LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE
NFL Topic, November-December 2011
Dr. John F. Schunk, Editor
“Resolved: Individuals have a moral obligation to assist people in need.”
AFFIRMATIVE
A01. OBLIGATION TO ASSIST IS JUDEO-CHRISTIAN MORALITY
A02. OTHER RELIGIONS ESPOUSE DUTY TO ASSIST
A03. GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS SUPPORT THOSE WHO ASSIST
A04. ALTRUISM IS INGRAINED IN HUMAN MORALITY
A05. ALTRUISM DOESN’T UNDERMINE SELF-INTEREST
A06. SELF-INTEREST IS NOT PARAMOUNT
A07. ALTRUISM IS VITAL TO DEMOCRACY
A08. FREE MARKETS ARE INADEQUATE
A09. FREE MARKET COLLAPSED THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM
A10. AYN RAND’S PHILOSOPHY IS MORALLY FLAWED
NEGATIVE
N01. SELF-RELIANCE IS PARAMOUNT
N02. GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS DON’T OBLIGATE ASSISTANCE
N03. ALTRUISM IS A FLAWED CONCEPT
N04. OBLIGATION IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH ALTRUISM
N05. ASSISTING EVERYONE IN NEED IS A MORAL IMPOSSIBILITY
N06. ASSISTING THOSE IN NEED CAN BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE
N07. ASSISTING OTHERS CAUSES WELFARE DEPENDENCY
N08. FREE MARKETS DO MORE GOOD THAN ALTRUISM DOES
N09. AYN RAND’S PHILOSOPHY IS MORALLY SOUND
N10. NIETZSCHE’S PHILOSOPHY IS MORALLY SOUND
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SK/A01. OBLIGATION TO ASSIST IS JUDEO-CHRISTIAN MORALITY
1. CHRISTIANS HAVE MORAL OBLIGATION TO ASSIST THE NEEDY
SK/A01.01) Diana Fritz Cates [U. of Iowa], THEOLOGICAL STUDIES, September 2010, p. 760, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. O'Connell's book [COMPASSION: LOVING OUR NEIGHBOR IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION] is a passionate plea for privileged white Christians to reconsider the ethical import of the story of the Good Samaritan: the normative demand that bourgeois Christians step off the road of social and economic power and safety, and descend into the ditches of social life to serve, face to face, the people who surfer there. O'C. articulates several layers of challenge: comfortable Christians must acknowledge that they participate in unjust social structures; they must surrender their unjust privileges; and they must seek to empower the poor, starting with listening to the latter's stories and privileging their perspectives on the causes and costs of poverty.
SK/A01.02) PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, August 9, 2010, p. 45, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. An injured man lies bleeding on a dirt road. Two men walk past--one stops to help. The Good Samaritan is not a new character, but in the hands of pastor-speaker Nolan the story becomes contemporary and applicable to even the most terrifying situations. Nolan stresses the need for Christians in particular to put life on hold to help someone in need.
SK/A01.03) Laurel Rae Mathewson [Center for Christian Spirituality, U. of San Diego], SOJOURNERS MAGAZINE, February 2008, p.32, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Empathy--this ability to imagine, feel, and identify with the pain of another--is key to the Good Samaritan story. Empathy is likely what inclined the Samaritan to stop. He would have known what it was like to be ignored, to be hated as a mixed-race person. He knew that if he were mugged, no one would stop. He could identify with the victim.
SK/A01.04) Samuel K. Roberts [Professor of Theology, Union-PSCE], INTERPRETATION, April 2008, p. 146, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. While one might not agree with the entirety of John Milbank's position, there is wisdom in his assessment that the love shown by the Good Samaritan is "precisely a preferential love for those nearest to us, those with the most inherited, realized and developed affinity with us, as well as those strangers with whom suddenly we are bonded whether we like it or not, by instances of distress, shared experiences or preferred comfort." Hence, attending to the formation of the virtues prepares us to attend to the needs of the stranger, the "anybodies" from among all the people of the world who might present themselves to us as neighbors. We must be ready to attend to the particularity of their needs, contexts, and requirements, just as the Good Samaritan did.
SK/A01.05) Samuel K. Roberts [Professor of Theology, Union-PSCE], INTERPRETATION, April 2008, p. 146, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. When virtue theory embraces fundamental theological assertions that are inherent in Christian faith, it becomes uniquely suited to manifest the kind of regard for the neighbor that seems to be most in keeping with Jesus' discourse with the lawyer. The Leviticus text--the text that elicits the lawyer's question to Jesus--joins the injunction to love the neighbor as one loves oneself with an affirmation that God is Lord. Such an affirmation forces one to consider the fact that God has created every human being, every other living person who may be potentially regarded as a neighbor and who will be due the obligations of neighbor regard. Since God has created all human beings, they are already invested with a worth that warrants their being regarded as a neighbor. Such a person is, as Kierkegaard says, "your neighbor on the basis of equality with you before God."
