Phil 103 – The Committed Life
[ Spring 2013 ]


REFLECTION ASSIGNMENT

Details: 3-4 pp. length (typed, in 1.5 spacing*); value: 15 points. Submit in hard copy, not as an email attachment. If you refer to Abramson, use in-text citation such as (Abramson, p. xx), etc. ( * To get 1.5 spacing, select the text, hold down Ctrl and type ‘5’ .) 


Due: Monday, Feb. 18, by 1 p.m.  Deliver papers to my mailbox in CH 300.

Description: Both Plato and Aristotle propose a certain connection between the morality (or justice) of the individual on the one hand, and the political life of the community on the other. Describe this connection between individual morality and communal politics in each case, showing both the similarities (or shared assumptions) and the differences between the two ancient thinkers. Forced to choose, whose perspective on human nature and the ethics-politics relation do you agree with more, and why?  What about the ancient approach to ethics and politics in general -- is this still possible, or necessary, today?  Must we live with a demoralized politics and an apolitical ethics?