I've selected quite a few items from my Philosophy course. For one thing, writing a short essay every week provided many opportunities to reflect in print about the issues under consideration for that week. The items here demonstrate my growing interest in applied ethics, particularly bioethical topics. In each of the essays, I try to reason my way through these very complex and controversial issues to find out where I stood. I start with the essay on abortion.
The next essay required a comparison of three authors on the topic of selfishness. I remember that there were many selections from which to choose, but I had my favorites already - and so tried to find the commonalities and differences among them that would fit the assignment.
The next selection is a look at the preparation I undertook for the class meeting in which I led the discussion. I knew I wanted to do something on reproductive technologies and the challenge was to find a way to involve my classmates in a manner that was realistic and did not require a lot of preparation on their parts. The role play went very well, as I recall. We did not have time to go through all the cases but this exercise introduced me to the case study method, which I have enjoyed ever since.
I include my final paper because I am proud of the way in which I tried to reason through what it means to be a person -- and what follows from that belief if people truly are guided by their values. This is an attempt to be as completely logical as possible (in terms of premises and claims).
Foundations of Philosophical Thought
I've selected quite a few items from my Philosophy course. For one thing, writing a short essay every week provided many opportunities to reflec t in print about the issues under consideration for that week. The items here demonstrate my growing interest in applied ethics, particularly bioethical topics. In each of the essays, I try to reason my way through these very complex and controversial issues to find out where I stood. I start with the essay on abortion.
The next essay required a comparison of three authors on the topic of selfishness. I remember that there were many selections from which to choose, but I had my favorites already - and so tried to find the commonalities and differences among them that would fit the assignment.
The next selection is a look at the preparation I undertook for the class meeting in which I led the discussion. I knew I wanted to do something on reproductive technologies and the challenge was to find a way to involve my classmates in a manner that was realistic and did not require a lot of preparation on their parts. The role play went very well, as I recall. We did not have time to go through all the cases but this exercise introduced me to the case study method, which I have enjoyed ever since.
The presentation consisted of students in the class taking various roles with respect to the case studies they had read about prior to the class.
I include my final paper because I am proud of the way in which I tried to reason through what it means to be a person -- and what follows from that belief if people truly are guided by their values. This is an attempt to be as completely logical as possible (in terms of premises and claims).