Quiz review

Fundamentals

1. Quiz is on Wed. Sept 18, just the first 15 minutes of class
2. Quiz is worth 5% of your course grade
3. Goal: to give you early feedback on your approach to this class
4. Format: you will have to answer ONE 3-part essay question. Lots of choice, so you don't necessarily have to study everything we've done. (There will be much less choice on the midterm, so you will have to study more broadly.)
5. Make sure you make use of: blog posts (see list below), your own notes, readings, RR feedback

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Sample Question 

(whole thing not on quiz, but parts could be on quiz)

(a) Peter Singer writes that he's arguing for equality for animals, not rights. What's the difference between saying my cat is my equal and saying my cat has rights, on Singer's view? (b) What is it about my cat that makes her have rights, according to Tom Regan? (c) Does Peter Carruthers agree with Singer or Regan or neither about my cat's moral status? Briefly, what's the basis for his position?

Sample Answer 

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Blog posts

8.26 Introduction  Saving pufflings, hunting puffins

828 Human superiority   The moral status of animals, Aristotle, Bible, similarities and differences

8.30 Do animals count?  Kant, categorical imperative, no duties to animals, the basis for obligations involving animals, his psychological theory, applications

9.04 Animal liberation  Peter Singer, the principle of equality, speciesism, Bentham, drawing the line, sentience

9.06 Life and death  Singer's principle of equality, application to issues of pain, applications to painless killing,  humans vs. animals, normal humans vs. impaired humans, is Singer's view on killing speciesist?

9.09  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, Regan's argument for animal rights

9.11  No rights for animals  Regan recap, analytical response to an argument, possible objections to premises of Regan's argument, how Carruthers cuts tie between animals and marginal cases, contractualism on normal humans, marginal casees, and animals

9.13 Debate