Please choose any one of the following:

(1) What in your everyday life do you consider to be aesthetically meaningful? Describe why you think of it as aesthetic. How is it different form a work of art that you might encounter in a museum or a gallery? How is it similar? How would you defend your view – that it is aesthetically meaningful – against a skeptic?

(2) Are you a feminist? Why or why not? What sort of issues are feminists concerned with, and how does feminism propose remedies for these issues? Is feminism (still) a vital movement?

(3) What is deep ecology? According to this view, what are the root causes of our environmental problems? Is any of this plausible?

(4) First, consider the following harrowing situation: You are a paramedic on the scene of a car crash. A car went over a bridge and fell into the river. The driver of the car was unable to escape from the car and drowned. Based on your examination of the body, the car and so on, you can tell that she did not die instantly, but had tried furiously to escape from the car, as it filled with water. The other members of the family have been notified, and they have now arrived. The husband is devastated – and asks you if at least she was killed instantly by the crash, or did she also suffer before she died?

Now, what should you tell him? In considering this question you should contrast (a) a utilitarian, (b) a Kantian, and (c) a virtue ethics approaches. That is, you should say what each of those theories would determine to be the right thing to do here, and then you should say why you side with one of them, or perhaps why you would go another way entirely.

notes:

(a) The paper is due in to Canvas (there will be a drop box there for it) by 11:59 pm on Friday, June 14. The paper must be typed (font size 12, please), double-spaced, and 2-3 pages (1000-1500 words): too long is almost as bad as too short. Late papers will receive no written comments. Very late papers risk receiving no credit.

(b) No research (in particular, no scholarly source) is required for this paper.

(c) A thesis is required. You should be very clear about your thesis early, and then devote the rest of your paper to its defense.

(d) At some point, you should consider an objection to your thesis, or perhaps just a part of it – preferably, you will take on the toughest objection you can imagine, and then reply. And bear in mind that, in replying, you might need to concede some ground to the objection. Anyway, a qualified or nuanced reply is often a good way to go, especially if the objection is indeed robust.

(e) The most important part of your paper might well come before you write at all. You should read carefully, and reread, especially once you have a topic in mind. And you should think and rethink, trying to come to grips with your topic. Again, once you feel like you are leaning towards a view, try to imagine the toughest objection you can to that view: and then see what replies to that objection might be available.

(f) As for style, please bear in mind that your writing is here in the service of working through the arguments, not the other way round. Given this aim, you should work at writing clearly and simply: try to be clear and precise, but not to bedazzle or otherwise confuse.

(g) Finally, please sign your paper to indicate both that it is your own paper and that you have proofed it. Unsigned or painfully plainly unproofed papers will receive no written comments. NO CHAT GPT