ETHICS: READING EXERCISE ON STEINBOCK’S CRITIQUE OF SINGER
(1) (a) Steinbock explains in the first full paragraph on page 251 how her view differs from Singer’s. Explain the difference as precisely as you can in your own words.
(b) In the next paragraph, Steinbock suggests that Singer’s view has counter-intuitive results. What are these counter-intuitive results?
(c) Is Steinbock right that the results are counter-intuitive?
(d) What weight should we attach to such counter-intuitive results in assessing Singer’s view?
(2) (a) In the long paragraph that goes from pages 252 to 253, Steinbock points to three capacities which are characteristic of humans, and which she takes to justify giving humans elevated moral status. What are these three capacities?
(b) Is possession of these three capacities together sufficient to justify the elevated moral status Steinbock wants to give to humans?
(3) (a) In the second full paragraph on page 254, Steinbock considers a reply Singer might make to her argument. What is the reply?
(b) How does Steinbock respond to this reply?
(4) (a) In the last full paragraph on page 254, Steinbock argues that we cannot separate the question of the value of an entity’s life from the question of the value of its suffering in the way that Singer wants to do. Explain her argument.
(b) In the first full paragraph on page 255, Steinbock addresses the problem of marginal cases. What is her response to the problem? (See the last two paragraphs in the paper)
(c) How plausible is this response?
(d) How different are the implications of Singer’s and Steinbock’s views for the morality of factory farming?
