ASSIGNMENT 1:

DO NOT COPY OR PLAGIARIZE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Moral Reasoning

For our assignment this week, we will be looking at the complexities of moral reasoning. To begin, complete the interactive experiment, based on the famous Trolley Dilemma, from Philosophyexperiments.com (linked below). Be sure to keep a record of your answers as you work through the questions, and then read the analyses of your answers at the end of the experiment.

Note: The final page of this activity is titled: “Is it Because He’s Fat: A Piece of Bigotry” – you do not need to continue beyond that page.

http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/fatman/Default.aspx

For your essay this week, discuss what you learned about your own moral reasoning compared with the moral reasoning of others who participated in this experiment (this will be available to you in the analysis section).

The following questions should help guide your writing:

• In the preliminary questions, what answers did you select and why did you select them?
• In the scenario questions, (The Runaway Train, The Fat Man on the Bridge, The Saboteur, and The Fat Man and the Ticking Bomb), what answers did you select and why did you select them?
• In the analysis section, were your preliminary answers and your scenario answers consistent? If not, why not?
• How do your answers compare with the answers of others who also participated in this experiment?
• What does this experiment tell you about yourself and others in terms of moral reasoning?

Your completed assignment should be written primarily in first person and should be 500-750 words in length. If you use sources in your writing, be sure to identify them. If you use any direct language from a source, be sure to place those words in quotation marks.

ASSIGNMENT 2:

Situational Reactions

Read the following three situations. Describe what you would do in EACH situation. Integrate the elements of reasoning and intellectual standards in your writing to show an understanding of the material behind your personal example

Your essay should be 500-750 words in length and include the use of at least two (2) elements of reasoning and two (2) intellectual standards for EACH of the three (3) scenarios you will be discussing.

Do not worry about your answers being right or wrong – your work will be evaluated on its connection to the material – not the behavior you would engage in if you found yourself in these situations.

Scenario A: You are a soldier in the U.S. Military and are deployed in a foreign country during a war. A raid on a suspected military target went wrong, and your squad opened fire on several innocent people. Your commander asks you and the rest of the squad to make it look like they opened fire up on you first.

• How would you respond?
• How might your response change (or would it change) if the rest of your squad didn’t agree with you?

Scenario B: As a new police officer, you pull someone over for speeding. You note some suspicious behavior and feel it is justified for you to search the offender’s vehicle. After searching the vehicle, you confiscate several ounces of marijuana, which is still illegal in the state you serve.

You realize that the computer system is down, so you cannot chronicle this bust until you return to the station. After learning this, your partner, who is a decorated officer with more than 15 years on the force, pulls you aside and tells you that his wife is sick and he could really use that marijuana at home for medicinal purposes to help her with her pain.

• How would you respond to your partner?
• Does it make a difference that he is a much more experienced officer?

Scenario C: Your child, Johnny, is a senior in high school, and has, up until this year, earned very good grades in his coursework. Because of his academic achievement, he has been awarded a full academic scholarship to a good university.

Now, Johnny has a first-year teacher who assigns work that seems inappropriately difficult, and Johnny is struggling. Though his grades in his other classes are exceptional, he will need to earn a C or better for this class if he hopes to keep his scholarship, and it all hinges on his score on the last assignment in this difficult class.

The assignment is on a topic that your professor did her graduate work on, so you know there’s no way a high schooler should be expected to do well in this assignment. Still, if Johnny doesn’t ace this assignment, he will not earn a good enough course grade to keep his scholarship.

• Do you actively help him complete the assignment, or do you let him do it himself, knowing that without your help he will fail the assignment, not because he isn’t smart enough or dedicated enough, but because the assignment is inappropriately difficult?

Your completed assignment should be written primarily in first person and should be 500-750 words in length. If you use sources in your writing, be sure to identify them. If you use any direct language from a source, be sure to place those words in quotation marks.

Your assignment should adhere to the stated page length requirement for the week and use APA style formatting including a title page and reference section. You should use Times New Roman, 12pt. font, double-spaced lines, and one inch margins. A description of APA style and the APA template can be found in the Writing Center.