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Phil 13 Final Essay Instructions and Prompts

Due on Canvas Thursday Dec. 14^th, by 11:30 a.m.

Papers submitted between 11:31 and 2:30 pm on Dec. 14 will be considered late and docked 5%. Papers submitted after 2:30 pm will not be accepted.

Instructions: Choose one of the following prompts to write your final essay on. Your essay should be 5-7 pages (no more, no less), double-spaced with 1-inch margins and 12-point font. The page count does not include the works cited page. You don’t have to title your paper (unless you want to) but you should note which prompt you’re answering (e.g. “Prompt 1”) below your name, date, etc. at the top of your essay. Be sure to submit your essay in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format (no Pages).

The goal of this assessment is to demonstrate what you’ve learned in this course by building a case in defense of your answer to the prompt. This means explaining in sufficient detail the relevant theories and arguments and considering and responding to an objection to your position in the essay. This is a pretty short format in which to cover the ideas of others and present your own, so be sure to leave yourself time to streamline your arguments and make every sentence count! Be sure to stick to the material we’ve covered in class – if you want to use a piece of empirical data from an outside source, that’s fine, but you must engage with the relevant readings we’ve done – don’t focus on outside philosophical sources (e.g. philosophers/articles we haven’t read).

Academic Integrity: It’s important (and required!) to give credit where credit is due and to never present someone else’s ideas or arguments as your own. Be sure to cite any material you quote or paraphrase. But be careful not to make too much of your essay quotations or paraphrases of the ideas and arguments of others – this is a chance to bring together your thoughts on important issues and use what you’ve learned to support them! The idea is not to simply describe your views on things like capital punishment or self-driving cars, but to use what you’ve learned in this class to formulate good, strong, cohesive reasons for your views. As usual, you may not use AI assistance, such as ChatGPT.

Important: Things can go wrong when submitting to Canvas! It’s on you to (1) take a screenshot confirming your submission so that if something goes wrong you have proof that you submitted, and (2) click on your submission to confirm that it’s the correct file! If you submit the wrong file, there’s not much we can do.

Prompts start on the next page.

Prompts

Prompt 1: “Capital Punishment”

A friend of yours, who has never taken a philosophy course, is confused about how anyone could think that “even if it turns out that capital punishment does deter crime a little better than life in prison, capital punishment should still be abolished.” Having just taken an ethics course discussing this issue, draw on course material to (i) Explain what you consider to be the strongest argument that supports this conclusion, and (ii) explain whether you think the argument is successful – this involves considering an objection to the abolitionist argument you described, and/or an alternative argument in favor of retaining the death penalty.

Tips: The idea is to present your friend with the best (non-deterrence-based) argument in favor of abolishing capital punishment, then present the strongest retentionist argument and explain which one you think wins. It will be helpful to make your assessment of which argument (abolitionist or retentionist) wins out (and why) the focus of your paper. The objection you consider should challenge this assessment (i.e. imagine your friend disagrees  with you  -- what argument might they offer for thinking you’re wrong about which argument wins out?).

Prompt 2 “How to Ethically Crash a Self-Driving Car”

Imagine you’re an ethicist on a team that develops self-driving cars for Ethical Motorcars (EMC), and you are responsible for programming the cars to crash “ethically.” (i) Explain to your project manager (your boss who is not an ethicist) which normative ethical framework your company should use when programming the cars and why. (ii) Consider and respond to an objection to your proposal (e.g. that there are problems with that framework or programming a car in that way won’t work). Finally, (iii) conclude by briefly considering whether you’d be willing to own and use this car, and why.

Tips: In explaining why you think the ethical theory you chose is the best one to go with you’ll likely want to consider (i) whether it would get the right results in certain scenarios (think about the Self-Driving Car version of the Trolley problem we did in class), and (ii) how humans might actually go about telling a car how to behave according to the ethical principles in the theory (e.g. can we program the car to be wise or caring, or do we use those virtues to decide what to do ahead of time, anticipating thousands of situations the car might encounter?).

Prompt 3 “To Love, or Not To Love”

A close friend of yours, Marianne, has asked for your advice: two men, John and Brandon, have both professed their love for Marianne and she must choose between them. She is in love with John but recognizes that Brandon will be a better long-term relationship partner, though she does not love him. Knowing that she cannot simply fall out of love with John, nor can she avoid substantial heartbreak if she does not choose John, Marianne is considering a plan. She has heard of a new line of “Love Drugs” which includes a pill that diminishes feelings of love so that she can cease loving John without heartbreak, and a pill that will allow her to initiate and maintain a loving relationship with Brandon.

Drawing on relevant course literature, articulate and discuss the considerations that Marianne should consider when making this decision and explain whether (and why/why not) you endorse her plan to use the Love Drugs in this way.

Tips: The focus of your essay should be making and defending a case for whether taking the love drugs (or not) is the best course of action is in Marianne’s situation. In doing so, you should discuss how the relevant ethical considerations (based on the course literature) should weigh in this decision, and articulate and reply to at least one significant objection to your position. Remember, this is supposed to be a philosophical argument, so be sure to talk about the value of love and any value that might be lost if Marianne takes the drugs.

Prompt 4 “Make Your Own!”

If you’ve wanted to address a particular applied problem with the domain of capital punishment, self-driving cars, or love drugs that isn’t addressed in one of the prompts, you can make your own prompt! Or, if you’d really like a chance to defend or “fix” a normative theory in response to a particularly compelling objection, this is it!

What you’ll need to “make your own prompt”

In order to use this option you must meet with your TA (in person or via Zoom) and present them with the following items, and obtain their approval for you to write your essay on the prompt you’ve offered:

1. A problem or question that motivates your essay – something you’ll spend your essay building/defending an answer to. This should be small and specific enough that it can be adequately addressed in the length of this essay.

2. A thesis statement that offers a clear and concise answer to the question/problem.

3. At least a brief outline of how your main argument will go (can be bullet points).

4. You must consider and respond to a strong objection to an important part of your argument(s).

Tips: It’s easy with a prompt like this to lose track of a good paper structure as you try to say all the things you’d like to say on the topic. Make sure you have a strong question that’s motivating your essay! Keep your eye on that question and say all and only the things you need to say to answer that question. And don’t wait until the last minute to meet with your TA for approval! They may have some helpful feedback on how you ought to revise your prompt and you want to leave yourself time to reconsider and restructure things.