Instructions: Write 3 essays in response to the prompts below. The entire assignment should be 5-8 pages.
Format:Your paper should be typed, double-spaced, and in 12 pt. Times New Roman font. You should have 1.25-inch margins on the left/right and 1-inch margins on the top/bottom. Provide the number and letter of the essay and part you are answering (For example: 1.A.Rule-utilitarianism is not just about following the existing rules in your society…). Outside sources are not recommended but, if you quote the textbook, put the quoted passage within quotation marks and put the page number in parentheses after the quote.
Short Essay 1: Consequentialism (Recommended Length: 2-3 pages)
Below are some false claims being made about utilitarianism. Using as much detail as possible, demonstrate why each claim is wrong and explain what the correct statement should be.Your response to each statement should be at least a half page in length.
False Statement A:Rule-utilitarianism is just about following the rules that are in place. If society has a rule against doing something, then a rule-utilitarian will always agree that you should not do that.
False Statement B:Act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism use the same methods to make moral evaluations.
For the next statement, consider the following hypothetical: A group of doctors developed a vaccine for Legionnaires’ Disease (a more severe form of pneumonia that kills about 10% of the people it infects) and the vaccine produced extremely promising results in experiments on lab rats. In fact, 99% of the lab rats that were given the vaccine did not contract Legionnaires’ Disease in conditions where theynormally would have been infected. However, because Legionnaires’ Disease is fairly rare, these doctors were having a difficult time finding a group of human test subjects. To speed up their research (and tomake the vaccine available to the public more quickly), the doctors decidedto inject 200 patients in a mental hospital with the vaccine without informing those patients or their families. The doctors then exposed the 200 patients to the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ Disease and observed them to see whether any of them contracted the disease or had any side effects from the vaccine. As it turns out, the vaccine was completely successful in humans and none of the 200 patients contracted Legionnaires’ Disease nor did any of them experience negative side effects.
False Statement C: For the hypothetical above, both act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism would find the doctors’ actions to be moral.
Short Essay 2: Non- Consequentialism (Recommended Length: 2-3 Pages)
Below are some false claims being made about Kant’s theory. Using as much detail as possible, demonstrate why each claim is wrong and explain what the correct statement should be. Your response to each statement should be at least a half page in length.
False Statement A: Kant only gives one definition for the most important categorical imperative and it just asks whether it would be possible for everyone to act in that way.
False Statement B: For Kant, a perfect duty is a moral act that is done very skillfully and an imperfect duty is a moral act that could have been done better.
False Statement C: Kant thinks committing suicide is immoral because it is selfish.
False Statement D: In the hypothetical above where doctors have developed a vaccine for Legionnaires’ Disease, all the versions of Kant’s most important categorical imperative would lead us to the conclusion that the doctors’ actions were morally acceptable.
Short Essay 3: Virtue Ethics (Recommended Length 1-2 Pages)
Below are some false claims being made about virtue ethics. Using as much detail as possible, demonstrate why each claim is wrong and explain what the correct statement should be. Your response to each statement should be at least a half page in length.
False Statement A: Aristotle notes that many people have thought of happiness as pleasure, wealth, or fame and he thinks all of these are good definitions for happiness.
False Statement B: Since each virtue involves two extremes, Aristotle believes we must always pick one of those extremes to follow and that we should just ignore the other.
