Paper 3
How is an issue(s) of justice and/or fairness addressed in the texts of Unit 3 mirrored in contemporary culture today?
Possible ways of crafting a thesis statement:
- Identify a contemporary, contestable, specific issue/instance of injustice.
- Defend the justness of a contemporary, specific issue that is largely perceived as being unjust.
- Propose the abolition or modification of a specific law, policy, procedure, etc. that produces significant unjust effects.
- Defend a specific law, policy, procedure, etc. that is commonly thought to produce significant unjust effects.
- Advocate for a specific, effective, just way to mitigate the injustice caused by a specific law, policy, procedure, etc.
- Refute a specific, ineffective (and possibly unjust) way of mitigating the injustice caused by a specific law, policy, procedure, etc.
Related questions to consider:
- Who is being treated unjustly? Who is perceived (wrongly) to be treated unjustly?
- Where in society is the injustice occurring? Where in society is the injustice (wrongly perceived) thought to be occurring? Law/government, education, business, medicine, etc.? Which specific part of the government, the education system, etc.?
- What is a significant contributing cause of the injustice? What is perceived (wrongly) to be a contributing cause of injustice?
- How can the injustice be mitigated in some way? How should the injustice not be mitigated?
Paper 2
What is the/an American conception of equality? What should it be? What should it not be?
What is the/an American conception of individualism? What should it be? What should it not be?
How can equality foster individualism? How can equality hinder individualism?
How can individualism foster equality? How can individualism hinder equality?
How does Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” portray equality? What about individualism?
How does Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” portray equality? What about individualism?
How does Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” portray equality? What about individualism?
How does Hawthorne’s “The Artist of the Beautiful” portray equality? What about individualism?
Paper 1 (not all need to be addressed in the paper):
- From where does/should authority derive?
- Does an American citizen have a relationship with more than one type of authority? What should be done if multiple authorities are contradictory to one another?
- Does he/she deal with different types of authority differently?
- Should an American citizen ever be disobedient to authority? If so, in which circumstances? If not, why not?
- What makes an authority just? What makes an authority unjust?
- By what means should an American citizen exhibit disobedience? Is violence ever permissible when exhibiting disobedience? If so, when? If not, why?
- Do disobedient citizens deserve to be punished? Should they accept punishment?