SK/A01.06) Ellen T. Charry, THEOLOGY TODAY, October 2003, p. 293, WILSON WEB. We must be willing to listen to others' reasoned views and to give sound reasons supporting our own. The values war must become a friendly, if sometimes passionate, cultural dialogue--like an engaged, sympathetic after-dinner conversation among family members committed to one another's well-being. Here is where the rubber hits the road, for it rubs the Christian's nose in Cain's taunt to God, after he murders his brother: "Am I my brother's keeper?" If people want what is not good for them either because they have not been trained to make wise choices or do not have the moral strength necessary to avoid bad ones, is that the responsibility of Christians who produce and market products and services that shape our needs, desires, and expectations? Here is where the Christian identity of the business leader is tested. If, following Jesus, the Christian is to care for others, that care extends to protecting them from their own foolishness, weakness, and short-sightedness.
SK/A01.07) Philipp E. Ottoa [Burgundy Business School, Germany[ & Friedel Bolleb, JOURNAL OF SOCIO-ECONOMICS, October 2011, p. 558, SCIVERSE. Altruism, as unselfish concern for the welfare of others, has produced a long history of philosophical debate (for a review see Piliavin and Charng, 1990). It has been discussed most thoroughly for distributional decisions. Social transfers, development aid, and intergenerational transfers are central fields where altruism is assumed to be the decisive motive. Transfers of time and money are frequently involved when helping friends, colleagues, neighbors, or even complete strangers. All these different behaviors can be derived from the Christian requirement “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself”.
SK/A01.08) Darrin W. Snyder Belousek [Instructor of Philosophy, Louisburg College], AMERICA, March 30, 2009, p. 10, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. From the perspective of Catholic social teaching, individual interest is inseparable from the common good. The individual's claim on the community is bound up with the community's claim on the individual. Such mutuality implies moral principles for the economic system: individual profit is accountable to the common good; gain for the wealthy is immoral apart from justice for the poor; economic freedom entails social responsibility (see the U.S. Catholic bishops' pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All, 1986).
2. JEWS HAVE MORAL RESPONSIBILITY TO ASSIST THE NEEDY
SK/A01.09) Gordon L. Anderson [Editor-in-Chief], INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON WORLD PEACE, September 2007, p. 3, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In the Genesis story of the first violence in human society, after Cain killed Abel he said to God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" After which, Cain went off and built his own city, separated from the family that gave him birth. In this issue, several authors answer "Yes," we are our brother's keeper and we are all together in this ever-more-crowded planet. We cannot continue to try to live separately.
SK/A01.10) Stephen G.Weinrach, JOURNAL OF COUNSELING AND DEVELOPMENT, Fall 2003, p. 441, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Yet, in this reply to Dr. Kiselica, I have tried to demonstrate how the Torah's dictum "I am my brother's (and sister's) keeper" is a reflection of my unyielding commitment to all clients--equally. The principle of serving as one's brother's or sister's keeper is an example of the universality of some of the teachings of the Torah and is analogous with the contemporary notion that "each person's future is in some way linked to all" (Humanist Manifesto II, 1973, p. 7).
SK/A02. OTHER RELIGIONS ESPOUSE DUTY TO ASSIST
1. DUTY TO ASSIST GOES BEYOND JUDEO-CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS
SK/A02.01) Darrin W. Snyder Belousek [Instructor of Philosophy, Louisburg College], AMERICA, March 30, 2009, p. 10, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. It would thus behoove people of faith, when presenting an alternative vision to persons of good will in American society who are not Christian, to seek out sources of such wisdom beyond ecclesial documents. We could reconsider such classic writers as Aristotle, Aquinas and Tocqueville. They understood civil society as the natural setting for human fulfillment, the common good as the moral horizon of individual pursuit and wise governance to be as important as individual liberty for the sustainable pursuit of living well. We would also do well to consider contemporary writers like Robert Bellah, Stephen Carter and Amitai Etzioni. They not only remind us of the republican ideal of a common good above private interest, but also call us away from the egoist ethic of selfish individualism toward a civic ethic of shared sacrifice and social virtue.
2. ALL RELIGIONS TEACH MORALITY OF ASSISTING OTHERS
SK/A02.02) Martin Nowak [Professor of Mathematics & Biology, Harvard U.], NEW SCIENTIST, March 19, 2011, pNA, LEXIS-NEXIS Academic. I see the teachings of world religions as an analysis of human life and an attempt to help. They intend to promote unselfish behaviour, love and forgiveness.
