait passively while it crushes you to death p 52 So we might be tempted to conclude that abortions are permissible but only when the mother does so herself The Smith and Jones case and what it is supposed to show that a third party could assent to performing an abortion on a mother whose life was at stake in carrying a baby to term Even though the growing baby case seems to result in the conclusion that only a mother may defend her life from her fetus the Smith and Jones case shows that the mother may seek the help of a third party to perform an abortion and it would be permissible for the third party to comply The People Seeds case and what it is supposed to show when contraception fails Like condom breaks etc What Thomson thinks the right to life means Thomson s conclusions Abortion Marquis The strategy by which aims to address the abortion debate why is killing wrong in general we can investigate why we take killing ordinary human beings to be wrong and see if these reasons apply to cases of abortion Maruquis s account of why killing is wrong The Future Like Ours Account The loss of one s life deprives one of all the experiences activities projects and enjoyments that would otherwise have constituted one s future Therefore killing someone is wrong primarily because the killing inflicts one of the greatest possible losses on the victim p 189 Killing is wrong because it deprives us of a future The two direct claims with support his account 1 The account explains why we regard killing as one of the worst crimes It deprives the victim of something no other crime deprives one of 2 People with AIDS or cancer or some other terminal illness who know they re dying believe that dying is very bad for them It seems they believe that the loss of a future they otherwise would have had is what makes their premature death a bad thing four The claims that support the account in virtue of its implications 1 The view implies that it s not just wrong to kill human beings It would be wrong to kill any sort of possible creature who could have a future like ours e g aliens 2 The view entails it would be wrong to kill some non human mammals that are sufficiently like us 3 The view does not entail that active euthanasia is wrong 4 The view entails that it is wrong to kill children and infants argument The which applies his account to abortion 1 It is morally wrong to kill someone because it deprives them of future experiences activities and projects premise 2 The future of standard fetuses includes a set of experiences activities and projects premise 3 So the reason why killing an average human being is wrong also applies to fetuses premise 4 Therefore killing a fetus or abortion is morally wrong conclusion Necessary and Sufficient conditions A necessary condition of a statement must be satisfied for the statement to be true P is necessary for Q means that Q cannot be true unless P is true or if P is false then Q is false Example In order for John to be a medical doctor he must have a medical degree A sufficient condition is one that if satisfied assures the statement s truth P is sufficient for Q means that if P is true then Q is true also Example If John is a bachelor then John is a male The two alternative accounts Marquis considers Discontinuation and Desire accounts The Discontinuation Account Based on the obvious fact that people value the experience of living and wish for that valuable experience to continue it might be argued that what makes killing wrong is the discontinuation of that experience for the victim The Desire Account based on the obvious fact that people desire to live this suggests that what makes killing us wrong is that it interferes with the fulfillment of a strong and fundamental desire the fulfillment of which is necessary for the fulfillment of any other desires we have The Contraception Objection The Justified Killing Objection there are cases in which we are justified in killing an individual such as when they perform atrocious crimes The What Makes Our Future Valuable Objection The Future Like Ours Account could be too broad If all it takes to make killing seriously morally wrong is having experiences and projects this could be extended to almost any
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