Paper 2 Prompts

1. There are obviously connections between Darwin, Nietzsche and Freud with regards some of their ideas. Think about the similarities and differences with regards one of the following topics; their view of human nature; civilization as domesticating humankind; punishment; the origin of guilt, conscience and moral sentiment; the origin and function of organized religion.  Be careful not to write a paper that merely summarizes their various views – aim to synthesize, complicate and/or illuminate. Above all, take a stance on the ideas.
2. How artificial is human existence? How natural? Discuss using Darwin, Huxley, Nietzsche and/or Freud. Be careful to argue from texts rather than just writing an opinion piece. Be sure and complete the Huxley reading to the very end.
3. Answer Einstein's question: "Is it possible to control man's mental evolution so as to make him proof against the psychosis of hate and destructiveness?"
4. Develop your own paper using any combination of the following; Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud, and Huxley.

Remember, these are prompts to get you thinking about your thesis (argument) for the first paper. They are not theses that you can defend. As before, see here for guidelines on how to move from a prompt to a paper.

While the papers are to be grounded in discussion of the texts we have read so far this semester, you can use works read in HON 171 and the early part of this course as needed. The only requirement is that you concentrate on the works mentioned above.

The paper is worth 30% of your final grade and should be 1500 to 1750 words in length and no longer. Your paper must present a clearly organized and persuasive argument relating to the material we have read. You must develop an opinion about the work and use evidence from the text to substantiate your claims. As this course aims to have you think critically about primary sources, i.e. our assigned readings, no secondary material may be utilized in your papers, as you are being judged on the quality of your ideas, the form in which you present those ideas, and your use of textual evidence.

Formatting requirements:

• 12-point font
• Double spaced
• No need for a title page, title, or running header. I will identify your paper from your last name.

Some easy ways to lose grade points on a paper:

• Submission of a paper that is above the length requirement loses one letter grade.
• Submission of a paper that is below the length requirement will result in failure of the
  assignment (0%).
• Excessive grammatical and spelling errors (including misspelling author names, places or
  the title of works) will be punished to varying degrees depending on severity.
• Late papers will not be accepted and will receive an automatic zero grade (0%). Papers submitted via the "Digital Dropbox" will not be accepted.