Basic
assignment:
Write a 3-5 page (typed, double-spaced) paper explaining and supporting your
position on one of the issues we have (or will have) discussed in this
course. (If you wrote about hunger,
capital punishment or euthanasia in your first paper, choose a different topic
for this one.)
Some
guidelines:
1. Be sure that the
question or issue your paper is addressing is clear and well focused.
2. Be sure that you have provided a clear statement of your position on that issue (or your answer to that question). Be careful to explain any technical terms you use and to try to distinguish your position from other similar positions with which it might be confused.
3. Taking a position is not the
same thing (necessarily) as taking a side.
You may find yourself wanting to stake out a "middle ground"
position. Or your position may be that
no definite opinion on your topic can be adequately defended. Any position is O.K. as long as it is
clearly explained and carefully reasoned.
4. In
addition to explaining what you think, your paper should contain reasons
why you take the position you do.
Your main job is to explain why a reasonable person should agree with
the opinion or position you are expressing.
5. Whatever
your position is, there will be other points of view on the issue or topic you
are discussing. So, include in your
paper at least one statement of an objection to your view and a reply to that
objection. How might someone who
disagreed with you criticize your argument?
And how can you respond to that criticism? (Statements and replies to several objections would be even
better.)
Sample questions:
1. Is
abortion the moral equivalent of murder?
2. When,
if ever, are abortions morally justifiable?
3. What
rules, if any, should restrict women’s right to choose to obtain an abortion?
4. Is
there anything wrong (ethically speaking) with being a consumer of pornography? (Is regular consumption of pornography a
vice?)
5. Is
it a good thing or a bad thing if pornography is freely available and/or widely
enjoyed in our society?
6. Should
pornography (or some kinds of pornography) be censored or banned?
7. Should
a university like Hamline have any rules restricting speech or expression?
8. Are some virtues non-relative, i.e.,
necessary to any person who wants to leas a good life, regardless of cultural
differences? Or are virtues always
relative to one’s time and place?
9. What,
if anything, is a society obligated to do to improve the lives of its poorer
members?