Summer1 2013 Ethics take home essays

Write two three page (typed, double spaced) essays in response to two of the following three topics. Attach your answers to an email in one Word document with your name and "Take Home Essays" in the document title and email subject line.

Thanks.

Early Essay Topics

1. Give a general contrast between Haidt's and Singer's views of ethics on the basis your reading in the course. Is there a way to integrate their views or are they fundamentally opposed?
2. How would a Kantian and a Utilitarian analyze our obligations to the absolutely poor?
3. Reconstruct Haidt's view of religion and its relationship to morality, then give an analysis of it. Can a secular morality exert as strong a pull on our intuitions as a religiously based morality? If our commitment to morality is group based, how will we manage value conflict in an increasingly heterogeneous global culture?

Regular Essay Topics

1. Reconstruct Haidt view of morality and political conflict. What implications does it hold for how we should enter moral and political discussion? Does the theory offer useful advice in your opinion? Why or why not?
2. How would a Rawlsian and a Utilitarian analyze the obligations of the wealthy toward the poor within one country?
3. Reconstruct Haidt's view of religion and its relationship to morality, then give an analysis of it. Can a secular morality exert as strong a pull on our intuitions as a religiously based morality? If our commitment to morality is group based, how will we manage value conflict in an increasingly heterogeneous global culture?