Deck 34: Divestment Is a Shared Responsibility

Question 1

What's another issue where it would be helpful to engage in the act of taking collective responsibility? Apply Iris Young's four parameters, which act as guidelines when thinking through possible ways to meet social connection responsibility, to the issue that you have chosen. What would it look like if we thought about social responsibility when it comes to the problem that you're discussing?

Answer 1

Identify an issue that demands a collective response.
Apply Young's four parameters to this issue, describing what it would look like to engage the concept of collective responsibility in this situation.

Question 2

Do some research into the mission statement of your college. Is there anything in it that would speak in favor of divesting from fossil fuels? Has your college already divested? If not, write a letter to your school, incorporating at least some of the points that Eric S. Godoy makes in his essay, encouraging it to divest. If your school has divested, walk through the steps involved in that process, highlighting any actions that Young's picture of responsibility would have supported or encouraged.

Answer 2

Show evidence of research into the author's college's mission statement.
Identify any components of this mission statement that speak in favor of fossil fuel divestment.
Either write a letter to the author's school, incorporating Godoy's reasoning to argue that the IHE should divest from fossil fuels.
Or, identify the steps in the divestment process at the author's IHE, describing how they relate to Young's description of collective responsibility.

Question 3

In his essay, Eric S. Godoy only considers one objection to his position. In your essay, develop another objection to his view (you might think that universities have good reasons to invest in fossil fuel companies, or that responsibility does not demand that IHEs divest, etc.). Then, consider how Godoy might respond to your objection.

Answer 3

Offer an objection to Godoy's position on fossil fuel divestment that makes a serious attempt to respond to Godoy's concerns about it.
Accurately summarize, and then apply, Godoy's ideas to the objection just offered.

Question 4

What is the point of divestment campaigns?

A) To appease protesters who make it hard to be involved with certain issues without scrutiny
B) To make wiser financial decisions as an institution
C) To signal that you are an institution that is both good and morally upright
D) To publicly proclaim that it's wrong to profit from injustice and suffering
E) To force major corporations to take institutions of higher education seriously

Question 5

Why is Godoy interested in the fossil fuel divestment movement?

A) The fossil fuel industry is an area of particular interest to certain ethicists
B) It's a valuable example of meeting shared responsibility by acting together to confront climate change
C) It's a good example of doing something that doesn't matter for the right reasons
D) It's a paradigm example of disassociating oneself from ethical wrongdoing, and so ridding oneself of guilt
E) This is the example that Young uses in her work

Question 6

While traditional notions of responsibility ________ that cause harm, Young suggests that ________ have the responsibility to improve background conditions and the structures that influence individual action.

A) Single out individual agents / all those socially connected to structural injustices
B) Focus on local communities / only governmental agencies
C) Focus on individuals / only the most powerful actors in perpetuating injustice
D) Focus on the privilege of those individual agents / it is actually the affected who
E) Focus on the moral integrity of those agents / even the morally vicious

Question 7

What does Godoy say the about power to affect the climate?

A) It is shared by every moral agent equally
B) It only makes sense to talk about power as it pertains to governmental institutions and networks
C) It depends on the culture or country in which one finds oneself
D) It varies according to one's position within the network of social structures that increase harmful greenhouse gases
E) No one person or group has any real power to affect the climate anymore

Question 8

What does privilege refer to?

A) A special type of immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group
B) The debt that one is made to pay to society by virtue of their socioeconomic status
C) The benefits gained from one's position relative to others within a social network
D) The interest one has been maintaining the goods that they were born into
E) A fictitious concept that only serves to distract from genuine conversations about responsibility

Question 9

What is one way that interest affects responsibility?

A) A set of interests serves to obscure the important facts about taking responsibility
B) People are by nature callous and self-interested, and if they do not work to overcome the demands of these interests, they will never be able to take responsibility well
C) Those with privilege have an interest in maintaining it, while those who suffer greatly from injustice have an interest in confronting privilege
D) Having good interests is the single most important thing that an agent can do to be a responsible, engaged, and conscientious citizen
E) Being interested in something is the only foundation for saying that we should be responsible with regard to that thing

Question 10

What does collective ability refer to?

A) How easily a collection of agents can act as or like a group agent
B) The level of power that some group yields in a situation
C) The difficulty of collaborating on projects within an institution of higher education
D) The particular competencies of the most able person in some group
E) The amount of ability that some group has when all of the individuals' capabilities are aggregated

Question 11

Students forming organizations that liaise with other groups within the larger community is an example of what?

A) Privilege
B) Power
C) Interest generation
D) Naivete
E) Collective ability

Question 12

What does Godoy say about the act of thinking about responsibility in individualist terms?

A) It's not helpful for thinking about structural injustices
B) It's not helpful when thinking about much of our ethical lives
C) It's only helpful when thinking about structural injustices
D) It's never helpful to think about responsibility in this way
E) It is the best way in which to conceptualize responsibility

Question 13

What does Godoy have to say about actions like flying less, eating less meat, and adjusting your thermostat?

A) These are the most important actions that we can be engaged with in the meanwhile
B) These actions are only helpful if you want to feel bad or more guilty
C) These actions go a long way in signaling the importance of the environmental movement
D) These actions don't address the underlying structures that incentivize harmful production
E) We cannot pretend to care about the planet if we do not engage in these activities