Ethics and Hunger

1
Ethics and Hunger

• Sources
• World Hunger and Morality (1996 Aiken and
  LaFollette)
• World Food Problem (2004 Leathers and Foster)
• The Elements of Moral Philosophy (1993 Rachels)

2
Ethics

• How do we know what is right and wrong?
• Use ethical theories to develop ethical arguments
• Ethical Arguments
• Based on logical extension of ethical theories to
  address specific issues
• a peaceful way to resolve conflicts in values

3
Ethics is not

• Bible or Religion
• People have different religions
• Ethics can transcend differences
• Law
• Some things are legal but not ethical
• Some things are ethical but not legal
• Customs
• People have different ways of doing things
• Ethics can transcend differences

4
Ethical Theories

• Natural Law
• There are stronger and weaker among all things
• It is natural and therefore right for the strong
  to win over the weak
• Examples
• Humans are at the top of the food chain and
  therefore eat animals and plants
• Survival of the fittest
• Social Darwinism

5
Ethical Theories

• Divine Command
• What is right is determined by God
• Jewish
• Christian
• Moslem
• Aztec
• Examples
• Love thy neighbor as thyself
• Thou shall not kill
• Golden Rule
• Compassion

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/02/the-creation-of-adam.jpeg
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Ethical Theories

• Virtue Ethics
• Have good character and you will behave ethically
• Example Justice
• One who develops the personal virtue of justice
  will treat other people in an ethically just
  manner

Aristotle
http//www.ilt.columbia.edu/Publications/Projects/
digitexts/aristotle/aristotle.jpg
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Ethical Theories

• Categorical Imperative
• Should be able to universalize what you do
• People should not be treated as means to an end
• Examples
• If some have access to the means of survival,
  everyone should have access to the means of
  survival
• Exploitation is wrong

Emanuel Kant
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pg
8
Ethical Theories

• Rights
• There are protected privileges people deserve
• Universal should apply to everybody
• Inherent for human beings (at least)
• Examples
• Right to life
• Right to freedom
• Right not to be tortured
• Right to own property

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Rights

• Right to water, air, food?
• Right to livelihood?

10
Ethical Theories

• Utilitarianism
• Seek the greatest good for the greatest number
• Quantitate and optimize happiness in society
  while minimizing pain
• Examples
• Interstate highways through farms benefit the
  larger public

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Ethical Theories

• Utilitarianism
• Seek the greatest good for the greatest number
• Examples
• Increase distribution of wealth
• Charity
• Graduated Taxes
• Labor Unions
• Socialism
• Land Redistribution
• Increase access to land, water, credit, health,
  and education

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2007/12/india-education.jpg
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Land Redistribution

• Jefferson thought the misery of Europe was caused
  by enormous inequality in land holding.
• He proposed that land should be redistributed
  every generation.

Thomas Jefferson
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rs/Thomas-Jefferson-big.jpg
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Ethical Theories

• Intuition
• What is right is what resonates as the right
  thing for an individual
• Based on
• Feeling (irrational)
• Thinking (rational)
• Mysticism (spiritual)
• Culture (societal values)
• Example
• Gut feeling (sense) that it is morally wrong for
  people to starve to death

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re/thinker3.jpg
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Ethical Principles

• Non- Maleficence
• Do no harm stop hurting others
• Beneficence
• Do good help others
• Justice
• Fairness equality of treatment
• Autonomy
• Self-determination
• Paternalism
• Deciding for others

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Ethical Perspectives

• Absolutism
• What is right is universal, timeless, and
  absolute
• Relativism
• What is right may be different for different
  people or cultures
• Nihilism
• There is no right or wrong

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Fallacies in Ethical Arguments

• Cant cite the Bible or other religious authority
  as reason for another to accept your ethical
  position

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Fallacies in Ethical Arguments

• Cant cite majority or how weve always done
  things in history as an authority
• still might be wrong

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very.jpg
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Fallacies in Ethical Arguments
I do not see why man cannot be just as cruel as
nature Who said it?

• Cant condemn something because of who said it
• Evaluate the merit of what is said

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Pictures/2007/08/08/hitler460.jpg
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es/quotes/gandhi.jpg
Hitler Gandhi
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Fallacies in Ethical Arguments

• Cant equate a thing to something else that is
  easy to attack
• and then attack the easy thing
• (Strawman)

Image Greenpeace
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Fallacies in Ethical Arguments

• Slippery Slope Cant extrapolate into the future
  (domino theory)
• if we allow this, then a terrible thing will
  happen later
• Example Anti-Suffragist Argument
• If women became involved in politics, they would
  stop marrying, having children, and the human
  race would die out

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ffrage/img/march.jpg
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Fallacies in Ethical Arguments

• Must have sound reasoning and use factual
  information
• Example Fear about eating genetically modified
  foods
• Its eating DNA!

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od.jpg
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• Arguments that hunger is not morally acceptable

23
Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• No, because
• People should have a right to survive
• Rights to
• Food
• Air
• Water
• Shelter
• Autonomy
• Self-sufficiency
• Principle Rights

24
Henry ShueSubsistence Rights

• No one can fully, if at all, enjoy any right
  that is supposedly protected by society if he or
  she lacks the essentials for a reasonably healthy
  and active life.
• Deficiencies in the means of subsistence can be
  just as fatal, incapacitating, or painful as
  violations of physical security.
• The resulting damage or death can at least as
  decisively prevent the enjoyment of any right as
  can the effects of security violations

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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• No, because
• Jesus said
• love thy neighbor
• Do onto others as you would have them do unto you
  
• Charity to the poor is a pillar of Islam
• Principles
• Divine Command
• Beneficence

Orphans in Afghanistan
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Mother Teresa

• If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed
  just one.
• Do not wait for leaders do it alone, person to
  person.

