DICK: \"Affirmative action is a policy we ought to adopt because doing so would
ID: 3494461 • Letter: D
Question
DICK: "Affirmative action is a policy we ought to adopt because doing so would lead to more happiness than the alternative. Apparently you want people to be unhappy."
JANE: "That's ridiculous. Affirmative action is a form of discrimination, which is immoral. And since the State is only permitted to make laws that keep us from acting immorally, we can hardly let it make a law that forces us to act immorally!"
DICK: "I figured you'd resist--I saw you hanging out with Tom the other day. Everybody knows he's racist! Look: An institution has a right to value a racially heterogeneous workforce. Period."
JANE: "But that value can't be more important than the value of fairness."
DICK: "Fairness! Was it fair to enslave blacks for 200 years!?"
Critique the reasoning here in any terms you like.
(Are there fallacies here? Unstated premises or conclusions? Are there moral principles at work? Etc. You don't have to talk about everything that strikes you; just give me a good paragraph or two.)
Explanation / Answer
As per the Dick's arguments, affirmative action is necessary to provide opportunities at schools and jobs to those that faced discrimination and slavery during the previous generations. The aim of affirmative action is to end the discrimination existing, but it is not a form of discrimination. So, yes, there are fallacies in Jane's argument as he is figuring out "affirmative action" as a type of discrimination.
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