1. Consider the cases discussed by Schultz. Place the actors in the cases discussed on a spectrum of moral responsibility for the harms done, ranging from fully responsible or to blame, to not at all responsible or morally neutral (or permissible). Explain why each actor falls where they do on this spectrum. What factors are morally relevant to determining someone's responsibility. (1 sentence per actor)
September 26, 2016
2. Pick one product that you consume or own and research its provenance (where it comes from). What are your responsiblities as a consumer for harms committed in its production and distribution? What are the morally relevant factors?
• (1 paragraph)
• September 28, 2016 9:00 AM
3. Many object that Ford did not sufficiently value human life in its handling of the Pinto case. Would its actions have been defensible if it had donated all of the profits from the Pinto to saving many more lives? Why or why not?
(1 para. max.)
October 10, 2016 9:00 AM
4.What is the least clear point in this passage (i.e., the Kant exerpt assigned for this class)?
(2 sentences)
5.Give one example of treating a person as a means only. (1 sentence)
Give one example of treating someone as a means and end. (1 sentence)
What makes the latter permissible? (1 sentence)
6.Consider the Frontline video "The Card Game." (You can refer to the transcript, as well as the video.)
Place the banks, credit card companies and payday lenders on a moral spectrum between the gunman scenario (i.e., a gunman holds a gun to someone's head and says "Your money or your life!") and treating people as means and ends. For each party, explain in one sentence why you think their practices do or don't treat people ends in themselves. ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/creditcards/)
7.Read the assigned section of the Buss article (pp.226 onwards).
Explain how the banks, credit card companies, and payday lenders did or did not manipulate or deceive their customers on her definitions of these. (5 sentences)
8.Read the assigned section of Feinberg's Paternalism. (pp. 201-15)
What is a coercive offer? Where does it fall on the moral spectrum?
9. Provide a (real life) example of exploitation or manipulation in the business context. You can use an article from a newspaper or other news-media, and make sure to append the link.
Briefly explain (in 5 sentences or less) where the exploiter or manipulator would fall on a moral spectrum of treaing people as means or ends & means, and why.
10.What is the significance of Goldman Sachs' clients being "sophisticated investors?" How is this different from the behavior of the banks, credit card companies and payday lenders? (5 sentences max)
11.What does Goldman Sachs do? What is a market maker?
12.Is there a moral difference between Goldman Sachs profiting off an unrelated investors' losses, and it profiting of its clients' losses? If so, what is the difference, and if not, why not?
(5 sentences max)
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/401/424/case.html
13. Why does equality require more than the "fabled offer of milk to the stork and the fox?" (2 sentences)
2. What does the court mean by the removal of "built-in headwinds?" (2 sentences)
Articles:
1. Bad Business: Why Companies Shouldn't Trade with Abusive Regimes
2. Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals by Immanuel Kant
3. Valuing Autonomy and Respecting Persons: Manipulation, Seduction, and the Basis of Moral Constraints* by Sarah Buss
4. PATERNALISM by Rolf Sartorius Editor
5. Goldman Sachs on trial An investment bank public relations disaster: Wall Street's best and brightest get hung out to dry in Washington by BY ANDREW LEONARD
6. Goldman Sachs Makes Further Comments on SEC Complaint
7. The Ford Pinto by W. Michael Hoffman