Project description:
1. Choose a *specific* topic for your comparison of the different notions of the common good in the two utopias you will analyze, i.e., the nature of labor, or the form of education, or the status of art, or the difference in the structure of government. Don’t attempt to combine all these! Your task is to show how a difference in the conception of a *particular* aspect of the utopia points to a more *general* difference in the conception of the common good, i.e., what constitutes the good of society as a whole.
2. Once you’ve chosen your precise topic, draft your outline focusing on a) the one or two *essential* elements of the difference (for ex., the one or two key differences in Plato’s and Morris’s respective conceptions of labor) and b) its larger significance in terms of what this difference says about the authors’ idea of justice or the common good.
3. With your outline and relevant citations at hand, draft a clear introduction which succinctly indicates: a) the main points you will be making, and b) what your critical evaluation (i.e., your thesis) will be.
4. Limit your essay to five pages. In the first four pages present the key aspects of your authors’ views on your particular topic — that is, the essential components that will frame your argument — and in the last page argue the argument itself (state your own critical perspective).