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Questions for class discussion:
- General Questions on Goodness
- Whom
do you admire? What are his/her qualities?
- What
makes it easier to do good, to be a good person,
to lead a good life??
- Virtues
- What
are your greatest virtues? What do you
think your friends would say is your greatest
virtue?
- What
virtues come easy to you that may not come
easily to others? Why may this be?
- What
virtues do you think are easiest to
violate? Why is that?
- What
do you think are important virtues to cultivate?
Which (is) are the most important? What
are vices to avoid & what might be the worse
vice?
- Do you
believe performing virtuous actions
(whether your
heart
is in it or not or even if done for
selfish reasons )assists you in cultivating a
virtuous disposition and achieving your goal in
life?
- Who is the most virtuous, he who struggles hard and does
what is right or he who does what is right without a
struggle?
- Do you
agree with Mill that most people desire virtue? Does this prove true in your
observation of the world?
- Does
leading a virtuous lifestyle lead one to
a deep happiness?
- Happiness
- What
is happiness? When are people the
happiest? How is it attained?
- What
is the greatest happiness - or your greatest
happiness
- Why do
some people fail to find happiness in their
lives?
- Does
the
pursuit of pleasure bring happiness or makes us
miserable? The Buddhists say "craving/desire" is
the source of human suffering. Yet
Aristotle says happiness is the ultimate end of
life.
- Motivation
- What
motivates you to do good? Is it primarily
sentiment, primarily a sense of duty, habit?
- Do you
side with the feminists who contend that sentiment
motivates us or do you side with Aristotle
and Kant in that reason motivates us?
- Colleges are always seeking way to inculcate
values and ethics in its student body. Has your
college experience affected your moral
development or made you more virtuous? What
would you recommend to accelerate the
development of and motivate
students to embody an ethical lifestyle?
- Exemplary qualities:
- Who is
the most virtuous: a widow who gives her last
coin, or the millionaire who donates ten
million?
- Who
shows the most courage, the man who is afraid
but does not run away, or the other man who is
not afraid and does not run away?
- "For
one man it is hard to refrain from stealing and
for another man it is not: which shows the
greater virtue in acting as he should? (Philippa
Food, Virtues and Vices)
- The Nature of Virtue
- Are
virtues innate or must they be developed. Which
point of view do you agree with: "Some virtue
ethicists, such as Lao Tzu and Mencius, regard
people as basically good. Therefore, becoming
virtuous entails simply letting go and flowing
with the Tao. Other virtue ethicists, such as
Aristotle and Wang Yang Ming, believe that a
virtuous character results from practice and
habituation."
- Evil
- Why do
people perform actions contrary to virtue
and good? Why do they do evil? How can evil be
overcome?
- What
would you do & why if...
- the
waitress were $1.00 off on your bill?
- your
grade school child were very very sad
about poor academic performance for the week
(after having studied hard). Would you take away
one of his privileges or would you reward him?
- you
needed directions? Ask for help or try to figure
it out on your own
- your
coworker were not pulling his/her weight?
- you were the "Feeling
Guilty " party that Dear Abby discusses on October 14 & 25,
2006. A woman wants to call off her engagement with
a soldier in Iraq. Should she tell her fiancé the truth now or
later?
- you
were asked if men were from Venus and women from
Mars? Provide me with an example.
Case Study: HIV-positive Robert Richardson II,
30, "was found guilty last month of four counts of HIV exposure
involving three women....Jurors said they were appalled by how he
deceived the women by telling them his health problems were from a heart
condition" (Norwich Bulletin article Man sentenced for
spreading HIV - Lawrence, Kan, page A3, dated 11/24/06). If he had
practiced and developed the virtues, would he have told his lovers a lie
regarding his health? Why or why not? |
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