By Emily Carson
News Assignment Editor
Dr. Matthew King, visiting assistant professor of philosophy, motivated his Good Life class this semester to form groups to address and help suffering people in the community.
Students formed different groups to work towards different goals, including helping the local American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (ASPCA) and sick animals. Another group focused on helping those in need of an organ transplant, while another is working to raise awareness of bullying and promote acceptance of all, another one is helping raise school supplies and other necessities for the St. Bonaventure chapter of Embrace it Africa, and another is raising funds for anti-hunger charities called “Cans for Change”.
King credited a book by philosopher Peter Singer called “The Life You Can Save,” as his inspiration for the idea.
“Singer has spent decades arguing that we have a moral duty to do more to prevent suffering around the world,” King said. “His argument is compelling – you wouldn’t think twice about ruining your shoes to save a child drowning in a pond; but you could take the monetary equivalent of the cost of a new pair of shoes and save many, many lives all around the world.”
But, King said we don’t usually do this.
“In essence, his is an argument for a duty of charity, rather than it being optional, morally speaking,” he said.
King said he found that many students resisted this argument.
“A lot of students often want to deny that we have this duty, and we spend a good amount of class time debating the point,” King said. “But this term, the class consensus was that Singer was basically right – we all should be doing more to prevent suffering in the world.”
King decided to redirect his students’ energies from arguing about whether people have a moral obligation to pursuing group projects aimed at fulfilling that obligation.
“The only rule was that the project was meant to be designed by each group so as to express that particular group’s concern for others,” he said. “Each group designed their own projects with their own goals and have been executing those plans in the later parts of this term.”
King said the feedback from the community on the new groups has all been positive.
“I haven’t yet heard of anyone at Bona’s or in the community not pitching in when asked to support these projects,” he said. “Local businesses have been making donations of resources or goods and the administration has been supportive at all instances. The anti-bullying group, for instance, was integrated into last week’s ‘Thisness’ exercises.”
King also emphasized the idea of working in groups to accomplish goals.
“It’s important to get students talking to each other and working with peers to pursue the answers to problems,” he said. “More specifically, my understanding of the Clare core curriculum is in terms of education that can make a difference and that is personally involved, so I tried to design this assignment with those ideas in mind.”
King credited the students for their dedication to the assignment.
“The credit in each instance goes to the groups,” he said. “While I have prompted them to begin these projects, the scope, aims, and, ultimately, the success of each project lies with the students themselves.”
carsonek10@bonaventure.edu
