Overview
LOOK AT PREVIOUS MIDTERM ESSAY AS TO NOT REPEAT WHAT HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE
As we have seen throughout the semester, ethical theories and normative reasoning apply to nearly every type of personal and professional interaction in our lives. Accordingly, for the Spring 2024 Final Essay, you are tasked with reflecting on two or three of the most salient ethical issues, problems, controversies, theories, arguments, practical solutions, or principles we covered in PHIL 202: Ethics, which resonated with you and caused you to self-critically evaluate your own values or judgments. That is, write a self-critical reflection essay on 2-3 topics from the course content that had a notable connection to your life, career path, family history etc., and because of that connection you were drawn into the ethical debates and took a more serious look into the arguments supporting your eventual or existing position, as well as the countervailing alternatives to your view.
This is a medium-length piece of academic writing (1200-1500 words), so you should strive for clarity and concision—omitting any orthogonal or tangential thoughts. See rubric for detailed grading criteria. You must upload your essay as a document (in a standard file format: .doc, .docx, .rtf, .pdf, .odt, .odf) through the final essay submission
Objectives
Reflect on one’s own understanding of specific ethical issues and compare the plausibility of various positions.
Demonstrate the ability to draw connectionsbetween one’s own personal or professional life and ethical views, and articulate a self-critical examination of one’s moral values, judgments, reasons, commitments, or presuppositions.
Integrate knowledge from credible sources, in the service of informing one’s judgments regarding the plausibility of one’s ethical views, and defend the reasoning used to arrive at those judgments in light of competing alterative views.
Instructions
Choose 2-3 topics from PHIL 202: Ethics course content which resonate with you. [E.g. ethical theories, specific normative principles, problems, arguments in the assigned readings or lectures, practical solutions to professional challenges, ethically challenging new technologies.] One exception: Do NOT rehash your midterm essay. You are permitted to choose related course content to your midterm essay, but not the same arguments discussed therein.
Reflect on the specific features of your chosen topics from the course which prompted you to draw connections to your own life or career and think more carefully about the implications of your reasons, judgments, or serious doubts related to those topics. Some questions you might ask yourself: Why is this topic salient to you? What is the nature of the connections you drew? Is it personal, professional, or some other special interest? Did it cause you to reassess your initial intuitions about some issue as you took a closer look at the principled arguments from different competing perspectives? How so? Did you come to a clearer understanding of your own reasons for holding a position on that topic? Or, was the issue previously unfamiliar to you, yet it grabbed your attention? Why did it have that effect on you? Be specific. Articulate the details of the self-critical examination of your moral values, judgments, reasons, commitments, or presuppositions on your chosen topics.
Explain what you learned about your chosen topics and defend your interpretation of the related issues. What considerations inform your judgments? Did you discover relevant empirical evidence to the topic? What swayed your judgments on a particular issue? Why are one set of reasons more compelling than others on offer? What is at stake? Why is it controversial? Who, in particular, challenges the view you favor on the topic? What are their reasons? How should you respond to such criticisms, given your own commitments?
Cite and include the full bibliographic information for your sources in a Works Cited or Bibliography, at the end of your essay, using a standard citation format (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago). You should include and engage a minimum of five credible sources in your essay.
Topics:
write the reflection based on the following topics below and use th resource povided along with the instructions
Topic 2
Euthanasia
rachels_morality of euthanasia.pdf
Assisted Suicide Philosopher’s Brief (1997).doc
Feinberg_Voluntary Euthanasia & Inalienable Right to Life.pdf
Pereira (2011) Legalizing euthanasia_illusion os safeguards and controls.pdf
Topic 3
carebots and moral status of AI caregivers
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/asia/grace-hanson-robotics-android-nurse-hnk-spc-intl/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1FqDOX57YRVFth-T9b2_7xfz51doOX0btSVQVTPW5VZbKhI5uYAK9GwbY
ONeill (2003) Some Limits of Informed Consent.pdf
darling_extending legal protections to social robots.pdf
https://prezi.com/view/J2Q0BMiofdZslbyJJ3lf/
Vallor (2016) Carebots & the Ethical Self.pdf
Gunkel_Caring for Robotic Care-givers.pdf
Topic 4
genetics enhancement and biotech
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00l59hf
Liao (2008)_Selecting Children, the ethics of reproductive genetic engineering.pdf
Savulescu (2001) Procreative Beneficence_whye we should select the best children.pdf
Brown (2009)_The Case for Perfection.pdf
“The Case for Perfection” (2011) Lecture by Julian Savulescu
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-case-against-perfection/302927/
Look for information /additional
