Exam 12: Moral,legal,and Aesthetic Reasoning

State whether the following item expresses moral value or nonmoral value;or no value at all. The program Sam wrote for finding repeating decimals works wonderfully,and it's only thirty-five lines long-that's real elegance.

State whether the following item expresses moral value or nonmoral value;or no value at all. Brooke and Richard are pleasant enough fellows,once you get to know them.

Identify the moral perspective at work here: Taffy is a university lab chimpanzee;the university has lost its animal research grant and has to decide what to do with Taffy. God says that humans have mastery over animals,so the lab people can do what they want with her.

In the following,discuss whether Marina is treating relevantly similar cases in sufficiently similar fashions;identify instances in which the cases are not relevantly similar. Marina is the principal source of financial support for one of her sons at college;the other son won a large scholarship,and Marina sends him a much smaller amount.

In the following,discuss whether Marina is treating relevantly similar cases in sufficiently similar fashions;identify instances in which the cases are not relevantly similar. Marina is usually a careful shopper,looking for bargains and buying generic products when she's at the market.But she has a weakness for gloves and handbags,and she owns a closet full of elegant and expensive examples.

In this pair of cases,the first may serve as precedent for the second.Decide whether the second case is so relevantly similar to the first that it should be decided identically.Explain your decision. First case:The owner of an amusement park,believing that homosexual activity was taking place in its pay toilets,authorized police to use an observation pipe leading from the roof to the booths.Officer H regularly visited the roof for surveillance.If he observed illegal conduct,he would notify officers below,who would make the arrest.A court ruled that the evidence of Officer H was illegally obtained and set aside the information. Second case:The management of a department store suspected illegal homosexual activity in the men's room.In this case,the booths,unlike those in the first case,were not pay toilets (and thus were not in the same sense "private"),and the observed behavior was committed in the space below the partition,and thus was observable by anyone who might have been in the public,or common-use,portion of the men's room at the time.An officer just happened to open the door of the men's room at the time of the activity,observed it through the doorway,and arrested the participants.

A law justifiable by legal moralism always prohibits activities that do not harm others.

For the following,try to come up with an additional premise that will turn the passage into a deductively valid or an inductively strong argument.Usually this requires adding a general moral principle and,sometimes,an extra nonmoral claim as well.The idea is to guarantee that the "ought" claim follows from the "is" claim. John has done something terribly wrong.He copied all of the equations on the take-home exam from Tony's paper and turned them in as his own.

State whether the following item expresses moral value or nonmoral value;or no value at all. Everybody should be as kind and generous as Janice.

For the following,try to come up with an additional premise that will turn the passage into a deductively valid or an inductively strong argument.Usually this requires adding a general moral principle and,sometimes,an extra nonmoral claim as well.The idea is to guarantee that the "ought" claim follows from the "is" claim. Daniel was bad yesterday.He let only one of the two children who live next door ride his new bike.

Defenders of the harm principle usually believe that it is only one among several acceptable justifications for laws forbidding conduct.

In this pair of cases,the first may serve as precedent for the second.Decide whether the second case is so relevantly similar to the first that it should be decided identically.Explain your decision. First case:Officers arrested D in his living room on a charge of using the mails to transport forged checks.Then they searched the other rooms of his apartment for forged checks,which they did not find.But they did find unlawfully possessed draft cards.D was convicted of possession and alteration of the draft cards.The court held the search was lawful as incidental to a valid arrest. Second case:Federal officers had observed the defendant operating an illegal still.They entered the premises and made a valid arrest without a warrant for a felony committed in their presence.They seized the still.At trial,the defendant moved to exclude the still from evidence.

State whether the following item expresses moral value or nonmoral value;or no value at all. The last set of essays was much better written than the first set.

