Category: Philosophy

The assignment has three parts:
Part 1
Please do these readings BEFORE the weekend (you will be assigned two more for Monday):
Thomson: “A Defense of Abortion” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2265091?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents) and Don Marquis, “Why Abortion is Immoral” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2026961?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents), which both discuss abortion. We will take several classes to discuss abortion, but for this class, try to outline (for yourself) the articles (one for, and one against, abortion). What do you think are the main points of these articles? How would you explain them to someone who has not read the articles?
Part 2
In addition to the two readings assigned at the end of last week, do the following:
Review our readings on Virtue Theory from Week 3.
Then read “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/27902294?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents), by Mary Anne Warren, and “Virtue Theory and Abortion” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/27902294?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents)., by Rosalind Hursthouse.
Note that it is important to read the Virtue Theory readings BEFORE the abortion readings for this week.
For today’s class, choose a case from the list below. Use that case to prepare a presentation, following the format below:
Choose ONE of these case descriptions, and construct (and write) a short case (either from your experience, from the news, or a fictionalized case) based on that one instance. Then prepare a presentation based on that case, plus two slides.
Summarize the case or caselet by:
1- What is the ethical issue(s) in this case?
2- What are some possible solutions to the case?
3- What reasons support those solutions?
4- What do you think should be done, and why?
5- What are some questions for class discussion?
On your final two slides, construct an argument for EACH side of the question raised by the case (one for, one against) using an ethical theory or principle as the main reason for or against the morality of having an abortion in the case. Try to use ideas from the four articles that you have read to strengthen your argument(s).
So: two valid, defensible arguments, one on each slide. Then, in a sentence or two for EACH premise (one and two) in EACH argument, suggest how one might defend that premise.
To choose your case: Below is s set of difficult instances of abortion, taken from the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/philosophical/difficultcases.shtml (downloaded 2/14/2016):
1- Cases where there is a serious medical problem
a)the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the mother (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/philosophical/selfdefence.shtml).
b) there are too many fetuses (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/selective_1.shtml) in the womb for them all to survive
c)the fetus is so defective (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/selective_1.shtml) that it will die later in the pregnancy
d) the fetus is so defective (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/selective_1.shtml) that it will not live after the birth
2- Cases where the child will not be ‘normal’
a) the child will suffer from some mental or physical abnormality(https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/philosophical/disability.shtml) that the parents (correctly?) think will very seriously damage its quality of life
3- Cases where the pregnancy is entirely unintentional
a) pregnancy caused by rape
b) pregnancy caused by failure of contraception where the potential parents are not to blame
c) pregnancy caused by a badly done vasectomy
d) pregnancy caused by the parties not knowing that sexual intercourse causes pregnancy
– such cases would include persons who are not mentally capable of understanding this
4- Cases where the pregnancy is unintentional but where risk was taken
a) pregnancy caused by failure of contraception within the known risk of that contraceptive method
b) pregnancy caused by carelessness in the use of contraception
c) pregnancy caused by failure to use contraception
5- Cases where the pregnancy has lifestyle consequences
a) having a child would prevent the mother from achieving some life objective
b) the mother is incapable of looking after a child
c) the mother is incapable of looking after another child
d) another child would lower the family’s standard of living
e) there is not enough food to support the child
f) having another child would result in criminal proceedings against the parent
g) the child is not of the preferred sex
h) coping with the child’s disability would damage the family’s lifestyle
i) coping with the child’s disability would disadvantage existing family children
Part 3
Read Schouten- Fetuses, Orphans, and a Famous Violinist.pdf.Download Schouten- Fetuses, Orphans, and a Famous Violinist.pdf. IN WRITING, from the articles we have read, choose the article that is most challenging to you (that is intentionally broad!). Explain what the challenge is, why it is challenging to you, and how you respond. Be sure to pick an article or point that genuinely makes you question your own view, and explain what is a challenge to your way of thinking.

