2011 November-December LD

“Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police”- Albert Einstein Since I agree with Einstein, I stand in the affirmation of the resolution, resolved: individuals have a moral obligation to assist people in need. To better understand the resolution I offer the following definitions: individuals: members of society Moral obligation: an obligation arising out of considerations of right and wrong Assist: act of helping People in need: 1. A condition or situation in which something is required or wanted QUESTIONS Do you agree or disagree that without life, defined as the existence of humans, that there would be no society? (if yes) Since it takes human life to have society, as you have so previously agreed, should then that society not cooperate to progress into a civilization? (if yes) So you agree that cooperation is needed for a progressed civilization? CONTENITON ONE: The responsibility to assist people in need is essential to the proper functions of society. A) Many jurisdictions have a established a legal requirement to assist persons in need. Jeremy Waldron, (Pro. Law, Columbia U.) SANTA CLARA LAW REVIEW 2000. The law requires the ordinary citizen to remain at the scene of an accident in which his car has been involved and there is no question but that it expects him to do this on the basis of a desire to render and summon help, and assist the authorizes. it is nonsense to suppose that the law discounts such motivations or seeks to supplant them with fear of penalties. The penalties are there to ensure that, in the unlikely event the moral motivation fails, there will be something else with which to deter flight or the evasion of responsibility. And the same is evidently true of those many countries in which there is a general duty to rescue. Now Waldron makes a good point. Only furthing the need of cooperation from humans since without cooperation human life will become road kill and would cease to exists. Therefore there would be no civilization. There would be no justice. There would be no duty. There will only be anarchy of the road kill. B) Justice demands that individuals care for the needs of others. Kathryn Tanner, (Prof., Semantice, Yale Diversty School), THE JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS ETHICS, SPRING. 1996. Finally the idea of justice itself is reconciled along the lines of an ethic of care. A just society us not simply a society that allows people to go their own way; a just society is one that actively cares for its member by providing the "institutional conditions enable people to meet their needs and express their desires" A just society is a "liberating and enabling society" that makes it possible for its members to achieve the goods specific to their own particular capacities and needs. Jeanne M. Liedtka (Prof Business U.. Virginia) BUSINESS ETHICS QUARTERLYY. A majority of philosophers would embed care within an ethic of justice. Melody Stewart, (Prof. La U. Toledo College of Law) AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW. All fifty states and the district of Columbia require a motorist involved in an automobile accident to remain at the scene and many require the rendering of aid or assistance to anyone injured. Other statues that subject people to criminal prosecution for failing to assist in specific instance include e the failure to assist in preventing or suppressing fires, failure to assist a law enforcement officer or firefighter when requested, and failure to act on behalf of an elder person to prevent pain and suffering or being placed in a dangerous situation. Now falling back on Liedtka, a professor at the University of Virginia, stated "we need justice and most philosophers embed caring into the concept of Justice. Therefore understanding that Justice is only held up through a community and civilization that cooperates: then through this mindset the resolution is upheld. Tanner, a professor at Yale, follows through with this mindset "A just society makes it possible for it’s members to achieve the goods specific to their own needs". Now seeing as it takes cooperation to uphold any value for a civilization to last, then it would be valuable to say that without cooperation- Justice defined as fairness, would fail therefor the civilization would fail; and seeing as without thought and caring, there would be no cooperation, therefore no other values or criteria can uphold the resolution.