Assignment task: This assignment is meant to test your ability to explain ethics more in-depth and to show your own critical thinking on different approaches to ethics.
This must be a new essay written specifically for this class by you individually. You need approval from your instructor before using part or all of an essay that was submitted for another class.
Topic: Pick any two out of the following ethical theories: Ethical egoism, utilitarianism, Kant's deontology, Aristotle's virtue ethics, and Held's care ethics. First, give you own cohesive summary of each of the two theories you chose to focus on. Second, discuss what you see as the comparative strengths and weaknesses of each theory and give your own argument for which is a better approach to ethics and why (or why both are equally good or bad, etc.).
Summary: You must summarize each of the two theories you are discussing, in about a paragraph each (or two each, if necessary). For this assignment, your summary should not give any judgment of each theory, but simply present a neutral explanation of its main points (any evaluation should be in your analysis). Your summary must be mostly in your own words; you can and should use key terms, and limited use of direct quotes is helpful, but you cannot just copy the text, notes or other sources.
Analysis: You must discuss and explain what you see as the strengths and weaknesses of each theory and give your own argument for which theory is better and why. This portion should not just repeat the strengths and weaknesses given in the text and notes or outside sources; you must focus mainly on your own clearly given analysis and your own rationally supported argument. You do not have to argue that one theory is better than the other, as long as you have a clear conclusion that you argue for.
Example Topic: Compare utilitarianism and deontology. First, summarize the main points of each theory.
Then, give the strengths and weaknesses of each theory, and end with your own clear argument for which is a better approach to morality and why.
Setup: Your essay will have two main parts: first, a relevant summary of course material. Secondly, your own critical analysis or argument regarding the theories you are addressing. You must have both parts, and they should be roughly equal in length. In addition to those two main parts, your paper should further begin with a one-paragraph introduction (including a thesis statement) and end with a one-paragraph
Conclusion. Again, this must be a new paper written specifically for this course by you individually; you cannot reuse any work from other courses (including taking Ethics previously) without approval.
Length and Format: Your essay must be no less than 1000 words and should not be more than 1500 words. It should be 12" Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with 1" margins on all sides. Any essay written below the minimum length will receive a lower grade (you may go beyond the upper word limit, if necessary, but not too much). Headings, direct quotes, footnotes, your works cited list, etc. do not count towards the 1000-1500 words.
Sources and Citation: All sources of information, including course materials, must be properly cited according to either MLA, APA, or Chicago style citation, resources for which can be easily found online.
- You are required to cite the course materials relevant to the two theories you are writing on. You may use the assigned reading, your notes from lecture, or the online course notes for this, or any combination of the above.
- You may use outside sources if you want to, but it is not required; if you use any outside sources, then you are required to properly cite them in your essay. Citing outside sources does not replace the requirement to cite the relevant course material.
- Use of artificial intelligence or AI tools (for example, Chat GPT or similar) is strongly discouraged on this assignment, as this assignment is meant to test your own writing, understanding, and critical thinking. Very limited use of AI may be allowed but counts as an outside source and must be properly cited; this includes a works cited entry, indicating all places in your writing where you took information from AI, and using quotation marks when copying text directly.