Chat with AIExam 10: Developing an Argument From Analogy
Below is a scenario that raises a moral question. Using the strategies described in Chapter 10 of Doing Practical Ethics, develop an Argument from Analogy that addresses the moral question and represent it in standard form. Then, write a brief paragraph of supplementary information for each premise (explaining what the premise is saying and why we should think it is true).
The scenario: A Psychologist's Dilemma. Zhang is a psychologist evaluating a 5-year- old boy for a learning disorder. During the process, Zhang comes to believe that the father has at times treated the boy in a way that seems just severe enough to count as reportable verbal abuse and neglect. The boy's parents are both aware that the father's parenting falls far short of ideal, and the father says he's willing to seek counseling to help him manage his flashes of anger. Zhang's position is complicated by the fact that the parents are undocumented immigrants. Reporting the father's incidents of verbal abuse to child protective services (CPS) risks exposing the parents to arrest and deportation. This would likely lead to great stress for the family, including the child. Should Zhang report the father to CPS or take some other action?
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Answered by Examlex AI CopilotP1: Reporting the father's incidents of verbal abuse to CPS risks exposing the parents to arrest and deportation.
Supplementary information: This premise is stating that if Zhang were to report the father's behavior to CPS, it could potentially lead to the parents being arrested and deported due to their undocumented immigrant status. This is true because undocumented immigrants are at risk of being detained and deported if they come into contact with law enforcement or government agencies.
P2: Exposing the parents to arrest and deportation would likely lead to great stress for the family, including the child.
Supplementary information: This premise is saying that if the parents were to be arrested and deported, it would cause significant stress for the entire family, including the 5-year-old boy. This is true because the fear of separation and the uncertainty of their future can have a detrimental impact on the mental and emotional well-being of the family members.
C: Therefore, Zhang should consider taking some other action rather than reporting the father to CPS.
Supplementary information: This conclusion is suggesting that given the potential consequences of reporting the father to CPS, Zhang should explore alternative actions that could address the father's behavior without putting the family at risk of arrest and deportation. This is a reasonable conclusion because it takes into account the well-being of the entire family, including the 5-year-old boy, and seeks to avoid causing further harm to them.
Below is a scenario that raises a moral question. Using the strategies described in Chapter 10 of Doing Practical Ethics, develop an Argument from Analogy that addresses the moral question and represent it in standard form. Then, write a brief paragraph of supplementary information for each premise (explaining what the premise is saying and why we should think it is true).
The scenario: A Makah Whale Hunt. Factual background: in the late 1990s, the Makah tribe of Neah Bay in Washington State, near the US border with Canada, fought a multi- year, international political battle to restore the tribe's right to hunt whales. The whale hunts, an important part of their cultural history, had ended in the early 1900s, as whale populations collapsed in the face of large-scale commercial whaling. Then, in the 1980s, international bans on whale hunting were passed by most nations, including the USA, and whale hunting became illegal nearly everywhere, including Neah Bay. But in 1996, it was the Makah tribe's position that those laws did not apply to them; they maintained that their original treaty with the US government granted them the right to hunt whales.
Eventually, the tribe won its case and in 1999 a team of Makah men killed their first whale in living memory.
Fictional scenario: Ben is the 20-year-old nephew of a tribal elder. He has been invited to participate in the Makah tribe's second modern whale hunt, planned for the spring of
2000. The previous year he had watched as the first whale hunt brought the community together like he had never seen before. Everyone worked together to help the hunters train physically and prepare spiritually. Elders met to try to reconstruct, as best they could, any fragments of cultural memory of how the hunts had unfolded 100 years before. The preparations for the hunt were the focus of multiple conversations every day. When the men returned triumphantly, with the body of a gray whale in tow, the community's celebrations were long and intense. Ben ate a meal of barbequed whale meat, and it tasted to him like the best steak he'd ever had.
When he was invited to participate in the second hunt, Ben was deeply honored. He has practiced in his canoe daily, and is stronger than he has ever been. The whalers have gone on several retreats, to purify themselves and spiritually prepare for the hunt. These retreats have brought Ben closer to men in his community that he previously did not know well.
But as the day of the hunt drew closer, Ben's misgivings began to grow. Now, when he thinks about the hunt, he gets sick to his stomach. He knows well how intelligent the whales are, with a complex language that humans haven't even begun to decode. He has spent hours admiring them from the shore and from his canoe, and believes them to be gentle, even kind creatures. He cannot deny that last year's whale hunt had a positive effect on the community, but the tribe certainly doesn't need whale meat to survive.
Ben feels trapped in a moral dilemma. If he pulls out of the hunt at the last minute, he worries he will be wronging his community, including his uncle (the tribal elder who fought so hard for whaling rights), and the hunters he has grown close to over months of preparation. But if he participates, he worries he will be committing something that feels, to him, increasingly close to murder. What is the right thing for Ben to do in this situation?
(32) Answered by Examlex AI CopilotArgument from Analogy in Standard Form:
Premise 1: Hunting whales is morally wrong.
Premise 2: Hunting other intelligent and gentle creatures, such as dolphins, is also morally wrong.
Premise 3: Whales are intelligent and gentle creatures.
Premise 4: Therefore, hunting whales is morally wrong.
Supplementary Information:
Premise 1: This premise is based on the idea that killing animals for non-essential purposes, such as for cultural or traditional reasons, is morally wrong. It also takes into consideration the suffering and harm caused to the animals being hunted.
