Warren believes that the fetus is not yet a person, and therefore has no right to life. The woman has an absolute right to abortion in her view. Her view focuses on how we define the moral community and includes a distinction between 2 senses of “person” and “human.”
Answer both of these questions in detail separately.
1) This question deals with Mary Anne Warren’s essay on Abortion. You should focus on her notion of personhood and the traits that she identifies of it.
Warren believes that the fetus is not yet a person, and therefore has no right to life. The woman has an absolute right to abortion in her view. Her view focuses on how we define the moral community and includes a distinction between 2 senses of “person” and “human.” Potential capacity for rational thought only shows potentiality to become a person in the moral sense. She discusses the 5 traits most central to personhood or humanity in the moral sense. According to the list she argues the fetus is a human but not yet a person.
2) This question is on Charles Lawrence’s essay on face to face racial insults as fighting words. Focus on his view of free speech and its purpose.
Charles Lawrence’s essay focuses on racist speech, particularly face to face racial insults. His argument is that such speech should not be protected by the first amendment. Racial insults produce an immediate injury in the victim, resulting in speechlessness, and should fall within the fighting words exception to free speech. His essay is quite clear but his main point is that the purpose of free speech is to foster more speech (to result in more dialog or debate), however racial insults do not foster more speech but prevents it. The goal is an immediate injury to the victim and not to promote more dialog.
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