Do not use outside source except for the 4 stated below.
Sources to be used:
1. Title: New York City schools blocked ChatGPT. Here’s what other large districts are doing
Link: https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/6/23543039/chatgpt-school-districts-ban-block-artificial-intelligence-open-ai
2. Title: NYC education department blocks ChatGPT on school devices, networks
Link: https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/3/23537987/nyc-schools-ban-chatgpt-writing-artificial-intelligence
3. Title: “Technologies as Forms of Life”
4. Title: “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”
Essay prompt:
1. Prompt: Do you support banning or restricting the use of ChatGPT in K-12 schools? Large school districts around the country are starting to, including LAUSD and the NYC Department of Education. Drawing from both Langdon Winner readings, “Technologies as Forms of Life” and “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”, explain how the use of natural language processors (like ChatGPT) might affect us both as individuals and as a society.
2. Include responses to the following topics in your analysis:
Interpret how ChatGPT is a “political” object in the two ways that Winner describes. In other words, explain the values guiding the development of ChatGPT, as well as how this technology is “inherently political.” Does ChatGPT require authoritarian control by “practical necessity”?
Explain Winner’s term “technological somnambulism.” Assuming everyone wants to avoid this, explain one or two values that we could design into ChatGPT. Be sure to explain why specific design changes to ChatGPT would align with these values.
3. The essay must follow the outline below, divide the essay into three distinct sections and number them (1, 2, 3).
Also, be sure to include a Works Cited page and use MLA in-text citations when referencing ideas or directly citing evidence from the assigned reading.
4. Regarding citation, essay must cite supporting evidence from the assigned reading. Avoid general, vague, and extra long quotations. In fact, it often makes more sense to avoid directly quoting the material altogether. Instead, you might want to summarize the information and then cite the page numbers at the end.
Essay outline:
1. Essay must follow the outline below. Be sure to number the three sections of the essay (I, II, III)
Dividing and numbering the essay into three sections helps me grade more efficiently.
2. Engage the Opposition
Consider the opposition’s best reasons and evidence in support of their thesis.
Be charitable: Present the strongest opposing view in a way that would satisfy supporters of that view. For example, if your thesis is “I support X,” then present the strongest version of the opposing argument (“the strongest reasons to support Y”). Beginning with the opposing view serves as a springboard for your own analysis in Section 3, where you will synthesize your own analysis with a response to the opposition. Be sure to save your response for Section 3! However, you may include a transition at the end of this section that summarizes your points of disagreement, which you will explain further in Section 3.
3. Analysis (the argument in support of your thesis)
Present your argument in support of your thesis.
Demonstrate the logical reasoning in support of your thesis. Arguments are FACTS and VALUES that mutually support a JUDGMENT or conclusion. Think of each body paragraph as an argument for why we should support your thesis.
Be sure to include your response to the opposition in this section. Responding to the strongest opposing view will make your argument more persuasive!
Use assigned class materials as well as clear and specific real-world examples to support your reasoning. Avoid vague or hypothetical evidence.

The assignment has two parts:
Part 1
Please do these readings BEFORE the weekend (you will be assigned two more for Monday):
Thomson: “A Defense of Abortion” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2265091?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents) and Don Marquis, “Why Abortion is Immoral” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2026961?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents), which both discuss abortion. We will take several classes to discuss abortion, but for this class, try to outline (for yourself) the articles (one for, and one against, abortion). What do you think are the main points of these articles? How would you explain them to someone who has not read the articles?
Part 2
Read Schouten- Fetuses, Orphans, and a Famous Violinist.pdf.Download Schouten- Fetuses, Orphans, and a Famous Violinist.pdf.
IN WRITING, from the articles we have read, choose the article that is most challenging to you (that is intentionally broad!). Explain what the challenge is, why it is challenging to you, and how you respond.
Be sure to pick an article or point that genuinely makes you question your own view, and explain what is a challenge to your way of thinking.

Do a 30-point seminar on an open question, on Monday where you will review the Justice readings by Rawls and Sen. You will review your own writings and try to find an issue that you can solve with either of the theories.

Read the articles by Sen (Sen- What Do We Want From a Theory of Justice.pdf Download Sen- What Do We Want From a Theory of Justice.pdf) and Khasnabish (to be added) 04-Ch2 -proofread Khasnabish-oct.8.pdf Download 04-Ch2 -proofread Khasnabish-oct.8.pdf
The goal is today’s class is to further discuss some of the complications surrounding the idea of “justice” in discussing ethics. In particular, in a world that is full of a wide variety of inequalities, how can justice be achieved? And do we all actually believe that justice is a valuable goal, or is it simply lip service paid to an unattainable ideal that serves to maintain the positions of those in power?
In Writing: After reading Rawls, and the critiques of Rawls, what is your view of how successfully he eliminates the basic tendency of all of us to favor our “group” or “groups” when we try to behave justly? What criticisms seem correct and supportable to you, and what criticisms seem to be unfair or inaccurate? This will take you at least one full page.

