Catholic University of America Girl with Down Syndrome Analytical Essay Textbooks (FE) The Fundamentals of Ethics Ch. 12Chs. 14-15 (EL) The Ethical Life C

Catholic University of America Girl with Down Syndrome Analytical Essay Textbooks
(FE) The Fundamentals of Ethics
Ch. 12Chs. 14-15
(EL) The Ethical Life
Ch. 10 Hobbes Assignment Description Choose
one of the following topics and write a single-spaced essay of at least
2000 words. Your introduction and conclusion, if any, should be no
more than two sentences each. I discourage you from doing any research
beyond extremely careful reading of the assigned texts. The goals of
the exercise are 1) to demonstrate a precise understanding of the texts
we have studied, and 2) to develop your ability to defend philosophical
positions with arguments of your own. You should make extensive use of
the texts by citing specific pages and, where appropriate, quoting.
Give citations whenever you refer to someone else’s idea. Use any
accepted citation format, but use it consistently. If you have any
questions, please contact me via email or visit my virtual office hours.
BEWARE: YOU MUST RAISE AND RESPOND TO OBJECTIONS TO
YOUR OWN POSITION OR YOUR GRADE WILL SUFFER SEVERELY. LATE PAPERS WILL
BE PENALIZED
1.
You’re a person with many talents: a top chemistry student and also a
great basketball player with a shot at the NBA. However, at the age of
eighteen you find that what you most enjoy is watching basketball on
cable. So you decide not to develop any of your talents. You just sit
around all day and watch basketball. You do this for the rest of your
life. (You’ve won a big lottery, so you can afford it.) Are you acting
on a universalizable maxim? Explain why or why not.

2.
You’ve promised to pick up an out-of-town friend at the train station
at noon so that she can get to a 1pm job interview. You’re driving to
the station when you see a man in distress. He’s having a heart attack,
so you pull over, call an ambulance, administer CPR, and wait with him
until the ambulance arrives. You do this knowing that your friend will
now be late for her interview. Did you act on a universalizable maxim?
Explain why or why not.

3.
You and your friends see a girl with Down syndrome on the street. In
order to amuse your friends, you begin to imitate the girl’s speech
pattern and stretch your eyelids to resemble hers. Your friends find
your mimickry hilarious, but neither the girl nor anyone else notices
what you’re doing. Have you failed to treat her as a Kantian
end-in-herself? Explain why or why not.

4.
Your boss, a man to whom you are not sexually attracted, offers to
promote you in exchange for oral sex. Has he failed to treat you as a
Kantian end-in-yourself? Explain why or why not.

5.
You’ve been diagnosed with a terminal illness. You will fall into a
coma in one week and live for no more than three months after that. It
will be expensive to keep you alive during the final three months of
your life. You decide that you would rather see those medical resources
used to help other people—ones who might recover—so you say farewell to
your loved ones and commit suicide, just before you would have lapsed
into the coma. Have you failed to treat yourself as a Kantian
end-in-yourself? Explain why or why not.

6.
Social contract theorists believe that actions are morally right if and
only if they are permitted by rules that free, equal, and rational
people would agree to live by, on the condition that others obey these
rules as well. Does social contract theory entail that we have no moral
obligations to animals, infants, and individuals with severe mental
handicaps?

7.
State the Doctrine of Doing and Allowing (DDA) and explain what problem
it solves for moral absolutists. Defend or criticize the DDA.
Formatting: Compose in 12pt, Arial, single spaced and submit in DOCX, DOC, RTF, or PDF.