In this pair of cases,the first may serve as precedent for the second.Decide whether the second case is so relevantly similar to the first that it should be decided identically.Explain your decision. First case:Officers on a late-night automobile patrol approached two men parked in a car in a lover's lane,who then drove away at high speed.The officers chased and overtook them,searched the car,and found narcotics.The court ruled that the search of the automobile was lawful even though no arrest had been made:The presence of two men in that place was suspicious,and their sudden flight indicated consciousness of guilt of some crime. Second case:The defendant's car was parked,and officers observed him walking in the middle of the night in a residential area.When they approached him,he made a throwing motion;on interrogation,he admitted prior felonies but made unbelievable explanations of his presence and his car at the place.The officers searched the car and found narcotics.

Answer the question in the passage below from one of the perspectives described in the text. Jan witnessed a certain Mr.Gaines commit a crime several months ago,but despite his certain knowledge of Gaines's guilt,the charges against him were dismissed because of an error in the investigation.Jan is especially upset about the nature of the crime-(a)Gaines was defrauding a charitable organization that Jan happens to think accomplishes a lot of good.Jan also knows that the crime was committed out of greed,since (b)Gaines owns a large jewelry store and is already well-off.Gaines has spoken to his friends about how he got away without having to stand trial,and (c)he is gloating about it. One day,Jan is walking up the alley that runs behind Gaines's store,and he notices that the back door has been left unlocked and,from the look of things,it appears that the burglar alarm has not been turned on.One of several vaults in the back room has a half-open door.He realizes that he could make off very easily with a large amount of expensive jewelry.(d)The likelihood of his being caught is very small.It occurs to him that it wouldn't be quite the same as stealing,certainly not as bad as what he saw Gaines do,if (e)he did not keep the loot for himself but gave it away.It occurs to him that (f)if he takes what doesn't belong to him he may not be any better than Gaines,and on the small chance he did get caught,nobody would believe him,and (g)the penalties would be stiff.But (h)this is his chance to see justice done with regard to Gaines,and he can make some deserving people very happy with the proceeds of the burglary.Should Jan grab the jewels?

Identify the moral perspective at work here: Taffy is a university lab chimpanzee;the university has lost its animal research grant and has to decide what to do with Taffy. Since Taffy is capable of suffering,it is important that her future be taken into consideration.She should be placed with people who will care for her.

For the following,try to come up with an additional premise that will turn the passage into a deductively valid or an inductively strong argument.Usually this requires adding a general moral principle and,sometimes,an extra nonmoral claim as well.The idea is to guarantee that the "ought" claim follows from the "is" claim. I think Martin's pushing his children into dangerous sports like football and motocross racing is immoral.

In this pair of cases,the first may serve as precedent for the second.Decide whether the second case is so relevantly similar to the first that it should be decided identically.Explain your decision. First case:A court has ruled that victim-impact statements,which document the suffering of the victim and the victim's family that results from the crime,are admissible among the evidence to be considered by a jury during the sentencing phase of criminal trials. Second case:A court is asked to rule whether such statements may be introduced in cases punishable by death.

Answer the question in the following paragraph from one of the perspectives described in the text. An employer who is considering hiring Eva has asked Donna,Eva's former supervisor,for a report on Eva.In truth,Eva's work for Donna has been only average.However, (a)Eva is Donna's friend,and Donna knows that Eva probably will not get the job if she says anything negative about Eva,and Donna knows that Eva desperately needs the job.Further, (b)Donna knows that if the situation were reversed,she would not want Eva to mention her deficiencies.Nevertheless, (c)it has been Donna's policy to reveal the deficiencies of employees when she has been asked for references by employers,and she knows that some of Eva's faults may be bothersome to this particular employer.Finally, (d)this employer has leveled with Donna in the past when Donna has asked for a report on people who have worked for him.Should Donna reveal deficiencies in Eva's past performance?

For the following,try to come up with an additional premise that will turn the passage into a deductively valid or an inductively strong argument.Usually this requires adding a general moral principle and,sometimes,an extra nonmoral claim as well.The idea is to guarantee that the "ought" claim follows from the "is" claim. You shouldn't have included that material on the exam.It was never mentioned in class.