Assignment Choose ONE topic to write 1100-2200 words. Please check the assignment guidelines in the Syllabus for more information.
A) What is the importance of intentions when evaluating an ethical result? How do you know the importance of them—is it determined by you, the observer? By the result itself? By the intender?
B) How do you evaluate whether a being is “good at” being good? What standards do you use, and can you be wrong?
C) Are emotions important when forming ethical claims? Do we have ethical obligations to experience or evaluate emotions?
D) Do we have a duty to connect our ethical claims and our moral actions? If we do, what does failure mean? If we do not, is there any connection between our ethics and our actions?
E) Consider the case of Frankenstein’s monster. Did he have agency? How do we know? Requirements An outline is REQUIRED for BOTH essays in this course. Please see the videos and notes on how to write outlines and note the breakdown in the rubric for how much of the total assignment points the outline is worth. There will be two conventional papers, for a total of 50 points. I will post specific topic questions on Canvas as we approach the due dates, but here are some general guidelines: – NO outside research will be accepted. You may use any of the texts, notes, videos or class discussions, but Googling the concepts is a poor replacement for the works provided in the class and your own capacity for analysis. This is not a research course, and “book reports” or other forms of essays relying exclusively on outside texts will be graded as if they do not fulfill the assignment. –IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUBMIT A VIDEO/VOICE RECORDING rather than a written essay: please talk to me first! It is an option, but only with approval! You also have the option of writing a narrative, piece of fiction or other creative writing endeavor, though any ‘nonstandard’ submission STILL REQUIRES AN OUTLINE –You will be held to the “discussion standards” guidelines for your essays! – No need for a works cited page, please format citations of notes, videos etc however you like so long as it is both clear and consistent. –You must include an outline for credit. Please see the “outlines and Notes” video and notes for more information about how to achieve this. I don’t care about formatting, but prefer the standard; ie, 12 p font etc. 1200-2200 words. Please do not try to fill space by just writing anything to get to the word count requirement. Please also do not give me anything much longer than the maximum. I have chosen your paper topics to fit this length for both your sanity and my own. – MS Word *.doc files, .docx or .pdf only (NO .pages, please! Any .pages files will be marked as “Not Submitted”) When attaching a file please format the filename like this: Your last name, the topic letter you have chosen, and which assignment, in that order. So, if I were submitting Topic B for the first essay, my document will be named: Aleshire-B-1.doc Failure to properly name your file will result in it being considered late. Late papers may be accepted at -2 points per day late, maximum 8 days (I count weekends!) only with approval. You must receive approval before the assignment locks. I will absolutely not accept late papers after I have finished grading the others. You will have until midnight of the day papers LOCK for them to be on time. The lock date is the real due date! Corrupted files or papers from other classes will be considered “not turned in”.
Check your submissions before navigating away! No Plagiarized papers will be given credit! Rubric Thesis and Analysis Does this answer the question? Is there a central argument? Is this argument an analysis of/response to the ethical concerns? Synthesis and Logical Coherency Are the arguments related to each other? Is that relationship clear and grounded in logic rather than assumption? Does the essay bring multiple threads of arguments into a coherent whole? Do the arguments explain why the thesis is valid/true/strong? Clarity and Organization Is it easy to find the thesis? Are each of the arguments presented in a manner which distinguishes them from the others? Could a reader of the essay recreate the outline in a way which matches the author’s outline? Outline Example I NEED THE OUTLINE BY OCTOBER 24TH This is a useful style if you already have some idea of what your arguments will be but you aren’t sure what order they should go in, or if they are strong enough to defend your thesis. It is a great organizational tool since you can just fill in the transition sentences and you have a clear, logical, well organized, finished essay. I. Yes, metaphysical objects can be proven to exist—but not in the same way as empirical objects. (you may want to turn off Auto-Numbering if your WP uses it, or use an outline style sheet) A. Metaphysical concepts are epistemically available B. Epistemic access to truth of x implies external truth value C. Definition of existence II. Epistemic argument A. Knowledge of math outside the empirical B. Self-awareness of thoughts not reduced to brain activity C. Plato/Categories III. Truth values A. Can communicate truth/evaluate it B. Doesn’t change according to context (not personal or empirical) IV. Existence
A. Something that is epistemically available, at least in possibility (undiscovered elements on periodic table)
B. Something that isn’t reliant on perspective, self-perpetuating (Descartes?)
C. Has a truth value using the prior 2 concepts Counterargument: just because you can think/talk about it, it doesn’t mean it exists! (ie, Unicorns) Rebuttle: Unicorn existence is not empirical. It therefore exists, just as a concept of culture or stable metaphor. They are not merely privately “made up”, they have properties of communicable, evaluatable truth. Even though they are a synthesis of many empirical concepts, they are more than the sum of their conceptual parts.
