Back to Class Page

Dowling College PHL 042A Ethics Spring 2003 Dr Christian Perring

Paper III. 4 pages/~1200 words. Due by midnight on Thursday May 1. Even if you have not completed your paper by class, do NOT miss class. If you find you are having difficulties writing your paper, contact me to let me know and I will help you. If you paper is late without excuse, you will lose 1% per day on your paper grade.

Papers must be submitted in an electronic form. I prefer you to do so using Turnitin.com (the class ID is 60494, and the password is "ethics"), but you can instead email me a copy of your paper in Word or RTF as an attachment, or give me a copy of your paper on disk. You can if you want also give me a hard copy.

Any form of plagiarism or academic dishonesty is unacceptable and may result in you failing the course and being reported to the Dean of Students. Plagiarism is using sources in the writing of your paper without acknowledging your sources. It is often a good idea to use other sources, but if you do so, you must say where you found information, either in parentheses or in a footnote. If you quote directly or copy text from another source, you must put the quotation in quotation marks and say exactly where it comes from, giving page numbers or the exact URL. I don’t require any particular reference format, but APA format is a good one to use. (For more information on reference formats, the Dowling College Library website has a page on the Citation and Evaluation of Sources.)

For this paper, I recommend that you write an introductory paragraph setting out what you intend to argue. You do not need to write a concluding paragraph, although a concluding sentence would be appropriate.

Answer ONE of the following questions.

1. (Difficult) Explain A.J. Ayer’s argument that what look like ethical judgments are really just expressions of emotion. Pick a case of heated ethical dispute (such as on abortion, war, homosexuality) and discuss whether the dispute can be explained as no more than people having different emotional reactions.
2. Compare Jean-Paul Sartre’s discussion of anti-Semitism with Nietzsche’s discussion of slave morality. To what extent are the two philosophers optimistic that it is possible for society to rise above mediocrity and mob-mentality? (You will need to do research beyond the readings in the textbook in order to answer this question.)
3. Laurence Thomas says that he is not impressed by the argument that women and minority students need women and minority teachers in college for role models. Discuss whether in fact his argument for the need for a diverse faculty differs from a role model view, and whether his argument provides a strong justification for affirmative action.
4. Explain Marilyn Frye’s account of the nature of sexism. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of her account, and discuss whether her view helps to decide if American society today still has significant problems with sexism.