Order 1663739: A Sinking Cry for Help

PHIL106PaperAssignment1 1.5Slides.ppt
 

• Type of paperEssay (Any Type)
• SubjectPhilosophy
• Number of pages6
• Format of citationMLA
• Number of cited resources0
• Type of serviceWriting

1. attached is the essay that is needed to write the paper and the following questions and instructions 2. attached Power points as reference for #6 & 7 3. write in the order of the questions 4. state your view 5. don′t be to broad 6. give your own definition of ′Utilitarianism′ 7. explain ′The Process of Making Moral decisions′ and ′Two types of Imperatives′ 8. For #4 there are two objections which means there must be two responses 9. May use examples to express the understanding of a theory 10. each question has a preferred/ must follow amount of pages to be completed. ( ex. #1, must be 1 page. #2 must be 2 pages ) 11. follow the instructions in the attached pages

PHIL106: INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

Paper Topic

Read the attached essay “United States vs. Holmes, U. S. Circuit Court, 1842” carefully and write a 6-page paper to discuss the following questions:

1. What happened on the night of April 20, 1841? Briefly tell the story in your own words. (1 page, 2 pts)

2. According to Bentham’s Utilitarianism, is Holmes’s decision of throwing passengers overboard morally right or wrong? Explain the theory first and then explain why. (2 pages, 7 pts)

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. According to Kant’s Categorical Imperative, is Holmes’s decision of throwing passengers overboard morally right or wrong? Explain the theory first and then explain why. (2 pages, 7 pts)

4. According to your own view, is Holmes’s decision of throwing passengers overboard morally right or wrong? How would your opponent criticize your view? Discuss two objections from your opponent and defend your view against them. (1 page, 4 pts)

Instructions

1. The content of the paper must be at least 6 pages, double-spaced, with font size 12, 1-inch margins on all four sides and no extra spacing between paragraphs.

2. Your answer to the first question should be in your own words and not contain a single quote from the author.

3. Your discussions of the theories should not contain too many quotes from the textbook or class notes. If you use examples, they should be different from those in the textbook.

4. Any evidence of plagiarism will result in a grade of F for the paper.

5. The paper is due on Sunday, April 28, 2019 and is worth 20% of your course grade. You may discuss your draft with me in person, but please do not e-mail your draft or paper. Late papers are not acceptable.

6. Your grade for the paper will be posted on Canvas on or before Monday, May 27, 2019.

Turn-it-in

Your paper must be submitted to Turnitin within Canvas. Hardcopy version of your paper is not required. The deadline is strictly observed. You will not be able to upload your paper past the deadline.

United States vs. Holmes, U. S. Circuit Court, 1842

The William Brown left Liverpool on March 13, 1841 for Philadelphia. She had 17 crew and 65 passengers, mostly Scotch and Irish emigrants on board. At about 10:00 p.m. on the night of the 19th of April, some 250 miles southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, the ship struck an iceberg and began to fill so rapidly that it was evident that she must go down soon. Both the long boat and the jolly boat were swung clear and lowered into the water. The captain, second-mate and seven other members of the crew plus one passenger clambered into the jolly boat and 41 persons rushed willy-nilly into the long boat (32 passengers and all 9 of the remaining crew). Within an hour and half of being struck, the ship went down. Thirty passengers in all, many of them children, were on board when the ship sank.

On the following morning the captain ordered Holmes, the second-mate, to take charge of the long boat before the two lifeboats parted company. The long boat was in fairly good condition but she had not been in the water since Liverpool and as soon as she was launched she began to leak. And she continued to leak throughout that first night and was now leaking still. The passengers, with the help of various buckets and tins, were able by bailing to reduce the water and keep the long boat afloat. The plug which was about an inch and half in diameter came out more than once. Add to this the fact that the long boat was very crowded and the weight of passengers and crew brought the gunwale to 5 and 1/2 inches of the water. Also to make matters worse it began to rain and continued to rain throughout the day and night of that first full day at sea. When the sun went down, the wind picked up and waves splashed over the long boats bow. Water was coming down from above, from over the side and from below and at about ten o’clock at night the situation became desperate. The boat was quite full of water and the mate, who himself was bailing frantically, cried out, “This . . . won’t do. Help me, God. Men, go to work.” The crew, as if understanding what the mate was ordering them to do, did not respond. Several passengers cried out, “The boat is sinking. The plugs out. God have mercy on our souls.” And the mate exclaimed again: “Men, you must go to work, or we shall all perish.”

The crew then went to work. The mate ordered the crew not to part man and wife, and not to throw any women overboard. No lots were cast, nor had there been any discussion among all of those on board about what to do in such an emergency. There was no vote taken or consultation. The first to go was Riley whom Holmes, a mere sailor, but a man well respected by the passengers and crew, asked to “Stand up.” He was then thrown overboard. When they came to Charles Conlin, he cried out, “Holmes, dear, sure you won’t put me out?” “Yes, Charley,” said Holmes, “you must go, too.” One man asked for five minutes to say his prayers and was allowed, at the interposition of the cook, to say them before he, too, was thrown overboard. Frank Askin offered Holmes five sovereigns to spare his life until the next morning, when “if God don’t send us some help, we’ll draw lots, and if the lot falls on me, I’ll go over like a man.” But Holmes only said, “I don’t want your money, Frank,” and put him overboard. Askin struggled violently while he was being put out, but the boat did not capsize. When the crew had done their work, 16 passengers (14 men and two women) were thrown out, although the sacrifice of the two women may have been an act of devotion and affection for their brother, Frank Askin. When Holmes seized Askin, the two sisters pleaded for his life and said if he were thrown out, they wished to die too and after he was gone, one of the sisters said “and I care not now to live longer.”

