Written Assignment - Danger and Opportunity
Please complete a one page paper examining one of the following issues that you've learned about in this course:
1. Pointing to the tough realities, such as globalization, faced by one or two nations studied during throughout the course, explain what you think Richard Feinberg meant about how we attempt to solve problems when he said: "Sometimes I wonder if we put all the problems (of the world) on a circular board, all the proposed solutions on an outer wheel, and just spun away, and implemented each solution wherever it stopped on the wheel, whether we wouldn't do as well."
2. Albert Einstein said that unless we change our "modes of thinking" about political issues, we are headed toward "unparalleled catastrophe." Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Written Assignment - Response to Current Issues
Identify and describe a current issue (this could be a controversy or just an issue of importance) in American Government. Explain in 1-2 pages how one of the modern philosophers we've studied would respond to that issue.
USE JOHN RAWLS AS THE MODERN PHILOSOPHER FOR THIS PAPER
Rawls is the most historically recent political philosopher we study in this course, having just passed away in 2002. As a political philosopher, much of his focus is on justice. His primary argument is that "most reasonable principles of justice are those everyone would accept and agree to from a fair position." It is not uncommon for his philosophies to be applied to current issues, whether controversial or not. Arendt was presented the National Humanities Medal in 1999 by former President Bill Clinton who suggested Rawls had helped a generation of Americans restore their faith in democracy.