Two Parts: 1: Egoism, Altruism (chapter 4), and 2: Virtue Ethics (chapter 8)
For this discussion, you need to answer questions from both parts of this discussion focus:
1) The first is on egoism and altruism; for Part I, you have a choice on either the COVID-19 pandemic, or, from entertainment, The Hunger Games. So, in Part I, answer either option A or option B.
2) Part II, Virtue Ethics and the Edward Snowden case with the question of his virtue or vice. In Part II, answer the virtue ethics set of question son Snowden.
You may break your main thread post into two posts, one post on PART I Egoism & Altruism; and PART II on Virtue Ethics. Whatever works best for you.
If you break your main thread into two main threads, it still only counts as your one main thread so you’ll still need to replies beyond that.
EGOISM: To many people, egoism is the most natural of human feelings. Each living thing seeks its own self-preservation. But while some people see egoism or selfishness as is a moral virtue, many others see it as a vice or something bad. For our discussion this week, we are exploring questions of what virtue is and what vice is, and what virtue looks like in the world today.
Required – PART 1 Egoism and/or Altruism (Choose Option A or B – See Below):
PART 1 OPTION A – COVID-19:
You may want to discuss how egoism and altruism are at work in our current global pandemic with COVID-19. How do both egoism and altruism play an important role in how humans respond to the global spread of the coronavirus? Should people be more egoistic or altruistic or both? What has been your experience in these difficult days? In your view, does egoism or altruism work best for public health?
OR PART 1 OPTION B – Hunger Games:
Background: From the eText chapter 4, we read the following: Popular culture is full of examples of the conflict between egoism and altruism. … The film and book The Hunger Games shows us a life-and-death competition in which children struggle for survival in a war of all against all. In these contexts, egoism is to be expected and altruism is an exceptional and heroic virtue (Ethics, MacKinnon, 2015, p.41).
(Hunger Games trailer):
LINK (Links to an external site.)
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What can we learn about the positives and negatives of egoistic living versus altruistic living from the s The Hunger Games? Do you agree with the idea that egoism and altruism are at odds or in conflict? Why or why not? In your view, which (egoism or altruism) work best for people’s survival in normal life?
Required – PART 2 Virtue Ethics:
With a friend, fellow worker or family member, discuss the case of Edward Snowden, a computer specialist who had worked for the CIA but who came to believe the U.S. government overstepped its bounds in spying on the American people (and others) the way it does and so he leaked top secret U.S. documents to the news media so the public could know. The May 2014 edition of Vanity Fair calls Snowden “the most important whistle-blower of modern times … whose disclosures will reverberate for decades to come” (Vanity Fair, 2014, Barrough, Andrew, & Sullivan, p.153).
Was this action of Snowden an act of virtue as a courageous whistle blower or the act of a traitor? What virtue or vice do you see in the actions of Edward Snowden?
How should he be treated by the American people and their government for what he did and why?
Snowden interview from Hong Kong (hes now living in Russia): You cant come forward against the worlds most powerful intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk if they want to get you, theyll get you in time. But, at the same time, you have to make a determination about what it is thats important to you. Even if youre not doing anything wrong, youre being watched and recorded And its getting to the point that you dont have to have done anything wrong; you just simply have to fallen under suspicion for something.
July 14th, 2020 