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ter2.jpg
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Thomas Aquinas13th Century Italian Philosopher

• Whatever a man has in superabundance is owed, of
  natural right, to the poor for their sustenance
• Principle Natural Law

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uinas.jpg
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• No, because
• Pain suffered by the hungry outweighs pleasure
  enjoyed by the well off
• Greatest good for the greatest number
• Principle Utilitarianism
• Beneficence

http//www.abc.net.au/reslib/200412/r37192_92982.j
pg
29
Peter Singer

• If it is in our power to prevent hunger we have a
  moral obligation to do it
• If we do not have to sacrifice anything morally
  comparable
• Example
• If we walk by a shallow pond and see a child
  drowning, we ought to save the child rather than
  to save ourselves from getting wet and dirty.

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Ethics/singer.jpg
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Singers Runaway Trolley

• Suppose you own a classic Bugatti
• it is your pride and joy
• It stalls on a trolley spur line
• A runaway trolley will hit and kill a child stuck
  on the main track
• Unless you divert the trolley to the spur line
• And destroy your Bugatti
• How much is the child worth?
• How much of your money should you give to help
  save the lives of children in developing
  countries?
• Without doing comparable harm to you?
• We earn much more than we really need

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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• No, because
• There is enough grain and vegetable food to feed
  everyone
• But, animal agriculture inefficiently uses too
  many food resources
• To produce meat for the relatively wealthy.
• Principle Justice

1/3 of worlds grain and ½ of fish are used for
animal feed
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otos5C2.)20Cattle5CFeedlot20Cattle.jpg
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• No, because
• Extreme disparities of wealth are unjust
• Conquest and economic domination unjustly favor
  the wealthy
• Resources should be more fairly distributed
• To allow everyone to be self-supporting
• Principle Justice, autonomy

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e_2.jpg
Jakarta, Indonesia Slum
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• No, because
• Western Culture has contributed to and benefited
  from conditions that helped produce global hunger
• Conquest
• Colonialism
• Imperialism
• Global economic dominance
• Aid to corrupt allies
• Principles
• Non-maleficence
• Justice

Ugandan dictator Idi Amin received U.S. aid
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5/amin.jpg
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Thomas Pogge

• The Global economic order causes poverty and
• entrenches the disadvantages of the poor
• Example
• Dictators are allowed to sell the mineral and raw
  material wealth of their country
• Profits are used to perpetuate repressive
  regimes.
• The global economic order supports this.
• The developed world benefits from low prices.
• Example
• Dictators are allowed to borrow money to support
  repressive regimes
• The global economic order supports this.
• The first world benefits, developing countries
  suffer

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Thomas Pogge

• We must stop thinking about world poverty in
  terms of helping the poor. The poor do need
  help, of course. But they need help only
  because of the terrible injustices they are being
  subjected to

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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• No, because
• When I see suffering people I know instinctively
  that it is wrong
• Principle Intuition

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b/d/dc/Buchenwald_Slave_Laborers_Liberation.jpg/73
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• Arguments that hunger is morally acceptable

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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• Yes, because
• Well off people have a right to what they have
  earned and own
• Principle Rights

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ricanGothic.jpg
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• Yes, because
• Jesus said the poor will always be with us.
• Principle Divine Command

Beggar with leprosy, India
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eggar_india.jpg
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• Yes, because
• If we are not causing hunger, we are not
  responsible
• Principle Non-Maleficence

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s/070913/070913_ethanol_vmed_12p.widec.jpg
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• Yes, because
• People deserve the circumstances they experience
  
• Caste system
• Gods will
• Original sin
• Providence
• Principle Divine Command

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/Creation_of_the_Sun_and_Moon_face_detail.jpg
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• Yes, because
• There must be poor in an agricultural society to
  support the hierarchy
• Principle Divine Command

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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• Yes, because
• Survival of the fittest is a law of nature we
  are not all equal
• individuals or
• cultures
• Social Darwinism
• Principle Natural Law

Cecil Rhodes
I contend that we are the first race in the
world and the more of the world we inhabit the
better it is for the human race
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mg0594.jpg
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Is Hunger morally acceptable?

• Yes, because
• The poor countries will out-reproduce the wealthy
  countries, resulting in greater hunger in the
  future
• Principle Beneficence

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Garrett Hardin

• Rich nations are like lifeboats and must limit
  the number of people aboard
• If you think this is unfair you may give your
  seat to one of the poor
• If we give money or food to the poor they will
  multiply, destroying the earth for all
• This is a tragedy of the commons abuses by some
  can destroy common resources for all

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Garrett Hardin

• We are all descendants of thieves, and the
  worlds resources are inequitably distributed.
• But we must begin the journey to tomorrow from
  the point where we are today.
• We cannot remake the past.
• We cannot safely divide the wealth equitably
  among all peoples so long as people reproduce at
  different rates.

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Questions
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Questions

• How much of our cultures ethical values about
  hunger are influenced by
• History of European Conquest and colonialism?

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Questions

• How much of our cultures ethical values about
  hunger are influenced by
• Cultural arrogance and racism?

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Questions

• How much of our cultures ethical values about
  hunger are influenced by
• American individualism?

51
Questions

• How much of our cultures ethical values about
  hunger are influenced by
• Ideas of manifest destiny?

George A. Custer
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/pictures/custer.jpg
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Questions

• How much of our cultures ethical values about
  hunger are influenced by
• Western property rights and property law?

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Questions

• How much of our cultures ethical values about
  hunger are influenced by
• Laisse-faire capitalism?

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Questions

• How much of our cultures ethical values about
  hunger are influenced by
• Xenophobia?

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Questions

• How much of our cultures ethical values about
  hunger are influenced by
• Religious doctrines of love, forgiveness,
  compassion?

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