3 full pages (no more, no less). Remember to write a brief introduction clarifying your topic, which philosophers you’ll be discussing, and your thesis. No need for lengthy summary at the end.
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GOOD LIFE TOPIC
We read Judith Butler’s chapter entitled: “Can One Lead a Good Life in a Bad Life?,” which is from her book, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly.
Her question–Can One Lead a Good Life in a Bad Life?–is now the topic of your paper. Working with the terms Butler uses to frame and address the question:
(I) Explain how she answers it and
THEN also
(II) Explain your own answer while discussing at least three (3) other philosophers we’ve read this summer session in your discussion (Butler + 3), even though they do not address the question directly, as they may help you clarify your own view.
For example,
How might Plato’s attempt to decouple justice from the “interest of the stronger” be relevant here?
Or is Aristotle’s account of justice helpful in answering this question, as he talks about happiness, plus justice is being fair to oneself as well as fair to others?
Or, what about Epictetus’s distinction between what is up to us according to nature and what is not up to us according to nature?
Or, is Luther’s concept of faith an example of an internal perspective on the good life?
Or, Kant’s conception of Enlightenment plus his private/public uses of reason distinction might help to think about good life?
Or, Russell’s concept of happiness, which we read as the good life, would seem to be clearly relevant, but what about his criticisms of self-absorption?
Or, does Noddings’s concept of care/caring contribute to your understanding of the good life?
Or consider Beauvoir’s conception of the ethics of ambiguity, where existential uncertainty and dependency on other people is a starting point for ethics and the good life?
Or, might Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness and Marx’s notion of alienated labor clarify a “bad life,” as Butler calls it, and place any constraints on the good life?
