PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE

PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE

Peter Singer is a Princeton philosopher whose views on bioethics — animal rights, euthanasia, and reproduction, specifically — have been highly controversial. Singer is a utilitarian: He judges the morality of an action by its outcome. This essay first appeared in People and Place, a blog about “ideas that connect us.”

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Reading the Genre

Question

1. This essay is organized into five distinct sections. What does Singer do in each of them? How do the headings help readers follow his logic? (See “Creating a structure”, and Chapter 26, “Organization”.)

Question

2. Where and how does Singer handle opposing viewpoints? Does he treat objections fairly? (See “Address counterpoints when necessary” and Chapter 21, “Critical Thinking”.)

Question

3. Notice Singer’s use of personal pronouns — we and they especially — in this essay. How does the author’s word choice influence the tone of his proposal? (See Chapter 32, “High, Middle, and Low Style”.)

Question

4. How does this proposal incorporate research? How does Singer use hard evidence to support his claims about ethics and fairness? (See “Assemble your hard evidence” and “Read sources to find evidence”.)

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5. WRITING: Before he gets to his proposal, Singer reviews a series of alternative philosophies and acknowledges, “Each of these principles of fairness, or others, could be defended as the best one to take.” Choose a principle other than the “equal per capita shares” approach that Singer advocates, and fashion a proposal around that idea of fairness. You might, for instance, support the “historical principle,” defend George W. Bush’s view, or argue for an approach that aggressively targets emission reduction rather than stabilization. (See “Examine prior solutions”.)

Question

6. MULTIMODALITY — PRESENTING DATA: Choose one set of statistics discussed in this essay and present it in a visual format. (See Chapter 49, “Tables, Graphs, and Infographics”.)

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