Essay writing tips:
Intro:
- thesis
- Answer to the question
- Frame your arguments
- these could be case studies, these could be
- By the time get out of intro, know questions and how we are arguing the question.
- assume the marker is someone who did really well in this course
- don’t need to redefine stuff that seems ‘obvious’ unless it is asked to be ‘explicitly defined’ Body paragraphs:
- topic sentence/subthesis - should be a setnece
- Argumentation
- appeal to theory
- works of others
- case studies
- Mini conclusion - linking statement
- Acknowledge counter arguments and address these counter arguments.
- Be aware that you are not writing a discussion but more so arguing one particular point
- You could argue both sides but you need to make sure you are declaring that you are in the middle and provide rationale for why both are valid.
Conclusion:
- Reiterate thesis
- Synthesise arguments
fyi, your essay is gonna be compared to the standard to the other students taking the course:
Actual Ethics Gaming
Deontology:
- Rule based ethics:
- Can be broken up into
- Agent-centred - duty ethics
- Patient-centred - rights ethics A permission is something you can do but dont have to. An obligation is something you have to.
don’t do things that infringe on peoples human rights
Patient centred (rights ethics) → focus on the rights and wellbeing of the person affected by an action
- Status Based rights
- instrumental rights
Agent centred (duty ethics) - focuses on the duties and obligations of the person making the decision
- intent
- action
Rules don’t have to be actual laws but general principles that people should follow. Some actions are inherently good and some are inherently bad.
Kantian ethics
Categorical Imperatives:
- “Act only in acordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law”
- things that you think acceptable to do means that it is acceptable for everyone else to also do
- “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means”
- treat them not as a means to an end but as themselves - don’t exploit ppl
- every person has dignity
- “So act that your will can regard itself at the same time as making universal law through its maxims”
- “so act as if you were through your maxims a law making member of a kingdom of ends”
Contractualism
We have unspoken rules between us that there are things that we don’t do at each other and there are things we should do for each other:
- kinda similarly to the golden rule in christianity → treat others the way you want to be treated
We should do things that a reasonable person would not object.
Virtue Ethics
Eudaimonist theories:
- Aristotleans Virtue Ethics
Places emotion at the centre to the theoiess
The golden mean: the doctrine of the mean
- virtue can be found between two emotional extremes
agent neutral:
- we should all come to the same conclusion
Target-centred → virtue ethics
- we have that a target that we are trying to achieve
Agent -centred → virtue tethics