Theory Of Utilitarianism

In each of the Position Papers you will be asked to do the following: Select a specific moral question within the scope of what you proposed in the Project Proposal assignment. Use the specific moral theory in the unit to answer that question. It is very important that you attend to the details of the assignment, since papers that fail to do (1) or (2) are highly likely to fail or will need to be redone so as to match the assignment’s requirements. Specific Moral Question A good project proposal question is narrow in scope and uses moral language in a clear way.  Good examples would be, “Can raising animals to eat them be morally justified?”; “Is  pet ownership morally acceptable?”; “Should we experiment on non-human animals in order to test life-saving drugs for humans?” Your paper needs a clear question and that question should be introduced in the first paragraph of the paper.  If your question is unfindable or unclear, your grade will suffer. Using the Moral Theory In each of the main units of the course you will be introduced to a moral theory (Utilitarianism, Kantian Deontology, and Aristotelian Virtue Ethics).  The Position Papers should employ the moral theory from each unit explicitly and thoroughly.  If your paper does not talk about the moral theory, your grade will suffer. Your paper needs to (1) cite the readings from the unit and (2) explicitly describe the moral theory and how it answers the question.  You are welcome to use other sources as well, but if all your sources are summary sources and blogs, your grade will suffer. Use the theory of Utilitarianism to determine what would be right in an example case. (CO4, CO5, CO6) At the end of the last unit, you were asked to choose a topic for your Term Project.  In this assignment, you will complete the first part of that project.  Here are the parameters of the assignment. Choose a specific moral question within the scope of your proposed topic. Write a short (2-3 pages) paper which gives the Utilitarian answer to that question. If you recall, my proposed topic was about human – non-human animal relationships.  For this paper I might choose the following question: “Is there a moral justification for the existence of Zoos?”  You may choose any question within the scope of your topic, so long as it is a moral question.  There are lots of ways to form moral questions, but one easy way to tell whether your chosen question is a moral one is to look and see if it uses moral language – right/wrong, morally good/bad or justifiable/unjustifiable, etc.  If you’re unsure of whether or not your question fits the assignment, let me know. A successful paper should explicitly do all of the following: Introduce and explicitly state a moral question which the paper considers.  If your paper never defines a question or makes a statement of thesis, it is missing something crucial and is likely to receive a very low grade. Describe whatever parts of the moral theory which are relevant to the question.  If your paper never talks in detail about the moral theory of Utilitarianism, it is missing something crucial and is likely to receive a very low grade. Inform the reader about whatever parts of the topic which are relevant to the question.  If your paper makes claims about your topic without explaining them or supporting them with research, it is missing something crucial. Your paper needs to (1) cite the readings from the unit and (2) explicitly describe the moral theory and how it answers the question.  You are welcome to use other sources as well, but if all your sources are summary sources and blogs, your grade will suffer