The boat had provisions for six or seven days for those remaining on board: 75 pounds of bread, 6 gallons of water, 8 or 10 pounds of meat, and a small bag of oatmeal. The mate had a chart, compass, and quadrant. On Wednesday morning, the morning that followed that fateful night, Holmes was the first to spot a vessel. He told the passengers to lie down and be very still. If they make out so many of us on board, they will steer off another way and pretend they have not seen us. He fastened a woman’s shawl to a boathook and began waving it wildly. They were spotted and the Crescent picked up everyone in the long boat who had survived the night.

The Crescent was bound for Le Havre and when the ship arrived, public sentiment had already hardened against the crew and they were arrested but almost immediately released when the British and American consulates assured the authorities that the crew had done nothing wrong. Eventually many of the surviving passengers and crew made it back to Philadelphia, their homeport..

News travels fast and the story of the crew’s exploits preceded them. The Public Ledger of Philadelphia demanded that the mate and sailors of the William Brown who threw the passengers overboard to save themselves, should be put upon trial for murder. And the editorials in other papers were no less vehement. The New York Advertiser complained that “we have emigrant ships sailing every week, and if it is held as law that might is right and that the crew are justified under extremities in throwing overboard whom and as many as they think right, without casting lots, or making other choice than their will, it had better be declared so.”

Several passengers who survived that fateful Tuesday night filed a complaint against the crew with Philadelphia’s District Attorney. Holmes, who was the only crew member then in the city, was arrested and charged with the murder of Frank Askin, the man who had offered Holmes five sovereigns to spare his life. Before trial the charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter, after the grand jury refused to indict Holmes for murder. Holmes was indicted under the Act of 1790 which ordained that “if any seaman, etc. . . . . shall commit manslaughter upon the high seas, on conviction, shall be imprisoned not exceeding three years and fined not exceeding one thousand dollars.” Holmes was taken under the wing of the Female Seamen’s Friend Society and the Society helped him secure David Paul Brown, the best criminal lawyer in Philadelphia at the time.

At trial the prosecution argued that full and distinct notice of the danger should have been given to all on board and that lots should have been cast, before the sacrifice of any for the safety of the rest would become justifiable. Brown, in defense of Holmes, argued that in situations of necessity, conventional law ceases to operate and gives way instead to natural law, i. e. the law of self-preservation and Brown argued the law of self-preservation is no different and is just as compelling as the law of self-defense. Brown appealed directly to the jury: “You sit here, the sworn twelve, . . . reposing amidst the comfort and delights of sacred homes . . . to decide upon the impulses and motives of the prisoner at bar, launched upon the bosom of the perilous ocean surrounded by a thousand deaths in their most hideous forms, with but one plank between him and destruction.

Holmes was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail and given a $20 fine. A Presidential pardon relieved him of the fine but he served his entire sentence. Upon his release, he returned to the sea, as had the rest of the crew, none of whom were ever tried for their part in the whole affair.

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1.5 Is Happiness the Standard of Morality?

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Utilitarianism (Social Hedonism)
An action is right if and only if it promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

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Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
English philosopher
The founder of utilitarianism

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The Process of Making Moral Decisions
Consider the various courses of action open to you.
Taking into account all the persons affected, and counting yourself as only one of them, calculate the pleasures and pains involved.
Choose the course of action that will result in the greatest balance of pleasure over pain.

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Hedonic Calculus
How do we measure a pleasure? We must take into account its –
Intensity, Duration, Certainty, Propinquity, Fecundity, Purity, Extent

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Comparing Two Actions
Parameters Drinking Reading
Intensity 20 10
Duration 20 30
Certainty 15 0
Propinquity 20 10
Fecundity 0 25
Purity -15 10
Total: 60 85

Comparing Two Actions When Two Persons Involved
Going to a movie Visiting Grandma
You 10 -5
Grandma -20 +25
Total -10 20

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John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Mill writes, “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.”

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“Utilitarianism”
The nature of moral theories is to explain why actions are right or wrong.
Utilitarianism explains well.
There are cases that “rule theories” cannot explain.

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Kant’s Moral Theory
Kant is a formalist who believes that morality is a matter of ought or obligation and that the consequences of one’s actions have nothing to do with their rightness or wrongness.

Good Will
A good will is an intention to act in accordance with moral law.
The good will denotes the willingness to do the right thing from the right motive.

In Accordance With Duty and Out of Duty
We may do something that just happens to accord with what our duty is, but this would hardly make the action moral. In order to be really moral, our action must be done out of duty, that is, to do X because it is right to do X, and for no other reason.

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Two Types of Imperatives
Hypothetical imperative: commands X for the sake of achieving Y .
Categorical imperative: commands X because it is intrinsically right.

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Categorical Imperative
Kant: “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”

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Test of Moral Actions
Does the universalization of the principle of one’s action result in a contradiction (defeating one’s purpose)? If so, the action must be judged to be immoral.

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“The Principle of Morality”
Two kinds of motivation:
* Inclination or Consequence vs. Principle
The capacity to live according to principles distinguishes us from animals.
Moral heroes and moral villains.
What principles to follow?