DEMANDINGNESS

Question 1

Peter Singer’s view of demandingness

Answer 1

If it is in our power to stop something, without sacrificing anything of similar moral importance, it is our responsibility to do it

Ex. Seeing a child drowning in a pond, you are obligated to save them

Question 2

Criticisms of high demandingness

Answer 2

• Clashes with moral verdicts (can’t go see a film if the money would be better spent on charity)
• Eliminates the category of supererogation (no more exceptional moral actions)
• Strange implications on our everyday moral practice (is someone who only volunteers twice a week morally wrong if they could volunteer three times?)
• Weakens the moral force of wrongness (does wrong just become not morally perfect?)

Question 3

Peter Singer’s work on moral obligation

Answer 3

Famine, Affluence and Morality (1971)

Question 4

Criticisms of Singer’s idea with (responses)

Answer 4

• Something like charity only saves lives far away and in the future (distance in space or time should be morally irrelevant)
• There are many people who could help worldwide situations, unlike the drowning child (morally not relevant the number of people, if others solve the problem you have no obligation but until then you do)
• Morality only exists to create frictionless, peaceful living between people in society ( Morality requires impartial consideration of those who might be affected by our choices)

Too high demanding on a normal citizen (the question of the supererogatory do not apply to the first person consideration about what ‘I’ should do)

Question 5

Justification for contractualism

Answer 5

Equal moral status or equal respect

Question 6

How does justifiability factor into Scanlon’s contractualism?

Answer 6

Behaviour you can justify to others is permissible while actions you can’t aren’t.

Question 7

Define reasonable rejection

Answer 7

It has to be grounded in how the action would affect an individual person living with the consequences and this factors in others not just yourself
ie avoiding pain

Question 8

Benefits of contractualism over aggregated utilitarianism

Answer 8

Use example of World Cup Electrician
Arm crushed under equipment and is in pain but can survive till end of game, if you take the equipment off the game’s feed cuts
Under contractualism you can save the electrician, you are not under a contract to the millions of football fans