Doing Ethics

Doing Ethics

Paper details

Final paper: This paper will cover the material we have worked with during the term. Our task, in working together, is to ensure that you are well prepared for this final assignment, and I will do all I can to facilitate your success.

The requirements for the final paper are listed here.

Focus for the final paper. I will ask you to succinctly present a moral issue – and where you stand in regard to it. Having done so, I will then ask you to write a moral analysis of the issue, one that defends your views, using the material/theories/method we develop during the term.

1) The final paper is not a research paper; my preference is for you to choose an issue about which you are already aware. It can be one from your own experience, something happening at your work site, etc.

2) Once you choose the issue you want to work with, the final paper should include the following sections:

a) A brief, perhaps two paragraph or so summary of the issue as you understand it.

b) The specific stand that you take; what you see as right/good/just in regard to the issue.

c) Some thoughts about how the issue relates to your own life experience.

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1. d) A moral analysis that employs a deontological approach to ethics, either as the kind of duty ethics expressed by Kant or Divine Command Theory. (You need not use both approaches, you need only use one listed in (d), but must also do items (e)-(h).

   e) A moral analysis using teleological approaches to ethics, either utilitarianism or Natural Law. (Again, you need not use both approaches, you need only use one listed in (e), in addition of course to the one you choose in (d). It is recommended that the one you choose for (d) and (e) be paired/opposites, just as they were presented in class.

   f) A moral analysis that focuses on the relationality-responsibility model we worked on in the course. Items (g) and (h) can be incorporated into this portion of your analysis. Please include mention of why this model for ethics works better than (d) or (e).

   g) A moral analysis that uses Young’s ideas about justice, including thoughts about how marginalization relates to your issue. Also include at least one from the following list: cultural imperialism, systematic violence, exploitation or powerlessness.

   h) Thoughts about how an ethics of risk relates to your issue.

   It is necessary that you include each part above; how you include them is up to you. For example, if duty ethics supports better were you stand, you can still include utilitarianism by summarizing what a utilitarian might say about your issue, and then by offering thoughts about how/why you disagree with them. It is possible that not all of the sections above will yield conclusions that you may agree with. The only requirement is that all the parts, as you present them, work to support your stand on the issue.