Study Guide for the Final Exam

Format:
Part I:  passage identification
Part II: short essay
Part III: Essay on Fix: The Story of an Addicted City

I. Abortion
1.  Know what it is to put an argument in premise/conclusion form and be able to do it.
2.  Be able to critique the “familiar arguments” for and against abortion-rights.
3.  Be familiar with Warren’s essay

• Thompson’s violin example (and what it shows)
• Warren’s critique of the example
• Be able to apply Warren’s criteria of personhood

• His criticism of Warren
• Be able to apply his criteria of a wrongful killing

II. Utilitarianism
1.  Understand and be able to apply the principle of utility.
2.  Understand the different versions of utilitarianism (how they differ, what they have in common).
3.  Be familiar with the problem of dirty hands and why it poses at least a prima facie problem for utilitarianism.
4.  Be familiar with the Dickens and Williams objections to utilitarianism and how a utilitarian might respond.
5.  Understand how the Brave New World raises at least a prima facie problem for (at least some versions of) utilitarianism.
6.  What is the central thesis of Sen's essay on Population control?  What was that essay meant to illustrate in the context of our discussion of utilitarianism?

7.  Be familiar with the central tenet of Kantian ethics as discussed in lecture and as found in the assigned reading on Kant (remember the focus was on the second and third formulation of the categorical imperative).

III. Rights
1.  Be familiar with the rights-observer/rights-holder distinction and the different kinds of rights.
2.  Be able to apply the rights-language to a novel case.
3.  Be able to describe how one might provide a utilitarian ground for rights and provide an example of something you think is best given such a ground.
4.  Be familiar with the Rawlsian system and be able to apply it to a novel case.
5.  Be familiar with the notion of a rights-conferring property, and how one might use it to ground human rights.  Be especially familiar with Gewirth’s strategy as presented in the Hinman selection “The Ethics of Rights” and discussed in lecture.

Long Essay questions:
Write on one of the following two prompts:

1.  Translate the relevant considerations for and against safe-injection sites into the rights-language introduced in class.  (you should identify at least two rights on both sides of the debate).  To what extent is it reasonable to think that the rights-claims you’ve identified are in fact legitimate in this context?

2.  Is the issue best thought of along utilitarian or right-theoretic grounds?  Could one, for example, think of the issue solely in utilitarian terms without violating certain fundamental rights?

 Note: when discussing rights for either prompt you may, but not need not, discuss Kant and/or Rawls.