Exam 1 Study Guide

Basics

• Exam 1 is on Sept 21.
• It's worth 15% of your grade. 
• Note: Exam 2 is worth 30% and the Final is worth 25%.
• It will consist of 5 questions and you will choose 4 to answer. 
• Each question will have 3 parts
• You should plan on writing for the whole 50-55 minutes
• Please do not ask questions during the exam!  They are rarely answerable and are disruptive to other students.

What the questions will be like

• Question 1: (a) What would Kant think of Icelanders who go out all night saving pufflings who have lost their way? Would he admire them or not? How would he explain his stance? (b) What would he say about Icelanders who hunt for puffins and eat them at a traditional feast? Explain his stance. (c) Does he strike you as indifferent to animals, or concerned, or even as an animal-lover? Discuss specific passages of the Kant reading.
• Relevant preparation: Kant reading, RR4, post for 8/24 and 8/31.

Study materials:

• Use the list of posts (with topic highlights) below...follow the links!
• Use your own notes.
• Reread selectively.
• Review RR questions and your answers
• We will use the questions in red to review on Sept 18

Questions you asked in response to RR10

1. What does "reread selectively" mean?
2. Will you be asked to take a position on anything?
3. Will you be able to have any notes? What about passages you might want to quote?
4. All short answer or will there be some multiple/choice, T/F, etc.?

_________________________

MODULE 1: THE MORAL STATUS OF ANIMALS

8.24 Introduction  Saving pufflings, hunting puffins

826.  Aristotle and the Bible  Aristotle--ruler/ruled passage; eating animals passage; Bible--passages that elevate animals; passages that demote animals; what the bible says about using animals as food; the covenant; the Peaceable Kingdom

1. Aristotle passage 1: How does Aristotle defend the practice of using animals for labor?
2. Aristotle passage 2: How does Aristotle defend the practice of eating animals?
3. Bible passages: What are God's instructions about eating animals?

8.28  Animals as machines Descartes' reflections on robots; the two tests; how humans and animals differ; the bottom line: no reason, no souls, no sentience; animals as machines

1. Descartes: what are the two tests that all humans pass but all animals fail?
2. When Descartes says you could make a perfect mechanical replica of a dog, what is he saying about dogs?

8.31 Duties to animals?   Kant's categorical imperative; why it doesn't cover animals; no duties to animals; we just have indirect duties to humans involving animals; the basis for these indirect duties involving animals; his psychological theory; animal-friendly passages; what he says about vivisection and sport hunting

1. Kant thinks you should take care of your old dog, not abandon him. Why does he think you should do that?
2. Kant has an indirect duty view when it comes to animals. Does he think we have indirect duties to animals?

9.02  Animal liberation Singer on what equality doesn't mean; Singer's principle of equality; speciesism, racism, sexism; the famous Bentham passage; drawing the line--do any animals not count?; Singer as a utilitarian

1. What does Singer's principle of equality say?
2. Where does Singer draw the line? Could there be an animal that is not my equal?

9.04  The rights approach Singer recap; principle of equality; utilitarianism, utilitarianism vs. the rights view; application to killing puffins for food; Regan's objections to utilitarianism--the cup analogy, the Aunt Bea thought experiment; Regan's argument for animal rights -- inherent value, subjects-of-a-life. Discussion of which premise is most dubious.

1. Suppose there's a famine in Iceland, but they could still kill puffins for food. How would Singer think about this? How would Regan think about it?
2. In Regan's argument for animal rights, what are three key premises?
3. Of those three premises, which do you find most dubious and why?

9.9 Beyond the west  Animal ethics camps; Adamson's goal--countering ethical relativism while avoiding cultural imperialism; Indian animal ethics is better animal ethics; ahimsa; eudaimonistic (virtue-centered) ethics; Buddhist, Jain, Hindu disagreements on what counts as violent and non-violent

1. Adamson says Indian animal ethics is better. Better than what?
2. Which of these are areas of controversy for people who practice an ethic of ahimsa
• Killing an animal so you can eat it.
• Having another person kill an animal so you can eat it.
• Accepting animal food, if the animal was not killed for your sake.
• Accidentally killing a fly when you start a fire.

_________________________

MODULE 2: ANIMAL MINDS

9.11 Sentience  Browning and Birch; the meaning of "sentience"; questions at "the edge of sentience"; do fish feel pain?; pain in invertebrates like octopuses, lobsters, insects; how brain differences create a degree of uncertainty; precautionary reasoning

1. What is sentience?
2. What is the evidence that fish feel pain?

9.14  Sentience no reading for today; pleasure in animals; animal senses (Ed Yong); utilitarianism and sentience

1. What is an animal's "umwelt"?

9.16 Self-awareness Which author thinks self-awareness matters?; the mirror recognition task and its limitations (Morell); which animals pass/fail?; awareness of the past and future; which authors think that matters?

1. Is self-awareness an aspect of sentience or something different?
2. Does Kant think self-awareness is relevant to a being's fundamental moral status?

9.18 Animal morality Which author thinks morality matters? Is there anything at all like morality in animals? What does Frans DeWaal say (TED talk)?