English 1A - Seminar #5
Singer: The Singer Solution to World Poverty (20 points)
Note: Your seminar grade will be determined by the quantity of your responses (how many questions you answer and how many other students you respond to) and the quality (how well you demonstrate an understanding of the ideas you're responding to, how detailed your responses are, how coherent and in-depth they are, etc.)
Directions:
1. Read the essay above.
2. Answer the following questions with at least one paragraph each. Include quotes and specific references to the text in your answers if it seems appropriate.
3.
Submit your response to the Assignment Chamber (you can either type the responses out beforehand and copy and paste them into the chamber, or just type them directly into the chamber)
| 1. Ultimate Effect: What was the effect of this essay on you? Did it cause you to re-evaluate your approach to charity? Did it make you feel angry or defensive? Will it cause you to change your behavior in any way? Why or why not? |
| 2. Are we All Bob? How effective is the analogy that Singer draws between Bob's choice between the child and his Bugatti, and the choice that the average American makes between material comforts and donating to charity? Did this analogy work for you? Why or why not? |
| 3. Utilitarianism: What does Singer mean when he talks about a "utilitarian" ethic in paragraph 5? How does this utilitarianism influence the practical suggestions he makes here to his audience? |
| 4. Assumptions: What assumptions does Singer make about his audience, and how accurate are those assumptions? Do they apply to you? |
5. Read all the other students' posts.
6. Respond to at least one other student's post (more is better)
. You will have until midnight, Sunday, March 19 to read and respond to the other students' ideas in the website.