Bonus points in this class are cumulative and are tenths of a point toward your final course grade. So when I compute grades, 12 is an A+, 11 an A, 10 an A-, 9 a B+, down to 0 for an E. So for example, you need 9.5 for an A- (halfway between B+ which is 9 and A- which is 10). If you ended up with 9.0 and then earned 5 bonus points over the semester, you would earn the A- as a course grade.
The first bonus option is somewhat self-serving but also relevant to the course. I’m working on revising an article for The Journal of Ecumenical Studies, a special issue on Global Ethics. It’s based on talks given at the University of Chicago last spring. What I have now is the talk I gave, and I’m revising it for publication this weekend. The audience for this journal is not primarily professional philosophers, and it’s based on conference talks, so it is less technical and more informal than an article for a philosophy journal would be. The audience is therefore more similar to people like you, people with some philosophical training, but not professional philosophers. (Probably most readers are in religion and theology.) Link to the article.
This is an article that relates to themes in the first few chapters (especially chapter 4) in Walzer where he tries to establish the moral basis of nation-states, so it could be helpful to you in that way. I think it’s written in an easy-to-understand form because it was originally a talk, but you be the judge of that.
Anyway, I welcome your criticisms and suggestions, and you can get a few bonus points if you make helpful comments. The sooner the better because it’s due from me next week (sound familiar?).