Premise 2: This premise draws an analogy between hunting whales and hunting other intelligent and gentle creatures, such as dolphins, to show that both actions are morally wrong. It highlights the similarity in moral considerations between different types of intelligent and gentle creatures.
Premise 3: This premise is based on the factual information provided in the scenario, which describes whales as intelligent and gentle creatures. It is also supported by scientific research that has shown whales to possess complex communication and social behaviors.
Premise 4: This premise follows logically from the previous premises and concludes that hunting whales is morally wrong based on the analogy drawn between hunting whales and hunting other intelligent and gentle creatures.
In this situation, Ben should consider the moral implications of his actions and prioritize the well-being and rights of the whales over the cultural and traditional practices of his community. He should have a conversation with his uncle and the hunters to express his concerns and explore alternative ways to uphold their cultural traditions without causing harm to intelligent and gentle creatures. Ben should also seek support from like-minded individuals within his community to advocate for a more ethical approach to preserving their cultural heritage. Ultimately, Ben should stand up for his moral beliefs and refrain from participating in the whale hunt, even if it means facing disapproval from his community.
Below is a scenario that raises a moral question. Using the strategies described in Chapter 10 of Doing Practical Ethics, develop an Argument from Analogy that addresses the moral question and represent it in standard form. Then, write a brief paragraph of supplementary information for each premise (explaining what the premise is saying and why we should think it is true).
The scenario: Eco-sabotage. Hayduke is an Army veteran who lives in rural Oregon near an old-growth forest. That forest houses a thriving ecosystem of plants, fungi, birds, insects, and mammals that Hayduke has studied, admired, and loved since he was a child. It was this forest that prompted him to become an environmentalist, donating money to mainstream groups like Greenpeace, and also to more extreme environmentalist organizations, including Earth First!.
Hayduke learns that a logging company has secured the legal rights to clear-cut his beloved forest. He believes, with reason, that this will destroy the local ecosystem, which will have terrible effects for the region. Without the forest, many plants and animals, some of them relatively rare, will die. Erosion into a local river will likely become a problem, perhaps even causing flooding in an area that has never experienced flooding.
Because of his Army training and long-standing friendship with members of Earth First!,
Hayduke has a good grasp of the the kinds of eco-sabotage techniques that will effectively damage, or even destroy, the logging equipment the company has begun to assemble at the border of the forest. Some of these techniques are as simple as sugar in the gas tanks of the bulldozers. Some techniques are more complicated, but still within his ability. He knows, for example, how to mix thermite, which can destroy any machinery he chooses to target. Hayduke believes that he, acting alone, could cause enough damage to heavy logging equipment to convince the company to leave his beloved forest alone, and to move, instead, to a forest ecosystem that could withstand logging without collapsing.
Hayduke has never before destroyed property in pursuit of his environmentalist goals, but he believes this is a special case. If the government understood the importance of the forest, he believes they wouldn't have issued the logging permits, and he even believes that if the logging company knew the forest as well as he does, they would leave it alone. But at this point, Hayduke feels he has no other options: do nothing and allow the forest to be clear-cut, or prepare for a night mission to destroy as much heavy equipment as he can. Is it morally permissible (or morally wrong, or morally required) for Hayduke to destroy logging equipment to stop the destruction of his beloved old-growth forest?
(Adapted from The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey.)
(40) Answered by Examlex AI CopilotP1: Destroying logging equipment to stop the destruction of the old-growth forest is morally permissible.
Supplementary information: This premise is stating that it is morally acceptable for Hayduke to take action to prevent the destruction of the forest, even if it involves damaging property. This is true because the potential harm caused by the destruction of the forest, such as the loss of rare plants and animals, and the risk of erosion and flooding, outweighs the harm caused by damaging the logging equipment.
P2: Preventing the destruction of the old-growth forest is morally required.
Supplementary information: This premise is asserting that it is morally necessary for Hayduke to take action to prevent the destruction of the forest. This is true because the destruction of the forest will have significant negative consequences for the ecosystem and the region, and it is Hayduke's moral obligation to protect the environment and the well-being of the plants and animals that depend on the forest.
P3: Destroying property in pursuit of environmentalist goals is morally permissible in certain circumstances.
Supplementary information: This premise is stating that there are situations in which it is morally acceptable to engage in property destruction for the purpose of protecting the environment. This is true because the value of preserving the ecosystem and preventing harm to the environment can outweigh the value of the property being destroyed.
Conclusion: Therefore, it is morally permissible for Hayduke to destroy logging equipment to stop the destruction of his beloved old-growth forest.
Supplementary information: This conclusion follows from the premises, as it is morally acceptable and even morally required for Hayduke to take action to prevent the destruction of the forest, even if it involves damaging property. In this specific case, the potential harm caused by the destruction of the forest justifies the action of destroying the logging equipment.
Below is a scenario that raises a moral question. Using the strategies described in Chapter 10 of Doing Practical Ethics, develop an Argument from Analogy that addresses the moral question and represent it in standard form. Then, write a brief paragraph of supplementary information for each premise (explaining what the premise is saying and why we should think it is true).
The scenario: The Case of Henry Rayhons: Donna Lou Rayhons developed dementia when she was in her late seventies and, just before being admitted to a nursing home, could not recall her daughters' names and sometimes expressed confusion about how to do things she previously could do (like eat hamburgers). She and Mr. Rayhons had sex in the nursing home until the doctors told Mr. Rayhons that she was not competent to consent. Mrs. Rayhons sometimes initiated the sexual contact, and she often showed
signs she enjoyed it, and she never showed any signs that she resisted it. Was it morally permissible for Mr. Rayhons to have sex with his wife?
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