Ethics and Social Justice

Possible Exam Questions

1.       Imagine that you have been placed in charge of evaluating and improving the academic culture at Wittenberg.  You are responsible for outlining what you consider to be an “ideal” education and an “ideal” educational environment.  Using what you have learned from Pedagogy of the Oppressed, from Nussbaum’s “Liberal Education and the Global Community,” from Wittenberg’s Mission and Values Statement and from Jones’“Liberal Education for the Twenty-first Century: Business Expectations” articulate your vision of the ideal university.  Your answer should address the following questions: What should professors expect of students?  How are students responsible for their own learning?  How are students responsible to other students? How should professors assess students?  How should professors facilitate learning?  What are the duties of a professor?  After reading your essay, it should be clear to me how an advocate of “pedagogy of the oppressed” would respond to your proposal.

2. Jonathan Glover identifies one of the problems that ethicists must confront as we move into the 21st century, i.e., “Nietzsche’s Challenge.” How does Glover characterize this challenge? How does he think ethicists should approach the challenge and does Glover think a response to Nietzsche is possible? Why or why not? Do you agree with Glover? Why or why not?

3. It would seem, almost too obvious, that we require a context if we are to understand fully how to put into practice the guiding principle—What Would Jesus Do (WWJD).  In other words, we need to ask decidedly how Jesus, if he were alive today, would respond to specific circumstances.  While it is clear that Jesus, the living man, did not attend meetings at the United Nations, trade stocks and bonds on Wall Street, hold political office in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, the Executive office, or preach on CTN,  he might have had something to say regarding the scandal in the United Nation’s food for oil program, the fraudulent practices of Enron, Tyco, etc., Clinton’s decision to engage in …with Ms. Lewinsky, Tom Delay’s willingness to “bend” the rules, Pat Robertson’s hypocrisy, Patrick Buchanan’s xenophobia, and the list goes on.  Narrowing the scope of your burden, tell me how you think Jesus would respond to Kozol’s analysis and why? Be sure to explain your position fully.

4. For John Rawls, the “original position” is device of representation that allows us to understand what “reasonable” people would endorse as principle(s) of justice in order to establish the “basic structure” of a just society. In providing a contractarian view of justice, Rawls argues that the guiding idea is that the principles of justice for the basic structure of society are the object of a hypothetical (original) agreement. They are the principles that free and rational persons concerned to further their own interests would accept in an initial position of equality as defining the fundamental terms of the association. In Racial Contract, Charles Mills outlines what he terms the “racial contract.” Mills, arguing against a Rawlsian position, says that his analysis seeks to account for the way things are and how they came to be that way—descriptive claim—as well as the way things should be—normative claim—since one of the complaints about (white) political philosophy is that it ignores basic political realities. Do you think Mills is correct to accuse Rawls of ignoring the basic political reality? Be sure to discuss Rawls’ position as descriptive, normative or both.

5. Read “Minimum Wage Myth” by Edward H. Crane

http://www.cato.org/dailys/10-28-99.html

Explain Crane’s argument. Would Barbara Ehrenreich agree? Why or why not? Be sure to explain your answer fully.