Philosophy 1100: Introduction to Ethics
Exercise 7: The Technique of Counterexamples
Due Date: Thursday, October 17
Proportion of Final Grade: 7%
INSTRUCTIONS
1. This is one of the more difficult exercises, and if you
would
like to review the distinction between absolute moral claims, and prima
facie ones - or other points related to the technique of
counterexamples
- you can find the lecture material that is relevant to this exercise
on
the web, at the following address:
http://spot.Colorado.EDU/~tooley/LogicLecture-4.html
2. For each of the ten moral statements set out below,
describe
very briefly what you take to
be the most effective
counterexamplecounterexample – that is NOT
a doomsday-style counterexample - to the moral claim that is
being advanced.
3. In arriving at an effective counterexample to a given
statement, it is crucial to ask whether the statement in question
involves an absolute moral claim, or a prima facie moral claim, since
good counterexamples to absolute moral claims are often not good
counterexamples to prima facie moral claims.
4. In some cases, the moral principle in question may be one
that you believe is true, and so you may think that there is in fact no
sound counterexample to the principle. In such cases, set out
what you take to be the best attempt
at a good counterexample.
1. "If something is morally wrong, then there ought to be a law
against it."
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2. "The intentional killing of an innocent human being is always
prima facie wrong."
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3. "People have a moral right only to what they have earned
through their own efforts."
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4. "No innocent human being should ever be compelled to do something
that he or she doesn't want to do, simply because it is in that human
being’s
own interest."
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5. "Everyone has an inalienable right to reproduce."
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6. "“Every person has a moral right to encourage others to share
any of his or her beliefs, regardless of whether he or she has evidence
for those beliefs.”
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7. "Though it may be wrong, for various reasons, to kill
non-human animals, there could never be a non-human animal that had a
right to life comparable
to that of a human being."
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8. "Censorship in the case of adults is never morally justified."
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9. "Parents have an absolute right to inculcate their own moral
values in their children."
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10. "It could never be morally right to disobey the commands of
an all-knowing and all-powerful being who had created the universe."
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