Mr Bigg's RPE blog

This next assessment task is a bit of a challenge. It’s all about the best way to make an ethical decision and looking at the pros and cons of the various systems.

Read the Ethical Decisions Handout for information on what to do. Use it to give you a suggested structure and advice on levels.

Here’s some information on the ethical systems you could consider:

Utilitarianism – Bringing the greatest happiness to the most people

• Pros: Aims to bring maximum happiness
• Cons: The outcomes of our actions are not always as intended. Can take advantage of minorities for the benefit of the majority. Doesn’t always take into account all relevant factors.
• Articles to look at: here, here, hereand here.

Situation Ethics – The right thing to do is the most loving thing to do

• Pros: Intends to produce love, which is inherently good.
• Cons: We often don’t agree on what the loving thing to do is. “Love” is hard to count so it’s not easy to work out.
• More useful information is here

Religious Ethics – The right thing to do is what God tells us to do

• Pros: Often quite clear-cut (see the 10 Commandments). God knows best!
• Cons: Religious extremists can distort the rules for evil (see 9/11). People don’t agree on which religion’s rules to use.

Virtue Ethics – Good people make good decisions

• Pros: Focusses on the person performing the action and their good intentions, not the outcome.
• Cons: Gives no clear guidance as to what to do in any situation. We don’t all agree on what a “good person” is and what counts as “virtue”.
• Links here or here.

Egocentric Ethics – The right thing is what is good for me

• Pros: Makes me happy
• Cons: Won’t make many friends

If you find any good links to useful information please leave a comment so I can make the link available to everyone!

Make sure you read the descriptions of the levels in the Ethical Decisions Handout so you know what you need to do to answer the key question well.

This essay is due on:

• 9B – Monday 9th Jan

Good luck! As always, leave a comment or email me if you have questions!

Hi 9s,

As promised here’s a load of information to get you started on the homework, the title of which was:

“Killing is never acceptable”

Your task is to respond to this statement in a way that shows me that you’re aware of the ethical issues involved.

Suggested structure:

This is a possible outline for the essay. You don’t have to follow it, but if not make sure you include all of the points…

• Introduction: The purpose of the introduction is to make clear to the reader what the essay is going to be about. Assume they know nothing about the topic. It should include:
  1. An explanation saying what the statement is trying to say. You basically need to put the statement in your own words so you are clear about what it means. (“The key statement above is trying to express the idea that…”)
  2. Thinking about the key term: killing.. Make it clear what you mean by these terms. Give some examples of different types of killing (war, self-defence, meat for food, hunting, murder etc) and explain them. (“Some key terms in the statement are… They mean that…”)
  3. Explain that there is a difference between absolute and relative truth. Give examples.
  4. Finally, you might like to state the conclusion you will come to. You don’t have to explain it here, but it helps if the reader knows where you are going. This means you need to PLAN! Before you write your introduction you need to know what your conclusion will be… Make sure you have thought about this before you start writing. Possible conclusions could be that you disagree with the statement, that you agree with the statement, or perhaps you think it is a relative truth.
• Sections: Different types of killing: Each paragraph should explain how a different “type” of killing relates to the statement. Why might some people think that meat for food is acceptable, or killing in war? You need to put these ideas across for the reader. However, for level 6 you need some analysis. Make sure you think about the pros and cons of the arguments you are putting across. Are these good reasons for agreeing/disagreeing with the statement? If so, why? If not, why not? Look at the resources section below for extra information.
• Conclusion: This part is essential for level 7. Once you have done your level 6 analysis in sections one and two you need to draw it all together into a conclusion. This means that, given all your analysis, is that statement true or false (or something else)? You need to show that you have enough evidence to back up your argument, including not only why your opinion is good but why the other option is not so good. Please leave a comment if you want to think about level 8…

NOTE: The key thing to remember the whole way through is that the concept of “killing” is broad. You cannot talk about murder in the same way as killing animals for food. You will need to treat different ideas of killing in different ways.

Resources:

• Writing Frame : Some sentence starters in case you get stuck
• 'Killing is Never Acceptable' Level Guidance
• Controversial Killing Case Studies

Presentation:

As we discussed, you have a choice in how you present your work. It could be:

• An essay (recommended – people usually do best in this format
• A poster
• A PowerPoint
• A newspaper article
• A film
• Anything else you can think of (recommend you ask me first though)

However you choose to present your work make sure you include all the key features! Don’t spend ages on presentation and then forget about information.

