Philosophy Final Paper 3 Pages -- 2

Basic Elements
 Three-page presentation, typed, double-spaced.
 A minimum of 3 references (works cited). Students are encouraged to discuss the text with the author. Students may use material
from the course texts not discussed in class.
 All presentations must include complete citations of work used and be foot-noted or end-noted according to the Chicago style or MLA.
If you are uncertain how to provide proper citations, visit the Writing Lab in the Lane Library.
 Presentations must be read in class.
 Two copies of the presentation must be submitted.
 Topics must be chosen from the following list:
o “The Outsourcing of Ethical Thinking,” Erik Nordenhaug and Jack Simmons, The Twenty-First Century and Its Discontents:
How Changing Discourse Norms are Changing Culture, (available in the Library).
 How does the argument relate to Plato’s notion of virtue described in The Apology?
o Three Dashes Bitters, Jack Simmons (available in Library and the Bookstore)
 Use Sartre’s notion of despair (in Existentialism is a Humanism) to explain the role of friendship and love in the
novel.
o Sartre and Posthumanist Humanism, Beth Butterfield
 Use Butterfield’s essay to analyze Critical Race Theory.
o Lessons from the Death Zone: What Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air Can Teach Us about the COVID-19 Pandemic and Why We
May Be Doomed to Repeat It, Leigh E. Rich, The Twenty-First Century and Its Discontents: How Changing Discourse Norms
are Changing Culture, (available in the Library).
 What are the central errors in communication that Rich fears?
 Why are we incapable of avoiding them?
 How might existentialism help solve the problem?
o From “Post-Racial America” to #BlackLivesMatter: Rethinking Race for the Twenty-First Century, “ Elizabeth Butterfield, The
Twenty-First Century and Its Discontents: How Changing Discourse Norms are Changing Culture, (available in the Library).
 How does Sartre’s conception of facticity and transcendence apply to discussions of race?
 What is Butterfield’s ultimate suggestion?
o “The Rebirth of Canonical Love,” Jack Simmons, The Twenty-First Century and Its Discontents: How Changing Discourse
Norms are Changing Culture, (available in the Library).
 Use this article to critique a particular sexual consent/harassment case in the news.
o Steven T. Engel, “Rousseau and Imagined Communities,” The Review of Politics. Vol. 67, No. 3 (Summer 2005), pp. 515-537.
https://www.proquest.com/docview/220216293/7DA6F506B968432CPQ
 What is a nationalist? Is it good or bad? Why? Is Rousseau a nationalist?
o Finbarr Curtis, “What about the Alt Left? Fear and Security on Campus.”
 What is the difference between sacred and safetyism?
o Marla Morris, “Marguerite Duras: Literary Fiction and Currere,” The Currere Exchange Journal, 2022.
 What does it mean to say, the personal is political?
o Finbarr Curtis, “Exercise,” Religion, Law, USA.
 What is the connection between religion and restraint? Why does it matter? Should religious freedom include
sexual freedom?
 The questions posed here after each reading are there only to help guide your reading. Your presentation need not answer those
particular questions, but they may provide a starting point for reflection.
 Links on Folio often go awry. Contact your professor if you find a broken link to an essay.
 Grading criteria: creativity/understanding of the subject/facilitation of classroom discussion.
"Rulers, Statesmen, Nations, are wont to be emphatically commended to the teaching which experience
offers in history. But what experience and history teach is this - that people and governments never have
learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it. Each period is involved in such
peculiar circumstances, exhibits a condition of things so strictly idiosyncratic, that its conduct must be
regulated by considerations connected with itself, and itself alone."
― Georg Hegel
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