PHIL 410
End of Class Questions
March 31, 2009: Why did the authors of the Declaration of
Independence begin the body with the words "We hold these truths to be
self-evident"? [You must use
"Proof Paradigm in the answer.]
April 2, 2009: In a state of
nature, would a right to life include a permission for
retributive punishment (i.e., punishment that goes beyond whatever is justified
as a deterrent to future murders)?
April 7, 2009: Thomson's Distress Thesis only covers
non-belief-mediated distress. What is the most plausible way of adding to
it to include some kind of claim against belief-mediated distress?
Make sure you explain your
addition so that I can understand what it covers and what it does not cover.
April 14, 2009: Why does Thomson hold that we do not have a
claim not to be coerced?
April 16, 2009: What is
the gap in the argument for freedom of thought and discussion in chapter
2? What is needed for Mill to justify
freedom of thought and discussion, on the assumption that he has shown that it
is necessary for progress in knowledge?
April 21, 2009: There is a gap in Mill's argument for freedom
of thought and discussion at the end of chapter 2. How does Mill close the gap in chapter 3?
April 23, 2009: Give an example of a collective action
problem and explain why it is one.
April 28, 2009: Explain Rawls’s distinction between the rational and
reasonable (with cites to the text).
April 30, 2009: OP Assignment.
May 7, 2009: (1) Explain the change Rawls made in the
Liberty Principle; (2) Explain why he made it.
May 12, 2009: Why does Rawls include the fair value of the
political liberties in the Liberty Principle?
May 14, 2009: Is the
public figures exception to privacy rights for celebrities justified? Explain.
May 19, 2009: Explain
why Scanlon thinks that laws against defamation are not ruled out by the “Millian” Principle.
[You must consider both clauses of the principle.]
May 21, 2009: Explain how Feinberg’s voluntariness standard
for weak paternalism is based on the empirical self rather than the Rationally
Autonomous self.
May 26, 2009: Explain
why Feinberg and Talbott’s standards of weak
paternalism would yield different results in the example of Lee the soccer
player.
May 28, 2009: In class we discussed how, over the past
fifty years, through both liberal and conservative courts, the U.S. Supreme
Court has developed and gradually expanded a right to liberty free from
paternalism. There is no such right in
the U.S. Constitution. Are the court
decisions establishing such a right a mistake?
Explain.
June 2, 2009: Taking into consideration what Mill says
about other issues of paternalism, what do you think he would say about
restrictions on suicide? Explain.
June 4, 2009: Are the end of class questions in this course
justified paternalism by the Most Reliable Judgment Standard? That is, do you now believe that they were
good for you? Do you endorse my
requiring your earlier selves to answer them?