Philosophical essay
Topics for Paper #2:
Below are 4 possible paper topics. Pick just one as the subject of your paper and write a short philosophical essay on it (see the philosophical writing guide in Unit One for helpful writing tips.) Your essay should be argumentative, and your conclusion should be announced somewhere near the beginning of your paper.
1. In Book I of his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that the highest human good must be both complete and self-sufficient. Define each condition carefully. What, specifically, do each of these standards mean? How can we be sure that a good that meets both conditions is the highest human good? Is it possible for a good to meet both conditions yet fail to be the highest human good? Explain.
2. Aristotle believes that when things are fulfilling their function well, they are “good” and achieve the “excellence” proper to the sort of thing they are. For example, a knife may be either good or bad. It is good if it has the excellence of cutting well, because cutting is the function of a knife. So, a knife that cuts well is a good knife. This is easy to determine in the case of things (artifacts), but it sounds odd to ask what the function of a human being is. How does Aristotle go about determining and assessing the function of a human being? (Hint: Be sure to consider the kind of being a human is. How are humans different from plants and animals? What are their most basic natural capacities?)
3. In his “Letter to Menoeceus,” Epicurus argues that death is not bad for the one who dies. (It may be bad for other people, but Epicurus is not here concerned with that case.) What is Epicurus’ argument for that conclusion? Give his specific reasons for thinking that death is not bad for the one who dies. Set these out as clearly as you can. Then, when you have done that, try to formulate a criticism of this argument: take up the position of someone who thinks that death can be bad for the one who dies, and try to figure out where (if anywhere) in his argument Epicurus went wrong. (Tip: Try to think of a case where being dead is bad for the one who dies, then explain how that shows Epicurus’ argument to be flawed if indeed it is.)
4. Having established that he exists, Descartes remarks in Meditation II (AT 25), “But I do not yet know sufficiently clearly what I am …” What does he decide he is and how? As carefully as you can, reconstruct Descartes’ arguments for his conclusion. Do you think that Descartes is right? Do you think that all persons can be reduced to the description Descartes gives?
