Answer this question in 500 words
Judith Thompson’s article, A Defense of Abortion, presents three unusual illustrations: 1. A case in which a person is abducted and has her kidnmeys attached to an unconscious violinist. 2. A case in which a woman is trapped in a house with a growing baby. 3. A case involving screened windows? How do each of these illustrations pertain to abortion? Do you agree with Thomson’s view? Why or why not?
Commentary
The following synopses should help you grasp Aristotle’s difficult prose. Be patient. Read slowly.
Happiness is the highest goal
Every human action aims at some good, and the good which is chosen for its own sake rather than as means to an end is the highest good. Ethics is a part of politics, which is the most authoritative and architectonic science. An inquiry into ethics should not be expected to have the same sort of precision as a mathematical inquiry, because the nature of the subject-matter is different. A proper student of ethics must already have substantial life experience and training in virtue; otherwise he will not profit from the subject because he is more inclined to listen to his passions than to reason.
The highest good is happiness, which means living well. There is a dispute as to what constitutes happiness whether it is pleasure, honor, health, wealth, knowledge or something else. If a student’s ethical habits are not good, he will be hindered from accepting ethical knowledge.
What does Aristotle mean by happiness?
Some think that happiness is to be found in pleasure, others that it is to be found in honor, and others that it is to be found in contemplation. Happiness is not found in living for pleasure because such a life is slavish. Nor is it found in seeking honor because honor depends not on the person but on what others think of him. The contemplative life will be examined later.
Each actions aims at some end specific to it. Some ends are for the sake of other things, but the highest good must be complete, an end in itself. The highest good should also be self-sufficient. Happiness fits these criteria.
To decide what happiness is, it is necessary to determine what the function of the human is, because excellence consists in performing one’s function well. Our function is that which sets us apart from all other beings, an action which only human beings can perform. Thus the function of humans is activity of the soul according to reason. Acting according to reason means acting virtuously. Therefore the good for man is an activity of the soul “according to the best and most complete virtue.”
What does Aristotle mena by “Virtue”?
Ethical virtues are acquired by habituation; they do not arise in us from birth, but we by nature have the capacity to receive and perfect them. A good government attempts to legislate such that it helps to habituate its citizens to act virtuously. The way to become habituated in virtue is to perform virtuous actions beginning from one’s early youth.
Statements prescribing virtue cannot be precise because the action must be proper to the occasion. Virtue is to be found in the mean between extremes of vice. If a virtue truly becomes a habit, acting according to that virtue will be pleasant. Right education should make us take pleasure in what is good and be pained by what is bad.
Some will question how virtue can be acquired by habit because to acquire the virtue a person will already need to act virtuously in order to become habituated to it. Yet to act virtuously and to be virtuous are different things. Being virtuous requires three things: 1) that a person knows what he is doing, b) that he intends to do what is he is doing and that he intends it for its own sake, and c) that he acts with certainty and firmness.
Virtues and vices are not feelings. They are not acquired without deliberate choice. Neither are they powers, because we possess powers by nature. Virtues are habits.
Virtue is what makes a thing perform its function well, so the virtue of a man is the habit from which he becomes good. Virtue is a mean between two extremes, and the specific mean will depend on the person. Ethical virtue is concerned with feelings and actions. It is necessary to have the right feelings at the right times for the right things and for the right purposes. A person can err by going toward either excess or deficiency.
Ethical virtue “is a habit disposed toward action by deliberate choice, being at the mean relative to us, and defined by reason as a prudent man would define it.” Some actions or feelings are simply bad, such as maliciousness, envy, adultery, theft and murder.
Examples of virtues and vices.
Virtuous behavior is indicated by middle column of this table:
Excess Mean Deficiency
Extravagance generosity stinginess
Shorttemperedness gentleness apathy
Vanity high-mindedness smallmindedness
Suck-up friendly grouchy
Bashful modest shameless
Reckless courageous cowardly
Buffoonery wittiness dull
Doormat agreeable selfish
Aristotle notes the inherent difficulty of being good, and observes that those with vices or defects of various sorts are like warped sticks–to be straightened, they must push their behavior toward what feels like the opposite extreme. So for example, the stingy person will push himself toward what feels like extravagance, so that he might hit the virtuous mean, generosity.
Commentary
Our readingson abortion approach the issue from opposite sides. Marquis is pro-life (anti-abortion); hebelieves that the practice is wrong, except in certain extreme cases. Overall he believes that abortion falls intothe same category as “killing an innocent adult human being.” Killing is the worst of all offenses,Marquis, says, because it deprives one of his/her future, and since the sameharm (loss of a future) would come to the fetus as to any fully developedhuman, abortion is wrong. Marquisacknowledges the fact that, strictly speaking, his view would suggest that asperm cell has a right to life, since after all, it is a living thing withhuman potential in its future. Marquisrealizes this would be an extreme position; it would mean that a condom is aweapon of mass destruction. And Marquisis realistic enough to know that we’re not going to outlaw birth control. So he needs to figure out how to keep hisdefinition of right to life without sanctioning the life of a sperm cell. Pay close attention to how he attemptsthis. Are you persuaded by his view?
Another reading presents an argument for abortion rights. Thomson is pro-choice and she makes her casewith an appeal to several unusual examples: The case of the unconscious violinist (analogous to rape), the case ofthe baby in the house (analogous to a situation where the mother’s life isendangered), and the case of the screened windows (analogous to the case inwhich birth control was used responsibly, but pregnancy nonetheless occurs). Pay careful attention to these threeillustrations. Why does Thomson concludethat outlawing abortion would require us to enforce good Samaritan laws?
Questions:
1. Marquis feels thatabortion ought to be banned, except for extreme cases. How does he justify this? Do you agree?
2. Why does Marquisbelieve that the loss of life is the greatest loss one can suffer, and why does he believe that this alsomakes killing a fetus wrong?
3. Explain Thomson’sdistinction between the good Samaritan vs. the minimally decent Samaritan. How does this relate to her view on abortion?
4. Why does Thomsonrefer to the story of Kitty Genovese?
