PPE Salon: Do We Have a Moral Duty to Vote?
October 9 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
- This salon will be held in Caldwell 103 on Wednesday, October 9, at 6:30 pm. Please use the form HERE to request a seat!Salon leader:Logan Mitchell
Description:
Every four years, people yell at each other about the ethics of voting in a presidential election. Whether on Tiktok or around the dinner table, people vehemently disagree about whether they should vote and who they should vote for. Some argue that you have a moral obligation to vote – if you stay home you have behaved wrongly, and we can criticize you and get angry at you for it! Others disagree, arguing that while voting might be a good thing to do, it can’t be the kind of thing we’re obligated to do. And then there’s the question of who to vote for. Some argue that voting for a third-party candidate is wasting your vote, and that in the American electoral system you have an obligation to vote for a major party – in this case, either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump – even if you hate them both. Others disagree, arguing that voting third party can be morally permissible (perhaps even morally obligatory) in some cases. During this PPE Salon, we will cover arguments for and against these competing positions on the ethics of voting, hopefully enabling participants to decide for themselves what they believe about the ethics of voting, and in particular voting for a major party candidate.
Required Reading (to be completed in advance):
- “The Ethics and Rationality of Voting”(sections 2-2.1, “The Moral Obligation to Vote”)
- “Is It OK to Vote for My Third-Party Fav This Presidential Election?“: Increasingly, my beliefs and values are not reflected on either side of the two-party, one-coin system we have in our country. Is voting for a party that I know will lose more or less unconscionable than voting for a party I don’t fully believe in? By New York Times ethicist columnist Kwame Anthony Appiah.
- “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Makes Pro-Biden Case for Progressives, Arab Americans Troubled by Gaza War” (article and embedded video): Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gives a unique argument in favor of voting for a major party candidate; the 2024 election isn’t “a lesser of two evils type of situation,” AOC says as she explains her support for the president. By Stephanie Kaloi of The Wrap.
