Please choose one of the following questions to answer. Please type out the question you are answering at the top of your paper. The paper should be 2,000-to-2,400 words and is due during session 25.
- In Dennett’s “Where Am I?,” Dennett describes a scenario where Hamlet (Dennett’s body) is in Oklahoma, while Yorick (Dennett’s brain) is in Texas. Where is Dennett? Defend what you take to be the best answer to this question. What worries does Dennett raise for your answer and how might you respond to them?
- What is Wolf’s account of a meaningful life and why does she think we ought to pursue lives that are meaningful? Taking for granted Wolf’s account about what a meaningful life is, is she right that we ought to pursue such lives, and is she right about the reason we ought to pursue such lives? Raise and address an objection to your answer.
- In “The Afterlife,” Scheffler argues that our capacity to value many present activities is dependent on our faith in a collective afterlife: the survival and flourishing of humanity after we die. Reconstruct and evaluate his arguments for this claim. Has Scheffler shown that we should care about the survival of our species in the way we care about our own survival? Raise and address an objection to your answer.
- According to Haslanger, races and genders are social kinds that should be understood as social positions within hierarchical societies. What is Haslanger’s motivation for adopting this view? Do you think this is the way we should be thinking of races and genders (feel free to focus on just race or just gender if you wish) or is an alternative view more plausible? Raise and address an objection to your answer.
- If you’d like to write about something else, please consult with your TA.