Advanced Philosophy
Each of two essays are to be about three, double spaced pages
(about 1000 words each) for a total of about 6 pages (about 2000 words)
NOTE BENE:
Essays are not mere collections of points. Be sure to develop the connections
between your points, making clear (1) what they collectively show; and (2) how
they address the topic you are writing about. Also, (3) if you quote (be sure
to use quotation marks) or closely paraphrase passages from the texts or
handouts, use parenthetical citations as follows: (Author, page #). (4) The
topics are about the readings and the issues in them. Get into the details,
issues and arguments of the readings.
1. Taylor allows that respect for difference can require
that different groups of people can be treated differently. How does he argue
for this claim? One might think that this is an unwarranted infringement on
liberty. Why might one think this?—In response to the to the problem of
possible bias from Aristotle to Mill, why did Rawls say liberty must be
completely equally distributed? In
response to the problem, Taylor, citing the philosopher Ronald Dworkin,
distinguishes two different conceptions of moral commitment. What are those
different conceptions of moral commitment? In what respect is either Taylor or
Dworkin in agreement with, or not in agreement with, any of Aristotle Kant,
Mill or Rawls. How does the difference between those two conceptions moral
commitment allow Taylor to defend the claim that different groups can be
treated differently? Yet Taylor also thinks that at some point liberalism
cannot accept the claim that “this is how we do things here “(Taylor p. 63).
Why does he think this?
2. Write an essay which develops, explains and connects the
points made in the following four quotes. (You are being asked to write an
essay, not to simply provide, in succession, brief expositions of the
individual quotations.) Take account of the relevant aspects of the broader
concerns of the respective author’s and connections between their views.
“It would be absurd to pretend that people ought to live as
if nothing whatever had been known before they came into [the world]…”(Mill, On Liberty, Chapter III, page 59).
“I believe there could not be thoughts in one mind if there
were no other thoughtful creatures with which the first shared a natural world”
(Davidson, 1st paragraph).
“The monological ideal seriously underestimates the place of
the dialogical in human life”(Taylor, p33).
“Narrative art has the power to make us see the lives of the
different with more than a casual tourist’s interest- …to see how circumstances
shape the lives those who share with us some general goals and projects; and we
see that circumstances shape people’s possibility of action but their
aspirations and desires, hopes and fears”(Nussbaum, 88).
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