Final Exam

Just a reminder: the final exam is Friday, December 18th, in our normal classroom. The 9:00 a.m. class's final begins at 9:00 a.m., and the 10:00 a.m. class's final begins at 10:00. You'll have 50 minutes to take it.

12/14 Class Canceled

I'm sick, so Monday's class is canceled.

You can hand in paper #2 on either Wednesday (12/16) or Friday (12/18).

The final exam will still be Friday, December 18th, and we'll still be reviewing for it on Wednesday.

Give Well

Here are some final links on giving to charity:

• Fancy word alert: Is giving to charity supererogatory?
• Here's an article on the reasons why we might give away the money we earn.
• There's so much food, but also so much hunger. Why?
  
• So you want to do good? Here's how to plan for it!
• Here are some thoughts on how to choose a charity to donate to (hint: don't just give to every walk-athon your friends ask you to).

Stop the Aid?

Here's some stuff related to the James Shikwati interview we read for class.

• Shikwati's organization is online here. A similar organization you can donate to is online here.
• Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo agrees with Shikwati that current aid is doing more harm than good. Her book is called Dead Aid.
  
• The NPR program Fresh Air recently aired a radio interview with someone who agrees with Shikwati, but offers his own form of help.
• Here's an interesting article on many of the concerns Shikwati raises about giving aid to African nations. I especially recommend reading the last section of the article.

Peter Peter Charity Eater

Here's more than you ever wanted on Peter Singer:

• He has a new book called The Life You Can Save.
  
• Here he points out the biases that keep us from giving.
• Here he calls out professors for not teaching about poverty.
• Here he updates his argument and offers some specific giving guidelines.
  
• Here he defends his position against some tough questions.
  
• And here's his recent appearance on The Colbert Report .
  

Where to Give?

Here are some important links on relief aid:

• Free Charity! The Hunger Site. Just clicking there donates food! Also, try the word game at FreeRice.
• Affordable Charities! $10 Club, Microcredit, & Oxfam.
• Research on Effective Charities! Want to know which charities aren't squandering their donations? Check out Charity Navigator or GiveWell.

Paper #2 Guideline

UPDATE: New new due date!

Due Date: The beginning of class on Wednesday, December 2nd, December 9th, December 16th, 2009

Worth: 15% of your final grade

Assignment: Write an argumentative essay on the topic below. Papers must be typed, and must be between 600-1200 words long. Provide a word count on the first page of the paper. (Most programs like Microsoft Word & WordPerfect have automatic word counts.)

Topic: Explain and defend your definition of “person” as it relates to morality.

1. First, briefly explain and critically evaluate the different definitions of “person” that we have discussed in class. Be sure to explain each definition offered by Mary Anne Warren, James Rachels (his account of a biographical life that we discussed in class), and Tibor Machan.
2. Second, explain how each of these authors uses their definition of “person” to attempt to settle the particular ethical debate he or she wrote about. (Warren and Marquis on abortion, Rachels and Doerflinger on euthanasia, and Singer and Machan on animal ethics).
   [NOTE: Some authors might think personhood is irrelevant to their issue.]
3. Third, explain your definition of “person”: do you agree with one of these authors’ definitions, or do you have one of your own?
4. Fourth, explain the solution that your definition of “person” gives to the ethical debates of abortion, euthanasia, and animal ethics.

When considering your definition of “person,” be sure to answer the following questions: Which living creatures are persons, and which living creatures are not persons? Do you believe that you need to be a “person” in the moral sense in order to have moral rights (in particular, the right to not be killed and the right to not suffer unnecessarily)? Can someone have moral rights before they have moral duties? Be sure to fully explain and philosophically defend each of your answers.

Crime and Punishment

While we're on the subject of capital punishment, here's some stuff on new research into punishment:

• Mark Kleiman, professor of public policy at UCLA, has a new book called When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment. He argues that smaller, swifter punishments can greatly increase deterrence.
• Here's a review of When Brute Force Fails.
• Kleiman runs a blog called Same Facts.
  
• Here's a video dialogue about Kleiman's book:
  

Death Penalty Box

Here are some links related to our discussion of the death penalty:

• An encyclopedia of philosophy article on the death penalty.
• A large collection of resources on the ethics of capital punishment. I mean, wow.
• What's up with punishment in general? That's a big ethical issue.
  
• What about the financial cost of the death penalty? Although it's common sense to think that keeping a criminal in prison for life would cost more than putting her to death, some studies suggest that the opposite is true. The additional legal battles in death penalty cases may cost more than a life sentence.
• A nice article on measuring the reliability of the justice system. How often do courts convict the wrong person? How reliable is eyewitness testimony?
• Of course, for some death penalty opponents, it's not about whether innocent people are sentenced to death.
  

Quiz #2

We're having another quiz! Quiz #2 is worth 7.5% of your overall grade, and will be held at the beginning of class on Monday, November 23rd. You'll have about 25 minutes to complete it. It will consist mainly of short answer questions, and will be on everything we've covered since the midterm:

• abortion (Warren and Marquis)
• euthanasia (Rachels and Doerflinger)
• animal ethics (Singer, Norcross, and Machan)