Ethics and Society

    Ethics and Society (my topic is Natural Law Theory) Length: five pages (not including References and title page), or approximately 1500 words Style and Format: APA style; 12 point Times New Roman font During the date range above, you will be asked to submit TWO separate assignments, each following the same format and instructions, but on different public sphere discussions of your choice. For these assignments, you must analyze a current news story, social movement, and/or public policy through the lens of any of the ethical theories discussed in class: virtue ethics, stoicism, natural law theory, social contract theory, utilitarianism and/or consequentialism in general, or Kantianism and/or deontological ethics in general. I will also accept essays on Thomas Nagel’s “moral luck” concept, which is not an ethical theory per se, but a challenge to deontological ethics, or essays on W.D. Ross’ deontological prima facie duties. In your papers, you must do two things: 1.) clearly outline your ethical theory, its major presсrіptions, the thinker/thinkers associated with it, and their general perspective; and 2.) explain how this theory can be fruitfully applied to the public sphere discussion in question, providing new insights into the issue. Devote approximately two-thirds of the essay to the application of theory, and only about one-third of it to outlining the ethical theory. For example, from a utilitarian perspective, students might discuss how the city of Seattle’s proposed income tax on the wealthy potentially maximizes utility for a greater number of Seattle residents. Alternately, students could use contractarianism to argue that the income tax is ethically suspect, because it violates state law, and therefore breaches the pre-existing social contract. A third option might be using deontological arguments to explain why the tax increase is ethical or unethical, because it breaks—or adheres to—a number of universal ethical principles (and name them). The major purpose of these assignments is for you to demonstrate a strong understanding of the ethical theories discussed in class, through real-world applications. Successful papers will also showcase student knowledge of contemporary social issues, and communicate ideas clearly and effectively. A note on sources: For these papers, you will be using relatively few sources. Use course texts for the theoretical application and (presumably) use a few trusted sources as background information for your understanding of the news item/public policy/social movement in question. These early assignments are not meant to be major research papers, which typically interrogate multiple varied scholarly sources. In fact, because you will be exploring a current event, it is likely that there will not yet be a wealth of peer-reviewed, scholarly literature available anyway. As an example, if you are discussing the Black Lives Matter movement, and applying natural law theory, you could conceivably write a very strong paper using only the course readings from Aquinas and King, the Shafer-Landau text, as well as content from a few news articles and the Black Lives Matter website. You are allowed to draw on editorials and opinion pieces (and a limited number of scholarly works, for that matter), but again, this is not necessary or even advisable, for this particular assignment. Use the opinions of others to supplement or support your ideas—not as a substitute for your ideas!