Philosophy 361		Ethics		Darwall		Fall 1997

FIRST PAPER ASSIGNMENT

	Write a 1000 to 1500 word (4 to 6 typewritten or wordprocessed page) essay 
on one of the topics below.  They should be turned in at the beginning of lecture on 
Monday, October 6.  

	Please bear in mind in writing that the virtues of a philosophy paper are 
clarity, depth of analysis and critical questioning, judicious consideration of 
arguments, and logical organization.  Be sensitive to such questions as:  Are my 
claims clear?  Are my arguments clear?  Am I being fair to opposing views and 
adequately appreciative of what might be said in response to my claims and 
arguments?  Also, when you make claims about a philosopher we have read, make 
sure that you support your interpretation with specific references to the text.

	Also, academic integrity requires that you clearly acknowledge and reference 
ideas you have derived from others.  Especially when you take a specific formulation 
of a point from a text, it is necessary to make that clear with quotation.

	1. Does (or can) Mill successfully defend his claims that some pleasures are 
intrinsically more valuable than others owing to their quality on empirical grounds?  
Or is it impossible for Mill to defend this claim without falling into some version of 
the intuitionism he says he wants to avoid? 
	2.  In Chapter III, Mill considers the question of what, according to 
utilitarianism, makes morality binding.  Write an essay in which you critically 
evaluate Mill's aims and arguments in Chapter III.  What exactly is Mill trying to 
show, and how successful is he?
	3.  Mill talks in Chapter II about "a sense of dignity" (II.6)  Write an essay in 
which you consider what Mill means by this, how it fits into his theory of the good, 
and how it affects (or should affect) his utilitarianism more generally.  For example, 
what implications might it have for what Mill argues in Chapters III and/or V?
	4.  Describe a case where doctor-assisted suicide might seem justifiable 
according to AU.  Then analyze the case according to RU, showing the relevance of 
Rawls’s distinction between the “practice” and “summary” conceptions of rules.  
Critically discuss these two analyses.  Which do you find more compelling and why?  
Which seems truest to utilitarianism?
	5.  Mill also wrote On Liberty and The Subjection of Women (electronic texts 
available on the web page).  If you like, you may write something that draws 
together and critically evaluates what Mill argues in either of those works with what 
he says in Utilitarianism.  Please clear your ideas more specifically with me.