Complete readings “The Nature of Virtue”, by Aristotle, and “How Can I be a Better Person? On Virtue Ethics,” by Douglas Giles [“Virtue Ethics” by Julia Driver (Missing)]
You have now read something about three different ethical theories (utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Virtue theory). Imagine that you are the doctor in charge of emergency services in a small, local hospital. Your hospital has three ventilators, which help people struggling to breathe to stay alive. Today five people have been admitted to the hospital with coronavirus symptoms, and all five need help breathing. Without knowing anything (yet) about the patients, your hospital has to formulate a policy about how to decide who gets to use a ventilator and who will not (keeping in mind that it may be that someone who does not get to use a ventilator may die, and someone who gets to use a ventilator may not live). First, use virtue theory to describe a policy that your hospital might implement. HINT: remember that virtue theory focuses on the character of the “actor” – what would a reasonable person do here? Why would virtue theory indicate this way? Be sure to mention the advantages and disadvantages of using virtue theory.
Then, compare that answer to EITHER the answer a utilitarian will give to formulate this policy OR how a Kantian/deontologist would design the policy. Remember the “Why”, and the advantages and disadvantages.. ).

10 full pages in length
(text is 10 pages) minimum (typed, double space, 1 inch margins for each
page: MLA or APA or Turabian format; A REFERENCE OR WORKS CITED PAGE
IS MANDATORY). Also see:
https://www.gradesaver.com/writing-help/apa-vs-mla-what-style-guide-do-i-use)
Please re-read Chapter 7. Please see: James Bond Stockdale’s The World
of Epictetus (available here:
http://www.erhsnyc.org/ourpages/auto/2015/1/6/39011553/The%2
0World%20of%20Epictetus-Stockdale.pdf) and answer: “How did
Philosophy Save James Bond Stockdale’s Life?”

write a letter/email explaining what an alternative fact is claimed to be. Do some research to find an example for what was presented as an alternative fact in the traditional or social media. Then provide a critical evaluation of the concept of alternative fact in the context of your example.
The letter/email can be addressed to anyone. It should not be longer than 350 words. Your letter/email should be in formal register and MLA style.

The assignment has three parts:
Part 1
Please do these readings BEFORE the weekend (you will be assigned two more for Monday):
Thomson: “A Defense of Abortion” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2265091?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents) and Don Marquis, “Why Abortion is Immoral” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2026961?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents), which both discuss abortion. We will take several classes to discuss abortion, but for this class, try to outline (for yourself) the articles (one for, and one against, abortion). What do you think are the main points of these articles? How would you explain them to someone who has not read the articles?
Part 2
In addition to the two readings assigned at the end of last week, do the following:
Review our readings on Virtue Theory from Week 3.
Then read “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/27902294?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents), by Mary Anne Warren, and “Virtue Theory and Abortion” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/27902294?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents)., by Rosalind Hursthouse.
Note that it is important to read the Virtue Theory readings BEFORE the abortion readings for this week.
For today’s class, choose a case from the list below. Use that case to prepare a presentation, following the format below:
Choose ONE of these case descriptions, and construct (and write) a short case (either from your experience, from the news, or a fictionalized case) based on that one instance. Then prepare a presentation based on that case, plus two slides.
Summarize the case or caselet by:
1- What is the ethical issue(s) in this case?
2- What are some possible solutions to the case?
3- What reasons support those solutions?
4- What do you think should be done, and why?
5- What are some questions for class discussion?
On your final two slides, construct an argument for EACH side of the question raised by the case (one for, one against) using an ethical theory or principle as the main reason for or against the morality of having an abortion in the case. Try to use ideas from the four articles that you have read to strengthen your argument(s).
So: two valid, defensible arguments, one on each slide. Then, in a sentence or two for EACH premise (one and two) in EACH argument, suggest how one might defend that premise.
To choose your case: Below is s set of difficult instances of abortion, taken from the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/philosophical/difficultcases.shtml (downloaded 2/14/2016):
1- Cases where there is a serious medical problem
a)the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the mother (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/philosophical/selfdefence.shtml).
b) there are too many fetuses (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/selective_1.shtml) in the womb for them all to survive
c)the fetus is so defective (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/selective_1.shtml) that it will die later in the pregnancy
d) the fetus is so defective (https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/selective_1.shtml) that it will not live after the birth
2- Cases where the child will not be ‘normal’
a) the child will suffer from some mental or physical abnormality(https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/philosophical/disability.shtml) that the parents (correctly?) think will very seriously damage its quality of life
3- Cases where the pregnancy is entirely unintentional
a) pregnancy caused by rape
b) pregnancy caused by failure of contraception where the potential parents are not to blame
c) pregnancy caused by a badly done vasectomy
d) pregnancy caused by the parties not knowing that sexual intercourse causes pregnancy
– such cases would include persons who are not mentally capable of understanding this
4- Cases where the pregnancy is unintentional but where risk was taken
a) pregnancy caused by failure of contraception within the known risk of that contraceptive method
b) pregnancy caused by carelessness in the use of contraception
c) pregnancy caused by failure to use contraception
5- Cases where the pregnancy has lifestyle consequences
a) having a child would prevent the mother from achieving some life objective
b) the mother is incapable of looking after a child
c) the mother is incapable of looking after another child
d) another child would lower the family’s standard of living
e) there is not enough food to support the child
f) having another child would result in criminal proceedings against the parent
g) the child is not of the preferred sex
h) coping with the child’s disability would damage the family’s lifestyle
i) coping with the child’s disability would disadvantage existing family children
Part 3
Read Schouten- Fetuses, Orphans, and a Famous Violinist.pdf.Download Schouten- Fetuses, Orphans, and a Famous Violinist.pdf. IN WRITING, from the articles we have read, choose the article that is most challenging to you (that is intentionally broad!). Explain what the challenge is, why it is challenging to you, and how you respond. Be sure to pick an article or point that genuinely makes you question your own view, and explain what is a challenge to your way of thinking.

