Assignment 04:
"ME, ME, ME!"
Time for your 4th assignment.
Unless you are like me and have a shocking memory, you should still remember
your last assignment - assignment 03. If you don't, it's not serious. You can to go
back to the "Assign 03: All about the outcome" discussion stream and refresh your
memory. Check out what you wrote and what other students wrote.
Remember Assignment 03 was about utilitarianism, arguably the most common
version of the ethical tradition of consequentialism. And we used the very disturbing
crossroads assignment question about 20,000 children dying every day to
interrogate this:
“Every day some 20,000 children die prematurely from poverty related causes, mostly
treatable diseases.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described
by:
A. Who cares?
B. It’s hard to say it, but given the rising human population, perhaps this is a
blessing in disguise for the human species as a whole.
C. It’s hard to say it, but this just means less people competing with me for scarce
opportunities and resources.
D. This is morally wrong, but practically, I think that it would cost too much money
to solve.
E. It is morally unacceptable for a single child to die of a preventable disease and
we should collectively fix this irrespective of the cost.
Egoism is another form of consequentialism. And so we are going to use exactly the
same Crossroads multiple choice question once again.
(Remember - as you go through this assignment, don't forget the three questions
which emerged out of our discussion of virtue ethics: Do I really practice these
values?; Can I really claim that these are my virtues? Is what I am saying really what
I do?)
Here's what you have to do:
INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 0: Do Assignment 1
If you haven't already done it, please go to the "Self Assessments" tool and do
Assignment 1 now.
"ME, ME, ME!"
Time for your 4th assignment.
Unless you are like me and have a shocking memory, you should still remember
your last assignment - assignment 03. If you don't, it's not serious. You can to go
back to the "Assign 03: All about the outcome" discussion stream and refresh your
memory. Check out what you wrote and what other students wrote.
Remember Assignment 03 was about utilitarianism, arguably the most common
version of the ethical tradition of consequentialism. And we used the very disturbing
crossroads assignment question about 20,000 children dying every day to
interrogate this:
“Every day some 20,000 children die prematurely from poverty related causes, mostly
treatable diseases.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described
by:
A. Who cares?
B. It’s hard to say it, but given the rising human population, perhaps this is a
blessing in disguise for the human species as a whole.
C. It’s hard to say it, but this just means less people competing with me for scarce
opportunities and resources.
D. This is morally wrong, but practically, I think that it would cost too much money
to solve.
E. It is morally unacceptable for a single child to die of a preventable disease and
we should collectively fix this irrespective of the cost.
Egoism is another form of consequentialism. And so we are going to use exactly the
same Crossroads multiple choice question once again.
(Remember - as you go through this assignment, don't forget the three questions
which emerged out of our discussion of virtue ethics: Do I really practice these
values?; Can I really claim that these are my virtues? Is what I am saying really what
I do?)
Here's what you have to do:
INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 0: Do Assignment 1
If you haven't already done it, please go to the "Self Assessments" tool and do
Assignment 1 now.
