Integrative Studies 250
Philosophy of Human Nature
Fall Quarter 2001

 
Andrew Mills' 
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Group Projects

A significant portion of your grade will be determined by your work on a group project. You will divide into groups near the beginning of the quarter, and it is expected that you will be working on these projects throughout the quarter. Periodically you will submit a report of your group’s progress to Prof. Mills. All of the projects will involve a written component, to be worked on collectively by the group. The final copy of the written component is due at the time of the presentation of the project. Groups will present their project to the class during Week X. It may be the case that some of the presentations take place outside of class before a wider college audience. Here is a list of the projects to choose from.

Debate Projects

Should Leopold & Loeb be hanged?

One half of your group will take up the role of the prosecution, and the other will take up the role of Clarence Darrow’s defense team. You may certainly make use of Darrow’s closing speech, but you shouldn’t think of this project as a dramatic presentation of that speech. Rather, you should think of this project as a "retrial" of Leopold and Loeb, where the question at issue is what their sentence should be. A debate over the death penalty The members of your group will divide into two sides and prepare a debate over the morality of the death penalty. The focus should be on the question of whether the death penalty is morally justifiable, not whether it is legally justifiable. A debate over the reality of free will Do human beings have free will? Enough free will, at any rate, in order to be justifiably held morally responsible for (at least some of) their actions? The members of your group will divide into two sides and prepare each side of this debate. A debate over the point of punishment: Therapy or Retribution Why should we punish people? Should the point of punishment be to treat and rehabilitate people so that they can ‘return to society’? Or should the point of punishment be to ‘pay them back’ for their crime, regardless of the effects that punishment may have on them? One half of the members of your group will argue for the therapeutic conception of punishment, and the other half will argue for the retributive theory of punishment Theatrical Projects

Stage a scene from "Never the Sinner"

"Never the Sinner" is a recent play based on the Leopold and Loeb case. Your group will pick a scene from this play, rehearse, and stage it. In addition to the performance element, your group will put together a brief paper (at least 1500 words) discussing the deeper philosophical meaning of the scene, so you should pick a scene that is "philosophically meaty". A copy of the play should be at the library, if not, you can get one from Prof. Mills Stage a scene from "Rope" Before it was a classic Hitchcock movie, "Rope" was a stage play, and your group will pick a scene from this play, rehearse, and stage it. In addition to the performance element, your group will put together a brief paper (at least 1500 words) discussing the deeper philosophical meaning of the scene, so you should pick a scene that is "philosophically meaty". A copy of the play should be at the library, if not, you can get one from Prof. Mills Stage a scene from "The Sea Wolf" Select a scene from "The Sea Wolf" and stage it. There is no play, so your group will have to adapt a scene from the novel. Feel free to exercise some license with your staging of the play—if you want to rearrange some speeches, feel free, but do use your best judgment and stay true to the spirit of the characters and story. In addition to the performance element, your group will put together a brief paper (at least 1500 words) discussing the deeper philosophical meaning of the scene, so you should pick a scene that is "philosophically meaty". Web Page Projects

Each of these projects centers around the construction of a web page, so at least one member of your group should be competent at building web pages. The visual appearance of the web page matters, but so does the content. Think of the web page as a pedagogical aide: the focus of your page should be on educating the reader. You should also provide links to other pages on the internet that are relevant. Here are some topics for web pages

The philosophy of Nietzsche. What is his view of the "Superman" or "Ubermensch"? How has Nietzsche been interpreted? Did Leopold & Loeb (and the characters in Rope, and in Compulsion and Wolf Larsen) get him right?

The death penalty. There has been much discussion of the death penalty in the wake of the Timothy McVeigh execution, so there should be a lot of material on the web to draw from. Your site can advocate a position or survey various positions.

Free will. Put yourselves in the role of teachers. What would you put on a web page to teach other people about the debate over free will, and the possible solutions to it? You can advocate a position, or you can treat the page as a survey of various positions people have taken with respect to the question of free will.

The debate over the unnaturalness of homosexuality. The media has been rife with views on the morality of homosexuality. You can focus your site on the issue we will be dealing with—whether there are good arguments for thinking that homosexuality is "unnatural"—or you can focus on some other aspect of this question. Your group can certainly take a position on this site, but the focus should not be on a discussion of the moral and philosophical issues surrounding this topic.