 "Photo: Briana Murphy '11")
The usual lunchtime conversation took an interesting, meditative turn last Thursday, Nov. 29, when members of the campus community and Wellesley’s Rotaract chapter, led by Professor Helena de Bres, discussed the philosophy of service and impartiality. Rather than a service event, Rotaract’s self-reflective approach was unique in that it examined the philosophy behind service.
“I’m really looking forward to the future of the club,” Rotaract Social Chair Annemarie LaScala ’11 said. “I decided to organize this informal luncheon just as much for the benefit of our members as for the other members of the community.” The discussion focused on the difficult decision to assist, whether through active service or donations, to a local community or to a community beyond our borders. Professor de Bres prompted conversation with the question, “Why should people be motivated to serve people in other countries who they’re probably never going to meet at all?” The resulting dialogue among students examined everything from the morality of service to practical motives to personal experiences.
“When you ask that question, there’s an assumption going on in the background that, when you do have contact with people, it’s much easier to explain why we might have some kind of obligations towards them. We often think that we have what philosophers call ‘special duties’ towards people with whom we interact with regularly,” de Bres said. One salient point of discussion was a moral argument made by Peter Singer in his book, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” which de Bres introduced to participants.
According to Singer’s line of reasoning, after certain premises are accepted, people are then confronted with two examples. The first claim is that if you were to see a child drowning in a pond, you should rescue the child by jumping in, even if that means ruining your new pants. The second claim asserts that, given there is a famine victim in another country that you can assist through donations, you should donate resources to aid agencies to help the famine victim, even if you will forgo luxuries—such as new clothes—as a result. The two situations are essentially the same, but the second claim is more controversial and requires additional premises. After these additional premises are considered, Singer comes to the conclusion that if you do not donate all of your resources to poverty relief, except those you need to satisfy your own survival needs, you are doing something morally wrong.
“So the claim goes, you’re supposed to keep on saving children drowning in ponds, [or] that famine victim continually…As a result you’re going to have to donate all of your money beyond the resources necessary for you to stay alive to people who are suffering,” de Bres explained of Singer’s argument. “It’s a very demanding conclusion. [Singer concludes] you’re supposed to effectively spend nothing on yourself.”
Tackling something as hands-on as service with the abstractions of philosophy may lead to puzzled head-scratching for some people. However, de Bres hopes philosophy will help people, when considering service, to “weigh up competing priorities” in an age where local and international service is increasingly prevalent. “Until relatively recently in human history, people who wanted to help others who were suffering from disease, deprivation, and other forms of misery didn’t have much choice but to focus their efforts within their own community or country,” she wrote. “Globalization has changed that. Now there are multiple ways in which individuals living [in] one country can try to assist those living in another—even one on the other side of the world. This is a great thing, obviously, but it also makes trying to make the world a better place even more complicated a task than it was before.”
Rotaract is the young adult branch of Rotary International with members aged from 18 to 30 years. Clubs are organized at the university or city level, and the Wellesley Rotaract Club was started last academic year in February 2009 by a group of students led by Irem Yoruk ’12, the current President.
“I was involved in the Rotary International Club in Turkey since 2004,” Yoruk said. When she came to Wellesley, Yoruk “wanted to join a Rotaract Club in the area. However, the Wellesley Rotary Club encouraged me to found one in my school. I thought it was a very good idea, since there weren’t any other clubs or organizations on campus that share the same mission as us.”
“Rotaract has three purposes: service, leadership building and professional development,” LaScala explained. “Since we’re a university-based club, professional development plays a smaller role than if we had members who worked full time.” At Wellesley, Rotaract is different from other service organizations, focusing on one-time service opportunities instead of weekly commitments and actively examining its varying reasons for and methods of service.
“We learn from the people we help and change their lives. Additionally…we think about what we do, why we do it and how people respond. We aim for the best,” Yoruk said.
Be the first to comment on this article!