Kant's Vegetarianism

            With vegetarianism becoming a hot trend in today’s society, it is fitting that many philosophers have examined its counterpart, meat eating, and analyzed its morality under different ethical lenses. Shafer-Landau is one of those philosophers. In his paper “Vegetarianism, Causation and Ethical Theory”, Shafer-Landau evaluates which ethical theory produces the strongest argument against meat-eating and animal suffering in factory farms. Although he believes his argument using virtue ethics is by far his strongest, I see his method of Kantian ethics in reference to universalization being the greatest proof to abstain from eating meat.

Steubenville and its Relation to Feminist Ethics

Link to the article: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/cnn-steubenville-rape-poppy-harlow-144458279.html

As we begin our discussions into feminist ethics, it is eerily fitting that the Steubenville rape case has become a highlight in the news. If you have not heard the story yet, two sixteen-year old football superstars from Steubenville, Ohio were charged with raping an unconscious, blacked out sixteen-year old girl. They were caught from their posting of pictures and videos of them taking advantage of the girl on social media sites. The article “CNN criticized for Steubenville verdict coverage” by Dylan Stableford of Yahoo News describes the public outcry over CNN’s coverage of the boys being sentenced with rape.

Respecting the Naysayer

Is it really that important to represent the other side of an argument fairly when writing your own argumentative paper? Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein happen to think so, and make a sound argument for it in their book They Say I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. In their chapter on introducing a naysayer to your argumentative paper, Graff and Birkenstein assert that even though it is appealing to make little space and support for opposing views to your argument, it is your duty as the author of the paper to represent them fairly (Graff and Birkenstein 2010, 86).

Collin Henry's Reading Response:"The Role of Moral Theory" pg.14-15 in The Fundamental of Ethics by Russ Shafer Landau

Russ Shafer-Landau emphasizes to readers that the role of moral theory in philosophy is to extract deeper, more generalized theories. Finding these theories would allow us, as humans, to apply them as the moral standard in more cases. Shafer-Landau argues that this is not just a want for philosophers, but is actually a built in yearning for all humans. When faced with a moral dilemma, every person digs deeper into his or her thought process to extract a universal reasoning as to why they came up with their solution. We do not want to think completely through every decision we have to make; instead, we prefer to have a universal code that makes the decision black and white.