Question

3. What are the three approaches that Michael Sandel considers in evaluating the morality of raising prices during natural disasters such as Hurricane Charlie? Discuss the differences among them. 4. Describe the utilitarian calculation that Ford made in designing the Pinto. Why might somebody object to Ford's analysis? 5. Discuss Jeremy Bentham's "hedonic calculus." What is it for? How does it work? 6. Explain what utilitarianism is. Explain utilitarianism's relationship to hedonism, to pursuing the best consequences (and the view that consequences are all that matter), and to the view that happiness is all that matters 7. In his article "Famine, Affluence, and Morality." Peter Singer argues for the conclusion that "The traditional distinction between duty and charity cannot be drawn, or at least, not in the place we normally draw it." What does he mean by this? What is his argument for this conclusion? Is there anything that is utilitarian about Singer's argument? 8. Jim is a drifter who has no friends. But he learns that a long-lost relative in the hospital and travels to Shelbyville intending to visit her. In fact, Jim has the wrong town; it turns out that the relative is miles away in Springfield. So Jim gives up and falls asleep on the lawn outside the Shelbyville General Hospital. Inside a desperate doctor is struggling with nine seriously ill patients. Patient urgently needs a new heart or he will die. Patient #2 needs a new liver. Patient #3 needs a new kidney.... Patient #9 needs new lungs. The doctor spies Jim asleep on the lawn. Glancing at his medicine cabinet, he knows that it would be a simple matter to kill Jim off without anyone ever knowing. The doctor is faced with a choice: kill Jim and harvest his organs, thereby saving nine important citizens of Shelbyville, or leave Jim alone, in which case all nine will all surely die. What would the Principle of Utility say about such a case as this? Are there any reasons to think that the Principle of Utility gives the wrong result? 9. Describe Bob's predicament with regard to his Bugatti in Peter Singer's "The Solution to World Poverty." What is utilitarian about Singer's analysis of the problem? What conclusion does Singer draw from Bob's predicament with regard to our duty to help the poor? 10. What is surrogacy? Discuss the ethical controversies surrounding surrogancy. How have practices and laws changed in light of the Baby M controversy and in light of changes in the structure of families? 11. Suppose that a bill was introduced into the Massachusetts legislature to ban the sale of cigarettes anywhere in the state. Suppose that two legislators agree to support the bill, but that one legislator has utilitarian reasons for doing so and the other legislator has paternalistic reasons. Give an example of what a utilitarian reason might be for banning the sale of cigarettes, and give an example of a paternalistic reason for it. Why might somebody object to utilitarian reasons for banning the sale of cigarettes? Why might somebody object to paternalistic reasons for banning the sale of cigarettes? 12. What would a utilitarian say about a lifeboat case in which all might die if some aren't sacrificed? Is it possible to object to the utilitarian position? If so, how? 13. What is a "night watchman" state? What are the elements of a night watchman" state, according to libertarians? How do libertarians justify them? anal state" Norick

Answer 1

3. i) Price gauging - With the outbreak of hurricane, the people demanded products more for their subsistence living and it was acceptable for them to pay any amount in order to buy the commodity during the outbreak. This gave a big opportunity to the producers to charge as much price as they want from the customers. They converted the fear of consumers into their profits.

ii) Welfare, freedom and virtue - The welfare is when marketers promote the welfare of the society to the people who work for them to provide goods to the consumers. Freedom is to provide the powers to the customers itself to select the amount they want to pay for the product exchange

This concept is contradicted by price gauging as the marketers want to profit, the main aim of the business is to earn profit in such a disaster situation and welfare is secondary for them so the main focus is not on the welfare, whereas, freedom for customers is actually not there because the marketers make the product, a need for the consumers and sell them as subsistence material.

This brings in the matter of virtue in the discussion, where people look out for one another in such distressing situation, so the virtue talks about how the customers should be treated wisely and equally and should be charged what is reasonable.

iii) What wounds deserve the purple heart? - The purple heart is for those who are physically injured during the war, but when it comes to mental trauma, this concept becomes false and then the soldiers which are suffering from the trauma of explosions and everything, they have to go through medical assistance and ultimately do not deserve purple heart, which is not fair.