Do not use outside source except for the 4 stated below.
Sources to be used:
1. Title: New York City schools blocked ChatGPT. Here’s what other large districts are doing
Link: https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/6/23543039/chatgpt-school-districts-ban-block-artificial-intelligence-open-ai
2. Title: NYC education department blocks ChatGPT on school devices, networks
Link: https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/3/23537987/nyc-schools-ban-chatgpt-writing-artificial-intelligence
3. Title: “Technologies as Forms of Life”
4. Title: “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”
Essay prompt:
1. Prompt: Do you support banning or restricting the use of ChatGPT in K-12 schools? Large school districts around the country are starting to, including LAUSD and the NYC Department of Education. Drawing from both Langdon Winner readings, “Technologies as Forms of Life” and “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”, explain how the use of natural language processors (like ChatGPT) might affect us both as individuals and as a society.
2. Include responses to the following topics in your analysis:
Interpret how ChatGPT is a “political” object in the two ways that Winner describes. In other words, explain the values guiding the development of ChatGPT, as well as how this technology is “inherently political.” Does ChatGPT require authoritarian control by “practical necessity”?
Explain Winner’s term “technological somnambulism.” Assuming everyone wants to avoid this, explain one or two values that we could design into ChatGPT. Be sure to explain why specific design changes to ChatGPT would align with these values.
3. The essay must follow the outline below, divide the essay into three distinct sections and number them (1, 2, 3).
Also, be sure to include a Works Cited page and use MLA in-text citations when referencing ideas or directly citing evidence from the assigned reading.
4. Regarding citation, essay must cite supporting evidence from the assigned reading. Avoid general, vague, and extra long quotations. In fact, it often makes more sense to avoid directly quoting the material altogether. Instead, you might want to summarize the information and then cite the page numbers at the end.
Essay outline:
1. Essay must follow the outline below. Be sure to number the three sections of the essay (I, II, III)
Dividing and numbering the essay into three sections helps me grade more efficiently.
2. Engage the Opposition
Consider the opposition’s best reasons and evidence in support of their thesis.
Be charitable: Present the strongest opposing view in a way that would satisfy supporters of that view. For example, if your thesis is “I support X,” then present the strongest version of the opposing argument (“the strongest reasons to support Y”). Beginning with the opposing view serves as a springboard for your own analysis in Section 3, where you will synthesize your own analysis with a response to the opposition. Be sure to save your response for Section 3! However, you may include a transition at the end of this section that summarizes your points of disagreement, which you will explain further in Section 3.
3. Analysis (the argument in support of your thesis)
Present your argument in support of your thesis.
Demonstrate the logical reasoning in support of your thesis. Arguments are FACTS and VALUES that mutually support a JUDGMENT or conclusion. Think of each body paragraph as an argument for why we should support your thesis.
Be sure to include your response to the opposition in this section. Responding to the strongest opposing view will make your argument more persuasive!
Use assigned class materials as well as clear and specific real-world examples to support your reasoning. Avoid vague or hypothetical evidence.