Week 3 Symposium [WLOs: 2, 3] [CLOs: 3, 4, 5]

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Video transcript can be accessed here.

In the Ancient Greek world (the world of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, often regarded as the birthplace of philosophy) a “symposium” was a banquet held after a meal, an “after party” of sorts that usually included drinking, dancing, recitals and engaging conversations on the topics of the day.

For our purposes in this course, the Symposium discussions will not involve dancing, recitals or a banquet, but they will provide food for thought on current ethical issues and direct application of the ethical theory discussed in each of these weeks.

It is almost impossible these days to turn on the news or log onto social media without encountering a controversy that cries out for ethical discussion. For these Symposium discussions, your instructor will choose a topic of current ethical interest and a resource associated with it for you to read or watch. Your task is to consider how the ethical theory of the week might be used to examine, understand or evaluate the issue.

This week, you will consider how deontology applies to a controversy, dilemma, event, or scenario selected by your instructor. It is a chance for you to discuss together the ethical issues and questions that it raises, your own response to those, and whether that aligns with or does not align with a deontological approach. The aim is not to simply assert your own view or to denigrate other views, but to identify, evaluate, and discuss the moral reasoning involved in addressing the chosen issue.

Your posts should remain focused on the ethical considerations, and at some point in your contribution you must specifically address the way someone with a deontological view would approach this issue by explaining and evaluating that approach.

If you have a position, you should strive to provide reasons in defense of that position.

When responding to peers, you should strive to first understand the reasons they are offering before challenging or critiquing those reasons. One good way of doing this is by summarizing their argument before offering a critique or evaluation.

You must post on at least two separate days, must include at least one substantial reply to a peer or to your instructor, and your posts should add up to at least 400 words.

Week 3 Symposium: Researcher’s Choice and Peer Review

To ensure that your initial post starts its own unique thread, do not reply to this post. Instead, please click the "Reply" link above this post.

Please read the description above and/or watch the video explaining the symposium and its requirements. If you are still unsure about how to proceed with the discussion, please contact your instructor.

This week, we will consider how a specific ethical theory applies to your final research topic.

This symposium is a chance for you to discuss together your final research topic, the ethical issues and questions that it raises, your own response to those, and whether that aligns with or does not align with a deontological approach. The aim is not to simply assert your own view or to denigrate other views, but to identify, evaluate, and discuss the moral reasoning involved in addressing your final research question and creating your thesis statement.

Your posts should remain focused on the ethical considerations, and at some point in your contribution, you must specifically address the way someone with a deontological view would approach your issue by explaining, evaluating, and defending that approach.

This is your chance to show your expertise on the topic you are researching for your final paper and identify a specific argument(thesis) associated with your topic. This is also a chance for you to receive and give peer review as a way for us to foster our learning as a community.

Be critical and be creative!

Your initial discussion has two parts.

In part one, you want to identify a thesis statement based on your ethical question that you are researching.

Please review this link for information on writing a philosophical thesis statement

https://www.messiah.edu/info/21534/resources/2493/how_to_write_a_philosophy_paper/2 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

In part two, you want to discuss how deontology applies to your topic as well as find a current event related to your topic.

Make sure to support your ideas with citations and references. In addition to the course materials, make sure to include at least 1 more academic, scholarly source.

Participation:

For this symposium, we are going to peer review each other’s thesis statements. Be sure to critique at least 2 posts, and try to respond to different students so that everybody has at least 2 critiques of his or her initial post and thesis. Base your critique off the following questions:

1. What is the thesis statement in this essay?

NOTE: if you have trouble identifying either the question/problem/issue or the thesis, be sure to concentrate on how to help the writer clarify the problem.

1. Provide general feedback to your partner. How did you react to the thesis? Does the thesis present a sound, logical argumentation? How could the thesis be rewritten to be more specific and philosophical?

When responding to peers, you should strive to first understand the reasons they are offering before challenging or critiquing those reasons. One good way of doing this is by summarizing their argument before offering a critique or evaluation.

You must post on at least two separate days, must include at least 2 substantial replies to peers, and your posts should add up to at least 400 words.