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jazzyfreeman
fire_in_the_hall.docxPlease answer all of the questions with at least 50-100 words.
Question 1
Ronald Dworkin says the rights cannot be traded for benefits.
In the past couple years, there has been much debate on the U.S. government's NSA (Prism) policy of surveillance. For this post, first read the following articles:
1st: http://www.wired.com/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/
2nd: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/07/nsa-verizon-surveillance-constitution
The first article is a pretty fact-based expose of the NSA data center. The second and third articles present certain (political, philosophical) points of view.
After readings these articles, answer these questions in your post:
(1) Is the NSA program a violation of Dworkin's principle (that rights cannot be compromised for benefits)? How so (or not)? Do you agree with the NSA or Dworkin?
(2) Obama (a Democrat) has been criticized for his about-face on this issue. [To be fair, George W. Bush, a Republican, started this ball rolling with the Patriot Act; Obama advanced the government's power beyond the original Patriot Act.] Is Obama being morally hypocritical? But why is hypocrisy relevant in politics? Are those who criticized Bush's Patriot Act being hypocritical in defense of Obama's NSA? Conversely, are those who had defended Bush, but now criticizing Obama, hypocrites as well?
(3) Polls indicate that a majority of Americans support the NSA. This means that most American citizens favor some compromise of their rights (here, the right to privacy) for benefits (here, the 'greater good' of national security). Is this, in your opinion, the wrong attitude for a free society to have? Explain.
Question 2
"Being virtuous makes you happy" (457)
Now that you have learned the moral theories of Kant and Aristotle, which view do you favor? Provide reasons for your view.
*Do you agree with Virtue Ethics (Plato, Aristotle) that it is natural for rational beings to desire happiness, and therefore, that the happy life is the good life? They make the stronger claim that the morally best person IS actually the happiest person; the most virtuous life IS the happiest life.
*Do you agree with Kant that happiness should NOT be the basis of morality? Kant says there is no necessary relationship between the happy person and the good person. For instance, a very bad person CAN be quite happy; conversely, a person deserving of happiness (a good person) can be, through no fault of her own, be miserable. Kant rejects the virtue tradition (as well as virtually all other ethical sytems) because he is not convinced that people who are encouraged to pursue the happy life willl necessarily pursue a good (moral) life.
This disagreement comes down to how you answer one question: Does the happy life necessarily require moral virtue? (Is the happy person necessarily a good person?)
Question 3
1. Read Man in full article.
It is located at the following link
http://www.si.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1194725/1/index.htm
2. What elements of Virtue Ethics do you see in the story of Mike Powell? Provide specific examples.
