Essay Three - Phil 103 Honors Ethics - Spring 2007
Requirements:
1. Your essay should be word-processed, double-spaced, one-inch to one and one-half inch margins. It should be spell-checked. Pages Numbered. Font no smaller than 12 point.
2. You should have a cover page with title, date, prompt, and your name.
3. Number each paragraph. Bold your thesis. After the end of the essay, attach an OUTLINE of the essay with the thesis clearly stated and at minimum a line for each paragraph.
4. Each essay should be approximately three pages long (not including the title page or Works Consulted page).
5. You must include a Works Consulted/Cited Page. I will assume that you have read and understood Harvey, Writing with Sources on when and how to cite sources. CAREFUL AND CORRECT CITATION IS REQUIRED. WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE. Remember that simply paraphrasing or changing every third word is not OK. Quote and cite or radically summarize and cite. Use quotation marks when quoting or indent if quote is five lines or longer. Guessing at where your information comes from is not OK. Use page numbers in your in-text citations, footnotes or endnotes. Book or journal titles are italicized or underlined. You need not consult any other sources than what we have read for class. Those sources and any other sources you consult must be included in your Works Consulted/Cited and cited in-text or in footnotes/endnotes.
Examples:
How to cite Solomon and Martin: Solomon, Robert C. and Clancy W. Martin, eds. Morality and the Good Life: An Introduction to Ethics through the Classical Sources. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. [use hanging indent]
How to cite Kant in Solomon and Martin: Kant, Immanuel, "Excerpts from Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals" in Morality and the Good Life: An Introduction to Ethics through the Classical Sources. 4th ed. Eds. Robert C. Solomon and Clancy W. Martin. Trans. James W. Ellington. Boston: McGraw-Hill College, 2003. pages [use hanging indent]
For a reference work that is less known than major encyclopedias or dictionaries, you should give a fuller entry such as in MLA Format: Angeles, Peter A. "Utilitarianism." The HarperCollins Dictionary of Philosophy. 2nd ed. New York: HarperPerennial. 1992. OR in CMS format: Angeles, Peter A., The HarperCollins Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (New York: HarperPerennial, 1992), s.v. "Utilitarianism.". [use hanging indent]
How to cite The Analects or The Mencius from the excerpts on
my website: If you are using the excerpts from my website, it is rather like the
excerpts from Plato or Aristotle as part of Solomon and Martin. Here is what it would look
like with the MLA format.
Confucius, "Excerpts from the Charles Muller Translation of the Analects."
Ed. Janice Capel Anderson. Trans. Charles Muller. Phil 103-17 H-Ethics.
2002. University of Idaho. 17 Apr. 2006 <http://www.class.uidaho.edu/jcanders/Rites%20of%20Passage/mulleranalectsselect.htm>.
[use hanging indent]
In the in-text citations or footnotes when citing the Analects or the Mencius you can reference by chapter and section--much as with Aristotle or Plato as the numbering is standard. For example, an in-text citation from the Mencius might read (Mencius 2A:6). The in-text first reference should indicate the translation used such as Muller (unless you used another translation). If footnoting, the first reference should include all the citation information.
6. Your essay should define any key terms used, use examples to illustrate and support your argument where appropriate, and discuss likely alternatives or respond to objections.
Essays will be graded for both form and content as indicated in Points to Consider in Evaluating Essays. You should use this points as one guide in proof-reading drafts of your essay.
Choose ONE of the following questions/prompts:
1. Note: Both apply and evaluate. Apply the willing a universal law or the never as a means only form of Kant's categorical imperative to the following case and then tell whether you believe this is a good method of ethical evaluation and why.
Bob White is a senior ag science major. He is a single father of two small children. He has three days to complete his senior project in order to graduate on time and take a high paying job. He has grown twenty specimens of a new strain of wheat. He goes into the lab to do the final tests on the wheat. He finds that two specimens next to the window froze overnight and have died. He decides to write down that these last two tested the same as numbers seventeen and eighteen. He doesn't have time to grown more specimens before the deadline. Did Bob do the right thing?
2. Evaluate Kantian ethics. In your answer discuss what you believe is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Be sure to define key terms and illustrate with at least one example.
3. Discuss one similarity and one difference between utilitarianism and Kantian ethics. Which system is strongest? Why? Be sure to define terms used, illustrate with at least one example, and respond to at least one objection to your position.
4.
Do both A and B. A. Confucianism is often said to focus on self-cultivation and emulation (modeling oneself on real or ideal role models including the Superior Man or chün-tzu . What does this mean? Be sure to define the terms and use examples from the exerpts of the Analects we have studied to illustrate your answer. And B. Discuss one key strength and one key weakness of a system that focuses on self-cultivation and emulation. Be sure to use examples to illustrate your points and respond to possible objections. (Note: the Hall and Ames secondary reading "Confucius and Confucianism" at http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/G001SECT4 may be useful background.)5. Discuss one similarity and one difference you locate between Kant's ethics and that of the Confucians we read. Be sure to define key terms, refer to the key texts we read, and illustrate with examples.
6. Do both A and B. A. Describe the Mencian view of human nature and his seed or sprout theory and B. compare/contrast Mencius' views with at least one other view of human nature we have studied this semester. Use examples to illustrate your answer and respond to possible objections.
7. Discuss the concept of li as it appears in the excerpts of the Analects we read. Why is it important for Confucian ethics? Why is it ripe for misunderstanding by Westerners. Define the term, use at least three of the sayings to illustrate your answer, and respond to at least one objection to your views. (Note: the Hall and Ames secondary reading "Confucius and Confucianism" at http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/G001SECT4 may be useful background.)
*****Wild Card. Write on a topic of your choice based on our readings in this section of the course. However, you must have the instructor approve your topic. You may talk to me after class, visit me in my office, or contact me via email to request approval. One concern is not making the topic/thesis too broad.
Writing Help
The assigned reading from Cruz at http://www.williams.edu/philosophy/fourth_layer/faculty_pages/jcruz/moraltutor/
Jim Pryor of Princeton has a website with some plain words about writing a philosophy paper. It can be found at http://www.princeton.edu/~jimpryor/general/writing.html
"Philosophy Tools" on my website has many links useful for writing philosophy papers and essays including a Citation FAQ and the Landmark Citation Machine which automatically formats in MLA and APA.
Visit the UI Writing Center - The Writing Center is located in Room 323 on the third floor of the Idaho Commons. Tutors help students with writing projects. For more information, the URL is http://www.class.uidaho.edu/english/WritingCenter/
Harvey, Writing with Sources - textbook for this class