Final Paper Assignment: Due Friday, April 26th
Assignment Description: Defend your answer to the following question
Under what conditions, if any, is [your topic here] morally permissible/required?
Examples:
“To be morally permissible, data collection must…”
“Human cloning is never morally permissible.”
“It would be wrong to create/destroy an artificial intelligence capable of…”
Be as specific as you can in your answer to the topic question so that people can use your view to evaluate real world business practices.
“By ‘human cloning’ I mean…”
“By ‘data collection’ I mean…”
“By ‘consciousness’ I mean…”
The paper should be roughly 1300 words in length, and should contain three distinct sections:
Section 1: This section should contain a statement of your thesis (your answer to the above question) and an original argument for that thesis. Try to make the main premises of your argument as clear as possible. At least one of these main premises should be a descriptive claim and at least one should be a normative claim. You can imagine your argument consists of two parts:
Some descriptive claims related to your topic (these could include actual or hypothetical cases, definitions of important terms, and empirical facts)
At least one general normative claim which links these descriptive claims to your conclusion (“The reason this is wrong is because we all have a moral duty to…”).
If the information in the descriptive claims is not common knowledge, you need to provide citations to back up those claims or make further arguments. If the normative main premise is controversial, you should devote some space in your paper to defending it.
Example: 1) Capital punishment leads to more harm than good. (descriptive)
2) We should not allow things that lead to more harm than good. (normative)
3) So, we should not allow capital punishment.
Section 2: In this section, you are to consider an objection to your argument. Do not respond to the objection in this section. Aim to leave your reader as convinced as possible of the truth of the objection. This section might begin, “A possible objection to my argument is that…”
Section 3: In the third section, respond to the objection you presented in the section 2. This section might begin, “However, this objection does not succeed because…”
Assignment Requirements:
1300 words (roughly)
double spaced
1 inch margins
12 point font
Grading: Your paper will be graded on how well it conforms to the following criteria:
Conclusion Statement: State your main conclusion somewhere on the first page. State it as clearly as possible, and make it clear that it is your main conclusion (and not just one among many others). Make your conclusion statement a single sentence. You can elaborate on what you mean with that sentence afterward.
Clarity: The language of the paper should be simple and easy to understand. The relevance of each part of the paper should also be clear. The reader should not be left wondering what the point of any given sentence is, for example.
Organization: The overall structure of the paper makes sense. There are distinct paragraphs, each of which serves a distinct and useful purpose. The paragraphs are organized in a way that makes understanding the paper easy. Each sentence is where it belongs.
Plausibility: Give reasons for what you believe. Avoid merely listing various things you believe on the subject. Your argument need not convince me, but should not have an obviously false main premise or an obvious gap. Make sure that the main argument supports all parts of your conclusion. The objection you consider in section 2 should have at least some prima facie plausibility, and your response in section 3 should leave the reader convinced that the objection is no good.
Charity: The views of others (especially your opponents) are presented fairly and accurately (no “straw-man” arguments). You do not use ridicule or personal attacks to make your point.
