Ethics

Summer 2014 PHIL 1171 Ethics Final Essay Questions 1

Part One: Essays Question applying Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?
In Part One, choose one the following questions to answer and then proceed to Part Two:

Question choice one: Over the past few years, the Federal Supreme Court has taken up the question of “affirmative action” policies in the United States as related to education and hiring practices. For any student not familiar with affirmative action, read the Stanford Encyclopedia entry on affirmative action: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/affirmative-action/ In short, affirmative action policies allow public institutions, businesses and universities to consider race and gender (as two of many factors) in hiring and admissions practices as a way to 1) correct historical injustices against women and minorities in hiring and admissions and 2) foster diversity in business and education that is seen by some as morally good. Thus, theoretically, if two applicants are equal in qualifications, the public institution, business or university may consider their race or gender in admissions or hiring. A good example of Affirmative Action is related to our own building of the new Vikings Stadium. The Minnesota Sports Facilities Association (MSFA) and the Minnesota Vikings are building a new Vikings Stadium that will cost almost $1 billion dollars and open in 2016. The stadium will require millions in taxes. Mortenson Construction Company won the contract and will oversee the project. In agreement with MSFA and the Vikings, Mortenson has made this statement about hiring women, people with disabilities and minority-owned companies and workers:

Construction of the new stadium will require nearly 4.3 million work hours and will involve 7,500 tradespeople from 19 different trades and hundreds of local subcontractors and suppliers. In addition, the MSFA and the Vikings have established a Targeted Business Program that sets an 11% and 9% goal for construction contracts for the project to be awarded to women – and minority-owned business enterprises, respectively. The stadium project has also set construction workforce goals for utilization of women and minorities during construction of 32% minority and 6% women participation.

In Minnesota, for a business to qualify as a “targeted group” for the Targeted Business Program, it must have 51% or more of its business owned and operated by women, people with disabilities or by a “targeted” minority group including African-American, American-Indian, Asian-American, Alaska-Native or Hispanic-American. For this question, I want you to compare and contrast the theories of libertarianism and Rawls’ justice as fairness whether these mandates (9-11% companies; 6 and 32% workers) are just or not. First, I want you to make an argument against these mandates using the theory of libertarianism. Second, I want you to make an argument for these mandates using John Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness. Be sure to include in your reasons the main points of these theories.

Question choice two: The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB) is renovating two parks in the Minnehaha falls area: Wabun Picnic Area and the North Plateau Area. According to the parks website, these playgrounds are historic, “…with pieces as early as 1906 (swings) through the 1950s.”1 Recall from our What Does Justice Look Like this area is considered sacred to the Dakota people given its proximity to the Bdote and to Fort Snelling. Wabun Park (which sits adjacent to the Veterans Administration facility) will become the first universal playground in the Minneapolis Parks system (all universal playgrounds are presently only available at specific public schools). The MPRB wishes to

1 “Minnehaha Playground Renovations.” Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board. http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=1258. Accessed 23 June 2014.

Summer 2014 PHIL 1171 Ethics Final Essay Questions 2

“…preserve the historic nature of this playground and sensitively add new equipment to increase the play activities.”2 The MPRB website explains:

With the support of Falls 4 All, an all-volunteer organization that has joined with the MPRB, and People for Parks, the new playground planned for Wabun Picnic area will be “universally accessible,” which means that at least 70% of the play features will be accessible, far more than required by the American Disabilities Act (ADA). It will be a playground where children and adults, with or without disabilities, can challenge themselves to explore, interact and play with independence and dignity.

While all new playgrounds planned in the Minneapolis park system meet the requirements of the (ADA), these requirements are a minimum level of accessibility and do not typically include access via ramps onto a play structure and have a small percentage of required accessible play elements. Playgrounds that have “universal access” include many more opportunities for play, and can include multiple ramps, more accessible surfacing, and multiple paths to play within a structure, all of which foster interaction and allow all children to be included in play. These playgrounds are far more expensive than those meeting the minimum ADA requirements. All funds raised by Falls 4 All will be used to increase the playground’s accessibility above ADA standards. Fundraising for the accessibility enhancements to the Wabun playground is underway and will continue as the design is developed.3

The MPRB has allocated $600,000 dollars toward this capital project as approved by voters in 2008 via the Clean Water Land and Legacy Amendment. In 2010 they authorized the Falls 4 All foundation to raise additional funding ($450,000) through private gifts. The full list of donors can be reviewed at the website but does include the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.

Martha Nussbaum identifies several flaws of the social contract approach (Mill, Nozick, Locke, Kant) and instead suggests that Aristotle had the better ingredients of a theory of justice, namely, it is the job of just society to make good political arrangements to provide for each and every person with what they need to become capable of living rich and flourishing lives. He (Aristotle) didn’t support that every person (women and slaves) was a citizen, but did offer this foundation of capabilities, rather than consent, freedom, rationality, preservation or private property, or autonomy as the basis of justice.

