Explain the role of the Categorical Imperative in Kantian ethics. In light of the criticisms
offered of both accounts from the course readings, which account is more plausible? Provide an argument in support of your
conclusion.
This assignment consists of a single short essay question. The main intent of this question is to ensure that you have a sound
grasp of the fundamentals of the material presented in this unit. To that end, there is a 3 to 4 page (1000 words) limit for this
question. I’m not so concerned with whether you agree with a particular author or not. The quality of your answer is based on
your exposition of the competing positions, your comparative analysis of those positions and, lastly, your argument in support
of the position you defend.
As with all the assignments in this course, the short essay question is not designed to be a “research” question. There is no
requirement to get material from external sources such as other authors, or reference websites, who have summarized, or
criticized, the authors you are dealing with. In effect, including such material defeats your purpose in completing your essay
because you are essentially telling me what some other person thought about the material you should be explaining and
assessing. If you make reference to sources external to the course readings it will be detrimental to your mark. In
some cases, I may ask you to re-work and submit your assignment. The point of your essay is to formulate the course
material and develop your critical response. You can do this by working with the course material and developing your own
ideas about the issue. The essay is simply your opportunity to set that out in paper.
So, the material you need to successfully complete this assignment can be found in the online course materials available
through the UMLearn course site. There may also be some reading material that is part of the hard copy course readings
package. You can find this information on the course materials section of our course UMLearn website.
The total possible mark for this assignment is 100 marks.
