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

What the questions will be like

• (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

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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

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

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

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

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.

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

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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

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

9.16 Self-awareness (link coming) 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?

9. 18 Animal morality (link coming) Which author thinks morality matters? Is there anything at all like morality in animals? What does Frans DeWaal say (TED talk)?