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History of Ethics: The Final Project

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Overview of Timeline

 

I. Preparatory Assignment Series

 

  1. Question and Reading List｜Post a guiding question your paper will address and a reading list to the Digital Forum - April 19th

 

2. Thesis Checkpoint｜ Post a concise statement that provides a tentative response to your guiding question - April 26th

 

3. Dialectical Sensitivity｜Post a compelling objection that you will address in the final draft of the paper - May 3rd

 

II. Final Essay: The Historical Engagement Paper

 

4.  One 7-8 page paper｜Due via email by 11:59pm May 9th

 

 

 

HISTORICAL ENGAGEMENT PAPER

 

Each student will complete a 7-8 page argumentative essay on any topic involving significant engagement with one of the following historical figures from the course (Figures not on this list are possible with my approval): 

 

David Hume 

Gertrude Anscombe 

Mary Midgley

Jeremy Bentham 

J.S. Mill

Immanuel Kant

Arthur Schopenhauer

Iris Murdoch

Friedrich Nietzsche


 

FOUR ASSIGNMENT PARAMETERS

 

1. ARGUMENTATIVE THESIS: You have full autonomy in conceiving the purpose of your essay, which you are expected to articulate in a bolded thesis statement(s) to be found in your introduction. Your thesis statement should provide an answer to a central guiding question your paper intends to address. If you need guidance in framing your engagement with your chosen historical figure, you may consult the paper types from the Midterm assignment for suggested paper objectives.

 

2. CLOSE READING: At some point in your argument, you are expected to incorporate careful interpretation of key passages from your chosen historical figure. Examples of questions to consider: What is the figure claiming in these key passages? What important details should be highlighted that might not be readily apparent? What are potential misreadings that should be avoided? Citation information for readings on Perusall can be found using a library database search for the quoted text.

 

3. CONTEMPORARY CONVERSATION: Engagement with history requires an awareness of its relation to the present. You will be expected to incorporate at least one contemporary source in your argument. Your contemporary source may but need not be another philosopher; you may draw your source from other disciplines and domains of discourse (e.g. natural science; social science; literature; poetry, etc.). 

Possible examples include: contemporary psychologists; feminist theorists; physicists; historians; contemporary scholars of Kant, Hume, Nietzsche, etc. 

 

4. EXHIBIT: Incorporate at least 1-2 exhibits to help you develop your question or argumentative thesis. Exhibits can be drawn from any possible object of thought, including thought experiments, empirical studies, personal anecdotes, historical events, current affairs, music, film, poetry, dance, art, etc.

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