PHI 200 All Assignments

Week 2

PHI 200 Written Assignment

Assisted Suicide

Susan Wolf, in writing about her own father's death, confronts the problems that arise at the end of life, and challenges her to consider her views on assisted suicide.

Putting yourself in Wolf's place, how would you respond to this tragic and difficult issue? In three pages (excluding the title and reference pages), state your own response, arguing for why you think that response is the best available choice. In addition, indicate to what extent you agree with Wolf, and where you disagree with her.

Week 3

Final Paper Rough Draft

For this rough draft, you must identify a specific philosophical issue having to do with ethics, epistemology, or religion. You will need to find a topic over which there is a useful debate, in order to present both sides of the debate. Here, you will not need to indicate what your own position is, relative to the issue; you will be doing that, however, in the final version of the paper.

To receive full credit for this paper, you must do the following in three pages:

Identify the specific issue

Make clear one basic dispute over the issue you identify

Give a brief outline of the two sides of the debate

Provide at least one good source for each side of the debate (for the final version, you will need a minimum of five sources, at least two for each side).

Week 5

Assignments

Final Argumentative Paper Three important sub-disciplines of philosophy are addressed in this course; ethics, epistemology, and religion. For this paper you will develop an argument that includes your own view on one specific topic relating to one of these sub-disciplines. A list of topics to choose from is listed below. It is recommended that you choose a topic to write on that you have already encountered, or that you have thought about previously. (One way of thinking about this is to think of an issue that worries you, interests you, or enrages you.)

You may choose a topic from ethics, epistemology, or religion, but you will need to make sure you do the following for whatever topic you choose:

Identify the specific issue

Make clear one basic dispute over this issue

Clarify the arguments on both sides of the issue

State which side of the issue you find to be better defended

Explain why you find that side of the debate superior

State your own view, and defend it with an argument

Provide at least two references for each side of the debate

In order to write a strong paper, you will need to clearly and specifically present both sides of the debate using at least five (5) academic resources in addition to the course text.