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tags: CCHU9005
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# CCHU9005 Essay #1

Version 1.15

* Deadline: 5pm 27 October 2021.
* Submit to Moodle. The submission link will be made available about one week before the deadline. Do not email the assignments to your tutor.
* Please include your name, university ID, and tutorial group number in the header of your essay document.
* Plagiarism: Essays that are submitted through Moodle will be scanned for plagiarism. Use your own words. Do not copy from other sources or allow your answers to be copied. See <http://www.rss.hku.hk/plagiarism>.
* No footnotes or list of references needed.
* Submit a word file. No PDFs. Corrupted files even when submitted on time would be counted as late too.
* Late submission: -25% within the first 24 hours after the deadline, -50% within the next 24 hour, etc. Late submission due to technical problems might also be penalized. You are strongly advised to submit early and not wait until the last minute.
* Use font size 11 or 12, around 1 inch / 2.5cm margin.
* Before you submit, it is best to check this page again to see if there might be updated instructions.

Your assignment has two parts:

## Part A.

Write an essay on Peter Singer’s paper “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”. Your main task is to describe the key ideas in the paper. You do not need to evaluate his ideas or explain your own position or reaction.

You should follow these instructions in your essay:

1. Length of essay: 850 (min) to 900 (max) words. Include a total word count.
2. Provide a short introduction. Introduce the author (one sentence maximum). Explain the main conclusion and implications of Singer's paper.
3. Explain how Singer defends his main conclusion.
4. Your discussion should be clear and succinct.
5. Check for spelling and grammatical errors.
6. Avoid long sentences and long paragraphs. Normally, each paragraph should make just one single point.
7. Present 2 objections that Singer discussed in his paper.
8. Given the short length of the essay, you do not need to mention everything discussed in the paper. For example, you can ignore the last two paragraphs. Focus on the main conclusion and his defense.
9. Be as informative as possible. This means cutting out irrelevant material and being very precise.
10. In order to produce a good essay, it is important that you read through his paper carefully many times.

## Part B.

Singer thinks that this principle is uncontroversial:

> If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.

Imagine someone objects to Singer as follows:

> Singer's principle should not apply when the bad thing that happens to a person is the result of that person's bad decision or immoral decision. If someone is likely to lose all his money because he likes to gamble, we have no duty to help him or to stop him from gambling. Neither do we have to give him money when he loses his life savings.

Question B1: Do you agree with this criticism of the principle? Why or why not?

Question B2: In any case, do you think it affects the main conclusion of Singer's paper? Why or why not?

Write one paragraph for each question. 100 words maximum for each question. Provide a word count for each of your answers.

There is no single correct answer to these questions. What you need to do is to write clearly and justify your answers carefully.