Week 8: O'Neill & Singer (Feb. 25-March 1)

Assignment due!

What is Philosophy? Part 2 is due Friday, March 1, by 5pm.

 

Monday, Feb. 25

Required

O’Neill, O. (1993). “Kantian approaches to some famine problems.” In T. Regan (Ed.), Matters of life and death: New introductory essays in moral philosophy (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

 

Wednesday, Feb. 27

Required

1. Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence and Morality” Links to an external site. (1972)

  • For this text, try to find the premises and conclusion of his main argument in the first part of the text, then how he addresses objections to this argument.

2. Singer, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” Links to an external site. (New York Times Magazine, 1999)

  • For this article, consider: he starts with two examples of people most would think have done something morally wrong, then uses these as analogies to say that many people actually act this way in regards to poverty. Are the situations in the examples, and the situations of people with extra money who don't donate it, similar enough to justify his conclusions?
  • Also look for his replies to objections in this article.

 

Optional

Discussion meetings

There will be student-led discussions in discussion meetings this week.

 

What to do this week, & before next week

 

Image credit: Peter Singer Links to an external site., by Chatham House, licensed CC BY 2.0 Links to an external site. on Flickr.