3. CHARITY IS FUNDAMENTAL TO ISLAMIC MORALITY
SK/A02.03) Yossef Rapoport [Dept. of History, Queen Mary U. of London], THE MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL, Spring 2009, p. 342, GALE CENAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. What the book [CHARITY IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES by Amy Singer] does best is to drive home the central role of charity in the social and religious life of Muslim societies, both past and present. The author directly and unreservedly rebuts perceptions of contemporary Muslim charity as a cover for radicalism and violence. But the book does much more than that. We all know that zakat is one of the pillars of faith (while jihad is not), but historians of Islam have failed to make its significance apparent. This book does an admirable job at rectifying this omission.
4. ALTRUISM IS PROMINENT IN CONFUCIANISM
SK/A02.04) Michael Slote [Dept. of Philosophy, U. of Miami], DAO, September 2010, p. 303, WILSON WEB. Confucian thinkers seem to have had something like our present concept of empathy long before that notion was self-consciously available in the West. Wang Yang- Ming’s talk of forming one body with others and similar ideas in the writings of Cheng Hao and, much earlier, of Mengzi make it clear that the Confucian traditions not only had the idea of empathy but saw its essential relation to phenomena like compassion, benevolence, and sympathy that are constitutive of the altruistic side of morality.
5. DUTY TO ASSIST SERVES UNIVERSAL VALUES OF FAIRNESS
SK/A02.05) Richard J. Arneston [Dept. of Philosophy, U. of California, San Diego], THE JOURNAL OF ETHICS, 1999, p. 225, SPRINGER LINK CONTEMPORARY. This essay examines several possible rationales for the egalitarian judgment that justice requires better-off individuals to help those who are worse off even in the absence of social interaction. These rationales include equality (everyone should enjoy the same level of benefits), moral meritocracy (each should get benefits according to her responsibility or deservingness), the threshold of sufficiency (each should be assured a minimally decent quality of life), prioritarianism (a function of benefits to individuals should be maximized that gives priority to the worse off), and mixed views.
SK/A03. GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS SUPPORT THOSE WHO ASSIST
1. ALL FIFTY STATES HAVE GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS
SK/A03.01) Mia I. Frieder [partner, Hilley & Frieder law firm, Atlanta], TRIAL, March 2010, p. 48, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. All states and the District of Columbia have enacted some form of Good Samaritan law.
SK/A03.02) Susan Massman [Summit Business Media], CLAIMS, August 2011, p. 18, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Currently, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have good Samaritan statutes. These statutes often pertain to providing emergency care and vary by state. For instance, the classes of people protected by the law are not the same in every state. Some limit the immunity to emergency aid in specific locations, while other states limit the immunity to aid exercised according to specific standards of conduct. All states have at least two common requirements: the emergency care must be provided in good faith and without the expectation of payment.
2. THESE LAWS PROTECT THOSE WHO ASSIST STRANGERS
SK/A03.03) Mia I. Frieder [partner, Hilley & Frieder law firm, Atlanta], TRIAL, March 2010, p. 48, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Until 40 years ago, the law was clear: Once someone chose to assist another person in an emergency, he or she was held to a duty to "exercise reasonable care." But that changed with passage of the first Good Samaritan statute in California. Aimed at encouraging prompt assistance for emergency victims by eliminating the fear of legal liability, these statutes provide varying levels of immunity to caregivers if the assistance they render causes or contributes to the victim's injury or death.
SK/A03.04) Mia I. Frieder [partner, Hilley & Frieder law firm, Atlanta], TRIAL, March 2010, p. 48, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. For someone who gratuitously stops to render aid at the scene of an emergency, Good Samaritan statutes generally exonerate negligent conduct.
SK/A03.05) S.Y. Tan [Professor of Medicine & former Adjunct Professor of Law, U. of Hawaii], FAMILY PRACTICE NEWS, October 1, 2008, p. 42, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. However, to encourage aiding strangers in distress, states have enacted so-called Good Samaritan laws to protect rescuers who act in good faith. Popularized in the 1960s in response to the perception that doctors were reluctant to treat strangers for fear of a malpractice lawsuit, these laws immunize the aid giver against allegations of negligent care. Their protective scope varies from state to state, usually offering immunity against simple negligence but not gross misconduct.
SK/A03.06) Robert J. Dachs & Jay M. Elias, FAMILY PRACTICE MANAGEMENT, April 2008, p. 37, PROQUEST. As noted earlier, the odds of being successfully sued for malpractice as a result of providing Good Samaritan care are stacked well in your favor, so much so that the fear of litigation should not be a factor in your decision about whether to help when the situation presents itself. An attorney would much rather defend a physician for providing care and making a good-faith error than for not providing care in an emergency situation. Next time you happen upon an accident scene or hear a plea for emergency medical assistance, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and be confident that your best effort will be good enough.