Short Essay 1
Answer the following prompt in one page or less:
Explain John Stuart Mill’s ‘Greatest Happiness Principle’, including what Mill means by ‘happiness’, and whose happiness is taken into consideration. Give an example of an action the principle would consider ‘right’ and explain why. An obvious objection to such a view is that it seems to entail that people ought to live a ‘bestial’ life, spending all their time satisfying simple pleasures as if they were ‘animals’. Explain this objection, as well as Mill’s response to it.
Short Essay II
Answer the following prompt in one page or less:
Explain Kant’s distinction between acting from duty and acting merely in accord with duty. Give examples to show the difference. Explain which of these has moral worth and why. Explain the primary difference between this view and Mill’s.
Longer Essay
Answer the following in three pages or less:
According to Michael Allen Fox, what are the important features that autonomous, rational beings share? Explain his concept of the ‘moral community’, and what it takes for a being to be a member thereof. Explain why non-human animals cannot be members of this community. Give an example of an animal breaking a rule and explain the contrast that Fox would see with a similar situation in which a human person breaks a rule. Explain the problem that ‘mentally defective’ humans pose for Fox’s position. Give two of Fox’s responses to this problem, and critically evaluate them.
