Mill&Taurek
True or false: Utilitarianism allows one to be partial (e.g. favoring the interest of their own or their family) when making decisions.
False. Utilitarianism requires one to be impartial to everyone, including oneself.
People are in ______ and _______ when in the state of nature according to Locke
a state of perfect freedom and a state of equality
True or false: Hume thinks it is consent that grounds people's sense of private property
False.
(Convention does not require consent or promise. The force of promise even comes from conventions. People in a community just develop a pattern and follow it.)
True or false: Nozick thinks that it's not possible to maintain any distributive pattern in a free market.
True.
What is the widely accepted presumption that Taurek wants to challenge?
When faced with a dilemma, other things being equal, we should save the greater number. (Or, the more fundamental statement: lives and pains can be added up when making decisions)
What are the two types of consent according to Locke? Which kind is required for the establishment of a political authority?
Expressed consent and tacit consent. Expressed consent
In short, what is the second foundation of the ownership of land, according to Locke?
Cultivation increases productivity.
(By cultivating the land, one can provide more resources for all, compared with the resources produced by the land before cultivation.)
According to Rawls, what is the subject of justice?
Basic structure of society
What is the principle of fair play in political terms?
Under certain circumstances, the acceptance of benefits provided by a government generates political obligations on the part of the acceptor (eg the duties to obey the law and pay one’s taxes)
What is convention, according to Hume?
a general sense of common interest; which sense all the members of the society express to one another, and which induces them to regulate their conduct by certain rules
What is it like to be behind the veil of ignorance?
“No one knows his place in society, his class position or social status, nor does any one know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence, strength, and the like.”
What are the intrinsic and extrinsic reasons for democracy?
Intrinsic reasons: there are intrinsic values
1) Freedom
2) Equality
Extrinsic/instrumental reasons: there are good we want to promote
1) Correct decisions
2) Peace
3) Political culture
Provide an example of open goods and readily available goods. What does this difference say about the principle of fair play?
The principle of fair play ignores the fact that a lot of the benefits people accept are open goods that are hard to avoid. So people don’t really accept them in the way necessary to engage the principle.
What is Okin's criticism of Rawls?
The thesis: the boundary of justice should be extended to families and other spheres that are influenced by the gender system
Because if we apply the veil of ignorance to gender, it will show that:
If gender is an irrelevant factor, then the sphere of justice should be broadened, and the current gender system will not survive the original position.
If gender is a relevant factor, then the conclusion would be that “not only is the disappearance of gender necessary if social justice is to be enjoyed in practice by members of both sexes, but…the disappearance of gender is a prerequisite for the complete development of a nonsexist, fully human theory of justice.”
What is Plato's challenge to democracy?
Political ruling is no different from our other ordinary needs, and we need experts to rule just like we need experts for our other needs.
Entitlement to rule should only be given to those who
1) know what ends the government should be pursuing
2) are disposed to seek those ends
3) can figure out the best means to achieve them
What are the two points Taurek made with the two sets of cases?
•The pill case (or friend David case) wants to show: Adding up lives is ignoring the significant value of people and objectifying the people involved.
•The stranger case (stranger goes through some major suffering, so we can be spared minor ones) : If I, as someone in the group involved, can’t give a good reason for the stranger to suffer, then there’s no reason to say the stranger should suffer so the group can be spared.
Outline Hume's criticism to Locke's social contract theory (consent in existing political authorities)
1. Strong consent is required, then no current regime is legitimate
2. Original contract long time ago
There must have been changes/ consent can't be passed on to descendants
3. People give tacit consent by not leaving
One must know they are making a choice/carried on board while asleep
What are the two principles of owning private property, according to Locke?
1. One must ensure that there is “enough, and as good, left in common for others.” (The “Lockean Proviso”)
2. “As much as anyone can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils, so much he may by his labour fix a property in.”
According to Rawls, what are the principles of justice?
First principle (The principle of liberty):Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for others.
Second principle (The principle of equality)
1) Fair equality of opportunity:Positions of authority and responsibility must be accessible to all
2) The difference principle: While the distribution of wealth and income need not be equal, it must be to everyone’s advantage, especially to the greatest expected benefit of the least advantaged