Should taxpayers fund an expensive universally accessible park (almost $1 million dollars of combined federal and private funding), and if so, on what grounds (you can also consider reduced funding by Minneapolis Public Schools toward early childhood education for children with physical or mental impairments based on cost-benefit analysis)? Explain how a virtue capabilities approach argues that such a park (or public education funding for children with impairments) cannot be justified via an individual rights approach based on a neutral government. Are Nussbaum and Aristotle correct—does the social contract as a basis for ethics fail to consider people with different capabilities? And if it does, does this mean such a society is unjust? How are Nussbaum and Aristotle similar and different in their advancement of virtue ethics versus capabilities—can Nussbaum rescue Aristotle’s rejection of certain individuals as citizens, or is the theory inherently flawed? Explain how a theory of virtue ethics of ethics

2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.

Summer 2014 PHIL 1171 Ethics Final Essay Questions 3

of care would theorize this project and object to or support the use of taxpayer money toward this park or public education funding for children with impairments. Give three reasons why you support or object to the public funding of this project integrating or analyzing virtue ethics, Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, or ethics of care (just one theory required).

Part Two: Essays Question applying global ethics (SEQ essays) Choose one the following questions to answer:

1.

Question choice one: Many people think of affirmative action as meant fundamentally for African Americans. Describe in detail how bell hooks’s experience in her essay “Rethinking the Nature of Work,” complicates these assumptions. Tell me if you still think affirmative action is necessary today given hooks’ concerns in the 1990s. Consider Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s comments in Grutter v. Bolinger (2003), that affirmative action would be a necessary procedure for hopefully 25 more years, once the nation had time to experience greater inclusion and hopefully equity. Is it true, since the time of hooks and Day O’Connor’s statements, now 21 years later, we are growing past the need for legal regulations like affirmative action? Has labor inclusion for minority groups been achieved sufficiently? Why or why not? Is there an ethical principle you can identify in your reasoning (e.g., utility, Kantian universal moral law, Rawls’ principles of fairness, libertarian negative rights or duties, Aristotle’s teleological reasoning of justice as the common good, Nussbaum’s principle of justice as flourishing based on human capacity Held’s principle of interdependence and care).

Question choice two: Is Cornel West suggesting that racial reasoning is amoral or immoral? What racial considerations must prophetic moral reasoning itself make? Do these racial considerations include other races? What role do other minority groups play? In your view, what is the greatest ethical dilemma concerning race matters in America today and does West’s democratic coalition help overcome that dilemma? Is there an ethical principle you can identify in your reasoning (e.g., utility, Kantian universal moral law, Rawls’ principles of fairness, libertarian negative rights or duties, Aristotle’s teleological reasoning of justice as the common good, Nussbaum’s principle of justice as flourishing based on human capacity, Held’s principle of interdependence and care).
Question choice three: In what sense is Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed a theory of moral education? What moral claims are involved in his ideas of humanization, dehumanization, and oppression? In his critique of systemic education? What is the role of conscientizacao? What is the significance of what Freire calls praxis? Imagine if professors and students practiced this in contemporary American higher education? What if anything would change? Is there an ethical principle you can identify in your reasoning (e.g., utility, Kantian universal moral law, Rawls’ principles of fairness, libertarian negative rights or duties, Aristotle’s teleological reasoning of justice as the

2.

3.

Summer 2014 PHIL 1171 Ethics Final Essay Questions 4

common good, Nussbaum’s principle of justice as flourishing based on human capacity,

Held’s principle of interdependence and care).

1. Question choice four: How is an ethics of care different than traditional gender

   stereotypes of women’s roles and identities? Describe what care ethics offers (or even challenges) that the other ethical theories we have studied thus far miss or overlook? If we look at the present war between Israel and Palestine currently occurring (see link) what might Held diagnose as the global politics that presently dominate and what an ethics of care offer to this international crisis. Is there an ethical principle you can identify in your reasoning (e.g., utility, Kantian universal moral law, Rawls’ principles of fairness, libertarian negative rights or duties, Aristotle’s teleological reasoning of justice as the common good, Nussbaum’s principle of justice as flourishing based on human capacity, Held’s principle of interdependence and care). Is there an ethical principle you can identify in your reasoning (e.g., utility, Kantian universal moral law, Rawls’ principles of fairness, libertarian negative rights or duties, Aristotle’s teleological reasoning of justice as the common good, Nussbaum’s principle of justice as flourishing based on human capacity, Held’s principle of interdependence and care).

2. Question choice five: Minnesota Public Radio recently reported (see link) data exposing the health disparity affecting people of color, particularly asthma in children—a disportionate number of whom are African American and Native American. Explain how environmental justice issues are implicated in this report and should Minnesota address this issue and how? What “should” Minnesotans do, if anything? Speculate what Shiva, Merzer, or Schrader-Frechette offer as helpful ways to analyze this issue. What does their essay contribute to our understanding of environmental justice in our own region? Explain particularly in relationship to your career goals—for example, if you are a nursing student, what can the medical field suggest? If you are going into business, what can the business industry do to help create a solution? If you are going into public service or human services, what can public organizations do? What do you consider to be the sources of racial disparity occurring in this story? If you are going into education, what can educators do to help? Is there an ethical principle you can identify in your reasoning (e.g., utility, Kantian universal moral law, Rawls’ principles of fairness, libertarian negative rights or duties, Aristotle’s teleological reasoning of justice as the common good, Nussbaum’s principle of justice as flourishing based on human capacity, Held’s principle of interdependence and care).