Jan 26th ethical dilemma question #3

3. There are many needy people in the world who could benefit from your help. If you were to volunteer one evening per week, you could reduce need and thereby increase the sum of happiness. But if you were to volunteer all of your evenings, then you could produce even more happiness. Should you volunteer all of your spare time to helping the needy? Would it be wrong not to do so?

Jan 26th ethical dilemma question # 2

2. Suppose a man has been missing for many years, and you have just learned that he is dead. Should you tell the man’s father, even if it will crush his hopes and send him into despair? Does utilitarianism have the right answer?

Jan 26th ethical delimma question # 1

1. Suppose a man has planted a bomb in New York City, and it will explode in twenty-four hours unless the police are able to find it. Should it be legal for the police to use torture to extract information from the suspected bomber? Does utilitarianism get the right answer?
1a. Now suppose the man who has planted the bomb will not reveal the location unless an innocent member of his family is tortured. Should it be legal for the police to torture innocent people, if that is truly the only way to discover the location of a large bomb? Does utilitarianism have the right answer?

About this collaborative learning team

This collaborative team activity will study ways to add to learning by refining student thought through the dialog process. We will involve students in discourse of import to curricular areas that will promote higher order thinking skills and foster classroom learning communities. These goals will align to Iowa Core Standards by helping teachers increase the rigor and relevance of content material as well as providing formative assessment of student understanding throughout the discussion process. Differentiated instructional areas addressed during the study and follow-up collaborative work will include: Quality Curriculum, Continuous Assessment, and Building Community.  This effort will allow teachers to support different styles of learners with different readiness levels to participate successfully.

We will read the book Justice: What’s the Right Thing To Do? by Michael Sandel. As a group we will watch the videos connected with each of 10 topics. We will then develop rules of discourse to discuss the topics in groups. These will be incorporated into rubric form for self-assessment to be used by study group members and students in classes to determine their progress toward appropriate, effective discourse in a learning community.  Our project will be to develop lessons that involve a philosophical class discussion and to provide a summary of these activities to the group for shared evaluation and refinement.

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