Argument Topics:
Possible Source(s):
For this paper, I would like you to avoid secondary sources. You may use the
primary readings in the textbook and any other primary sources.
Format/Structure:
· The majority of the paper should be your argument (60-80% of the paper body) and only a minority should be other people’s views (20-40% of the paper’s body).
· Paper format should follow all other standard college practices: typed, double-spaced, 12 point New Times Roman, citations within the text, work cited page, appropriate margins.
· Paper length = 5-6 pages. For further paper help, see my website/course packet or ask me.
1) Does the human person possess a soul?
2) What is the nature of the soul?
3) What is the proper relationship between one’s reason and one’s desires and/or emotions?
4) What is the ultimate goal of human life? (i.e. happiness, pleasure, good, freedom, honor, etc.)
5) What is moral virtue and how does it relate to the ultimate goal of human life?
6) Is there a purpose for human suffering and if so, what is it?
7) In loving a friend, do we love our own self or our own good?
8) What is love?
9) Is love or compassion truly possible given our own desires and limitations?
10) How is the love between friends the same and/or different from the love between sexual partners?
11) Is pleasure necessary and/or sufficient for real human happiness?
1) Do we truly possess free will?
2) Is only a virtuous person free?
3) Do worldly circumstances affect a person’s moral worth and/or moral success?
4) What is the nature of evil? Is evil a lack (privation) of being?
5) If God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent, how can real evil also exist?
6) Is there a truth? What is truth?
7) Does our belief or knowledge of truth require a belief in the existence of God?
8) Does every action aim or will some good?
9) What is human nature?
10) Are all natural human inclinations good? If not, how might we distinguish between those good natural inclinations and evil ones?
11) How can I be sure I am not dreaming right now?
12) How can I judge the truth of my perceptions?
13) If the body and the soul are opposites in nature, how can they co-exist in one being?
14) Is sympathy or sentiment an inborn, universal human trait?
15) Is utility the determining factor in what makes an action morally good?
16) How ought we determine what is morally good or morally evil?
17) Does capitalism necessarily cause alienation?
18) Is capitalism based on the creation and maintenance of false needs?
19) Does the owning of private property work against the good of one’s society or the ultimate good of one as an individual person?
20) Is human nature fundamentally good, fundamentally evil or both?
21) Does the unconscious truly exist? If so, provide a justification for our belief that is does exist and has some power over us?
22) Are human beings primarily motivated or even solely motivated by unconscious wishes and desires? If so, why and how do we know this to be the case?
23) In what sense can a child’s desires and activities be construed as sexual or erotic?
24) What is our essence? Do we create our own essence through our own choices and actions? If we accept the view that one’s essence is self-created, what are some implications of this proposition?
25) When I make a choice (i.e. marriage), am I saying that all humans should choose this?
26) Is it being inconsistent to use one’s freedom in order to restrict the freedom of others?
27) If there is no God, is there any basis for judging ultimately whether our choices are morally right (good) or morally wrong (evil)?
28) Is human moral worth independent of or dependent on human existence and/or experience?
29) Do we deny our true freedom when we accept any absolute, transcendent and/or objective moral values other than freedom itself?
30) Is freedom the ultimate value and/or goal of human life?
31) Is it morally wrong to deny one’s utter or radical freedom?
32) Can I will my own freedom without willing the freedom of others?
33) Do objects or even people have value insofar as we, as free subjects, choose to value them?
34) Could a mind (a nonphysical, noncorporeal faculty) have resulted solely from a biological and/or biochemical evolutionary process?
35) Are all actions completely determined by one’s heredity and environment?
36) Is human nature essentially a biological phenomenon?
37) Is human altruism essentially the same as animal altruism?
38) Is the any evidence to suggest that morality has its origins in the purely genetic or biological?
39) Is one justified in believing that a moral conscience exists and on what basis can we say that each person possesses this “moral law within”?
Philip M. Fortier, M.A. (1997-2005)