The Debate final will have two parts:
- Personal Philosophy Paper
- Wilderness Philosophy Quiz (Thoreau, Leopold, Carson, Blackfish, Arguments Against Environmentalism)
Debate class section.
We’ll debate three topics about wolves:
- the reintroduction of wolves is damaging to the economy of western states.
- the reintroduction of wolves is harmful to the environment and other animals.
- wolves should not receive protection from the federal government.
Ralph Waldo Emerson opened his essay Nature by asking:
Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?
Your assignment is to develop your own philosophy of insight and not tradition, to write your own philosophy. The assignment and presentation will be do the day of the final.
The assignment sheet is located here.
This week, we’ll be debating the use of drones for targeted killing by the United States. The two questions we’ll discuss are:
- Is the use of drones and targeted killing moral and/or legal?
- Does the drone program increase American security and/or reduce terrorism?
Study for your Chinese Philosophy Quiz!
It will cover:
- Confucius
- Taoism
- Mo Di
- Sun Tzu