Creating a Self-

Sustainable
Community
Project
SUNY 1 Credit Module
May 23-24, 2009
 Agenda
 Review Expectations and
Assignments
 Review Reading Assignments
 Time to work on presentations
 Globalization
 Utilitarianism
 Presentations (3-3-2)
 Summary
 Startling Statistics
Our Choices: How we spend our
money:
 US in 2007-2008 will have spent
$450 billion on the military
 The recent Olympic Games opening
ceremony=$300 million (3 hours at
$100 million per hour)
 Discussion: Educating for
Social
Responsibility
 The impact of Globalization: are we
helping or hurting as an
international community?
 Solutions: What are we
doing about this?
 Fifteen thousand Africans die each
day of preventable , treatable
diseases: AIDS, malaria, TB for lack
of drugs we take for granted.
 If we truly exist is an interdependent world where is the
equality and support we preach of? What is happening in
Africa mocks our pieties, doubts our concern, and questions
our commitment. Because if we are honest, there’s no way we
could conclude that such mass death day after day would ever
be allowed to happen elsewhere. Are African lives equal to
ours? If so, what are we doing about it?
 Solutions: External
 Participation in relief organizations
 Adopting a school or family
 MDG participation and awareness
 CIS Projects:
 Building schools in rural Thailand both alone
and in partnership with other international
schools.
 Reforestation tree planting projects
 However-Be Careful
The single greatest flaw that the celebrities
and the general public have failed to grasp
is that most of the problems that many of
these countries experience are often self-
inflicted.
 Since 1960, Africa has received more than
$400 billion in foreign aid. So where is the
progress? Where is the development of
infrastructure and were any vibrant economies
created? But a better question is where did all
the money go?
 Solutions: Internal
 Teaching about poverty helps raise
the awareness levels of our children.
Some may argue that it is our
children who will make a difference
and be able to help eradicate
poverty:
 TOK
 CAS programs-Thanksgiving Dinner

 UOI’s

 Personally, what are you doing in terms

 Compatibilism
 Free-will and determinism are compatible.
 To be free is to be able to do what you
want to do.
 Any freedom worth having requires that
you can not only do what you want, but
more importantly that you could do
otherwise (things that you don’t want)
 To what extent do you think you can
change your character and to what extent
do you think you just have to live with it?
 How Selfish Are We?
 Though we often pursue our own
interests at the expense of others,
we are not always selfish.
 Some economists say humans are 95%
selfish in the narrow definition.
Questions for Reflection
 Do you think it makes more sense to
say that people are basically good
and corrupted by society, or that
people are basically bad and must be
kept in line by society?
 Do you think society works best
when each individual pursues his
own best interest, or do you think
this is not good?
 Utilitarianism
 Simple ethical theory: there is one
and only one moral principal- seek
the greatest happiness of the
greatest number!!!
 The only thing good in itself is
happiness, and actions are right in so
far as they tend to increase
happiness and wrong in so far as
they tend to decrease it.
 What is happiness?
 The sum of pleasures (Bentham, Jeremy)
 Favorable Arguments
 To solve complex moral dilemmas
apply this principal and strive for the
greatest happiness.
 Utilitarianism is a democratic theory
because each individual is
considered to be the best judge of
what makes him or her happy.
 Utilitarianism is a rational theory
because it encourages us to take into
account both short term and long
term consequences of our actions.
 Objections to Util.

 How do we measure happiness?

 Do friendships, love and health have a
fixed price?
 The more we pursue happiness the
more difficult it is to find. Are we ever
really happy?
 You never really know the consequences
of your actions. A utilitarian will argue
that we have some idea but not details.
 Roald Dahl, Genesis and Catastrophe, a
doctor saves a mother and child in a difficult
birth. The story ends with the doctor saying,
You’ll be alright now Mrs.
Questions for Reflection
 Do you think there is a connection
between money and happiness?
 What do you think is the relationship
between pleasure and happiness? Is
happiness just the sum of all
pleasures, or can you have many
pleasures and still be unhappy?
 Imagine you are at a dinner party
and the food is terrible. Your host
asks you if you are enjoying your
meal, what would you say?
 Summary
 When we argue about ethics we typically
appeal to various moral principles, but we
might wonder how these principles can be
justified.
 According to moral relativism, our values
are determined by the society we grow up
in, but it could be argued that some core
values are universal.
 Some claim that human beings are always
selfish, but do we have opportunities to be
altruistic?
 According to Utilitarianism, happiness is
the only thing that is good in itself and we
should seek the “greatest happiness of the
 Summary Continued
 Two objections to utilitarianism are that
some pleasures seem to be bad, and that
the greatest happiness principle is
inconsistent with our belief in human
rights and moral obligations.
 In ethics, as in other areas of knowledge,
there is in the end no substitute for good
judgement.
 ARE WE EVER SURE WE HAVE DONE THE
RIGHT THING OR ARE WE PAINFULLY
AWARE WE COULD HAVE DONE BETTER?