Assignments

Reading and writing assignment for Monday (given earlier, on day 1 and on syllabus and blog):

1. Read Introduction and Part 1 of the Harvard book on writing.
2. Read in A Rulebook for Arguments, the Introduction and the chapter on deductive arguments. This reviews material we have discused in class.
3. Read: "How to Read Philosophy," by Jim Pryor: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/reading.html

4. Reading writing For Monday (9/9) Ch. 1, "What is Morality?" (Elements of Moral Philosophy, EMP; chapter is available at link if you don't have the book yet):

Writing assignment 1: very detailed summary OR OUTLINE of this chapter, covering every section. 

-          Recall from the syllabus:

•  Writing assignments generally are opportunities for the student to explain the issues and arguments and so teach the material to someone else. Two typical options are these:
• A very detailed outlines or summaries of some assigned readings. You will want them to be so detailed that you can use them for a detailed open outline quiz.
• Alternatively, an essay where you explain the main topic of the reading, the main conclusion(s) advanced in the reading, the main reason(s) given in favor of that conclusion; that argument stated in logically valid form and your evaluation of the argument as sound or unsound. This essay should also be so detailed that it could be used for an open-note quiz.

For Wednesday, re-read the Rachels chapter EMP 1, "What is Morality?"

5. For Friday, read these on African moral theories; come prepared to discuss these theories' explanations for why wrong actions are wrong and what makes an action morally permissible or obligatory:

Metz, T. (2007), Toward an African Moral Theory. Journal of Political Philosophy, 15: 321–341. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9760.2007.00280.x  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9760.2007.00280.x/full 

Gyekye, Kwame, "African Ethics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = . http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/african-ethics/ 

Stay tuned for the next batch of reading and writing assignments.