Due Date:
For 9I: 20th October
For 9B: 17th October

Good luck! Please leave a comment if you have any questions!

I’ve spent about an hour typing all this up for you – please pay me back by producing some excellent work… It is due 20th October for 9I. It will NOT be good enough to turn up next week with an excuse.

Hi 9s,

As promised here’s a load of information to get you started on the homework, the title of which was:

Killing is never acceptable because it goes against the will of God

Your task is to respond to this statement in a way that shows me that you’re aware of the ethical issues involved.

Suggested structure:

This is a possible outline for the essay. You don’t have to follow it, but if not make sure you include all of the points…

• Introduction: The purpose of the introduction is to make clear to the reader what the essay is going to be about. Assume they know nothing about the topic. It should include:
  1. An explanation saying what the statement is trying to say. You basically need to put the statement in your own words so you are clear about what it means, ie. the reason killing is wrong is that it goes against what God wants us to do. (“The key statement above is trying to express the idea that…”)
  2. Thinking about some key terms: killing and will of God. Make it clear what you mean by these terms. Give some examples of different types of killing (war, self-defence, meat for food, hunting, murder etc) and explain them. (“Some key terms in the statement are… They mean that…”)
  3. Explain that there is a difference between absolute and relative truth. Give examples.
  4. Finally, you might like to state the conclusion you will come to. You don’t have to explain it here, but it helps if the reader knows where you are going. This means you need to PLAN! Before you write your introduction you need to know what your conclusion will be… Make sure you have thought about this before you start writing. Possible conclusions could be that you disagree with the statement, that you agree with the statement, or perhaps you think it is a relative truth.
• Section One: Arguments For the Statement: The first paragraph should explain why (religious) people might agree with the statement. You need to put these ideas across for the reader. However, for level 6 you need some analysis. Make sure you think about the pros and cons of the arguments you are putting across. Are these good reasons for agreeing with the statement? If so, why? If not, why not? Look at the resources section below for extra information.
• Section Two: Arguments against the Statement: Now you can explain why people might disagree with the idea that killing is wrong because it goes against the will of God. Possible arguments are given in the resources section. Again, for level 6 you’ll need to analyse these. Are these good reasons for disagreeing with the statement? If so, why? If not, why not? What’s the evidence?
• Conclusion: This part is essential for level 7. Once you have done your level 6 analysis in sections one and two you need to draw it all together into a conclusion. This means that, given all your analysis, is that statement true or false (or something else). You need to show that you have enough evidence to back up your argument, including not only why your opinion is good but why the other option is not so good. Leave a comment if you want to think about level 8…

NOTE: The key thing to remember the whole way through is that the concept of “killing” is broad. You cannot talk about murder in the same way as killing animals for food. You will need to treat different ideas of killing in different ways.

Resources:

• Reasons why people might agree with the statement: Quotes from Holy Books
  • Buddhism: ‘Refrain from destroying living creatures’ (5 Precepts) – Note that Buddhists do NOT believe in God
  • Christianity: ‘Do not murder’ (10 Commandments)
  • Hinduism: ‘He who commits murder must be considered as the worst offender’ (Laws of Manu)
  • Islam: ‘Do not take life, which Allah made sacred’ (Quran)
  • Judaism: ‘Do not murder’ (10 Commandments)
• Reasons why people might disagree with the statement:
  • People have plenty of reasons to believe killing is wrong without needing God to tell them
  • Religious people have often fought “Holy Wars” (crusades, 9/11) in the name of God
  • The religious texts rarely talk about killing animals as being wrong so it cannot be true the ALL killing is wrong.
  • There may be some situations in which taking human life is regarded as acceptable. (War, self-defence etc?)
• Here’s the sheet of case studies about different examples of killing. You may want to use them
• If you’re really stuck I have put together a writing frame that may help you by giving some sentence starters.

Good luck! Please leave a comment if you have any questions!

I’ve spent about an hour typing all this up for you – please pay me back by producing some excellent work… It is due NEXT WEEK (12th or 13th October). It will NOT be good enough to turn up next week with an excuse.