- What is the best ethical theory discussed in the course, and why? As part of your essay, you ought to respond to or incorporate challenges presented by at Hume, Rawls and Dostoevsky do not use any other outside sources except for those pdfs right here.
Objective: The principal objective for this paper is to form a conclusion you would like to argue for based on the material we’ve read. This conclusion is your thesis, and it directs the reader immediately to your purpose in the essay. Your options here are many: you can disagree with arguments and attempt to disprove them, defend arguments against their detractors, propose new ideas, conduct a comparative analysis of multiple thinkers, etc. Regardless of your choice, your paper must draw a conclusion—a proposition that can be argued to be true or false based on evidence/supporting reasons. (“I’m going to compare these philosophers and their ideas” or “I’m going to write about utilitarianism” are not conclusions; they are only statements of intent.) Likewise, your thesis must be meaningful and not trivial—it must do more than simply repeat what others have already said. For instance, a thesis that claims “I will argue that deontology is based on rational obligation to fulfill one’s duty” just restates the definition of deontology.)
The opening paragraph for your essay ought to include both a thesis and a step-by-step guide for how you will defend this thesis (this guide is called a “roadmap”). For instance, you might say “In this paper, I will defend the claim that x, and I will do so by arguing the following. First, I argue that y, then…”.