TOPIC: ISSUE106 – “All students should be required to take at least one course in ethics, even if taking the course means a decreased emphasis on academic subjects.”
WORDS: 552 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2008-8-5 11:04:42
I agree with the above notion in that all students should be required to take at least one course in ethics, however, instead of affecting the emphasis on academic subjects, ethical education is essential for the studies of these subjects.
To start with, ethics of a person determine how he would utilizes knowledge. An individual lacking ethics but equiped with knowledge is parallel to terrorists with decimating nuclear weapons. There is no benevolent or malevolent knowledge per se, it is the psychological state of its owner that decides the outcome of academic ideas. According to the information of some governments, terrorist organizations often hire scientists with great intellectual ability to manufacture bacteria weapons. While there is no way to underrestimate their expertise in academic subjects such as microbiology, immunology and pathotology, we can safely assume that these misanthrophic workers lack ethics accomodating the common value of mankind. Another example came to mind was a case happened several years ago, in which a university professor in inorganic chemistry took advantage of his expertise to manufacture drugs in his laboratory. As a matter of fact, the most severe threads to social peace are usually initiated by erudites without moral standards.
Further more, good ethics are the prerequisite for good scientific research, which constitute the foundation of any academic subjects. Scientists, especially those prestige ones, once suffer from decline of ethics will mislead peers in his discipline and exert negative impact on the society. Fabrication of data and palgirism are two of the most common indicators for such a decline in moral standard. Not long ago, a prestige Korean biologist admitted the fabrication of data regarding stem cell propagation. The incident had not only deprived his personal honor, but also caused dissappointment within the scientific world and the Korean society.
On the other hand, some may argue that through the compulsory coursework in ethics, students are deprived with their freewill to perceive the world to formulate their own values. It could have been true if our species don’t live within a society, in which members are required to conform with common rules and abide to general values in order to sustain the stability of it, and it could have been true if informations sending out from disparate sources are ubiquintously positive. However, students with few social experiences may be misled by mass media, bad friends and cynical or extreme ideas. For instance, the mass media sometimes construct teenage figures with excessive individualism, whom the real-world students may look up to as rolemodels.
Hence, the purpose of education is not only to prepare students with adequate knowledge in different specializations, but also to equip them with ethics required to be become qualified members of the society. Schools are places to cultivate productive citizens, it is hard to imagine the ethical level of our society to gain a substantial increase when educators remain just beholders. Ethics coursworks on the other hand, usually don’t take up much time as academic subjects. Instead, they can actually be instilled in other subjects by giving examples in the relevant subject.
To conclude, given the importance of ethics in maintaining the long-term prosperity of the human world, educational institutions should try their best to guide students by providing relevant coursworks, despite the fact that goodwill can also be generated in personal experiences.
TOPIC: ARGUMENT115 – The following appeared in a clothing industry trade journal in the country of Sartoria.
“A popular fashion magazine recently conducted a survey of consumers’ opinions about clothing prices, using prepaid mailing envelopes. Eighty-nine percent of the approximately 20,000 respondents reported that they were either “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with current clothing prices. The large number of responses indicates that the Sartorian clothing industry is at risk. Given the survey results, clothing manufacturers must find a way to reduce prices in order to keep their existing customers and maintain their businesses.”
WORDS: 424 TIME: 00:30:00 DATE: 2008-8-5 11:04:42
The above passage argues that the clothing manufacturers in Sartoria should reduce prices to maintain customers. The argument was based upon a survey which was not clearly defined, and it is weaken by the lack of further persuasive data and several logical fallacies.
To start with, the selection procedure of the consumer samples was not clearly stated. Their gender, age and income are all essential factors to their feelings of clothing price. Commonsense tells us that, women, especially youths, have more expensive tastes on clothing than men. The average income of the chosen sample may be around a low range. What’s more, prepaid mailing envolopes don’t necessarily ensure responses from potential interviewees, the proportion of responders should be stated to allow readers know how well this sample can represent the total.
Secondly, “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” aren’t quantitative measurements but very subjective, it would help to understand the degree by seeing a survey on the psychologically acceptable prices of consumers. Further more, within many clothing catagories, the specific sort of clothing they found the price excessive was not mentioned. As discussed above, customers might only be unsatisfied with current prices of fashionable clothing such as suits and dresses, but are satisfied with prices of products such as underware, T-shirts, jeans and jackets.
Thirdly, the place of this survey was not mentioned. If it was not conducted at Sartoria, we may cannot be sure of the same feelings can be found in Sartoria. One may argue that Sartoria sells products to other places instead of selling them locally, in that case, there isn’t any evidence indicating consumers mentioned in the survey are the most important target-customers of Sartorian clothing industry. Hence, it could be the case that in other towns or cities, people with higher income wouldn’t find the price unacceptable.
Fourthly, whether the business is at risk should be reflected in revenue data instead of depending on only one survey. It would strengthen the claim if data show that inventories to the surveyed area decreased significantly.
Last but not the least, reducing price may not necessarily save the industry but to deteriorate it if the quality is sacrificed as a result. Existing customers may no longer choose Sartorian factories as suppliers once they find out the products are of less durability. Further more, the sale may decrease in the regions where people have higher purchase power because they might consider prices as indicators for quality.
To sum up, more extensive and scientific survey should be carried out before hasting to decide the price reduction.
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