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PHIL1032/PHIX1032 HAPPINESS, GOODNESS, AND JUSTICE
SESSION 2 2021
TASK 4: CRITICAL ESSAY
LENGTH: 1500 WORDS (10% leeway: 1350 – 1650 words)
WEIGHTING: 40%
DUE: SUNDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2021, 23:59 via Turnitin
Penalties:
• If your essay exceeds the word count, it will be penalized.
• If you
each the University’s policy on academic integrity, you may be reported to the
Faculty’s Disciplinary Committee.
• Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for
lateness will apply – ten (10) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments
submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7)
days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline.
Extension requests: All extension requests should be submitted as requests for Special
Consideration via ask.mq.edu.au, prior to the submission deadline. You will need to show that you
have legitimate grounds for seeking an extension (see the Special Considerations policy link in the
Unit Guide), and may be required to provide supporting documentation.
Questions and Queries: please post your questions or queries in the Assessments Forum on iLearn.
One of the teaching team will respond as soon as they can.
General Instructions:
1. DO NOT WRITE YOUR NAME on your assessment, as either your file name or on your essay.
Only include your student number as an identifier. This is because the essays will be
anonymously marked.
2. Please use your student number and question number as the file name (e.g. 48654123_Q4).
3. Do not include a cover page. Simply put your student number at the top of the first page, put
your title, and proceed with your essay.
4. All assignments must be submitted online via Turnitin. You can only submit once.
5. Research: in addition to relevant texts from the course readings, in your essay you should use
and refer to roughly 2 to 3 further pieces of research.
6. Referencing: You can use any Arts/Humanities style, such as the Harvard, Chicago, or APA
styles, and you should be consistent. Your in-text citations should include page numbers.
Please do not use a numerical referencing style (such as the Vancouver style) that is used in the
Sciences.
file:
C:/Users/My%20Precious/Dropbox/Tutoring/PHIL1032%20all/2020%20S2%20PHIL1032/Assessments/ask.mq.edu.au
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7. Include a word count at the end. A qualitative marking ru
ic is included below. Your essay will
e graded against this ru
ic.
8. Please use size 12 font with 1.5 or double line spacing.
9. Finally, make sure you remain available via email after submission, in case there are technical
difficulties with your submission. If we cannot access your submission, we will be unable to
give you a grade.
Writing Instructions:
The aim of this assignment is to critically reflect on what you have learned in parts 2 and 3 of the
unit on the nature of morality and justice. Follow the 4 steps below in planning and composing your
essay.
1. You need to write a short introduction in which you identify the issue at hand and you
iefly
summarise in a sentence or two what you will be arguing. You should tell your reader what your
position will be and give an outline of how you will argue for your position.
2. The body of your essay should provide a discussion of what you take to be the most important
easons that can be given in favour of the claim you are arguing for, as well as a consideration of
some of the main objections that can be made to your claim. Your discussion should make explicit
eference to the theory that the claim relates to and to the relevant readings from the course.
3. You should also undertake and integrate into your essay some further relevant research. You
should use this research to help you to: understand the relevant issues and claims, highlight
elevant points in previous discussions of these issues, develop arguments in favour of your view,
develop objections to your view, or develop responses to objections to your view. You should use
appropriate academic peer-reviewed sources.
As a guide, in addition to relevant texts from the course readings, in your essay you should use and
efer to roughly 2 to 3 further pieces of research. You can use more sources if you wish. To get
started, have a look at the supplementary readings on Leganto and at the extra readings list. We
have also provided a lecture in Echo by li
arian Alana Hadfield, who shows you how to conduct
your own research.
4. You need to write a
ief conclusion in which you recapitulate what you have discussed in the
essay, and most importantly, what conclusion you came to. You need to reiterate strongly, in
simple words, whether you agree with the claim or not.
• There is a video on Echo that goes through the basics for writing a philosophy essay.
• In the Assessments section on iLearn, there are multiple writing and referencing guides.
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Task:
In a 1500-word essay, respond to ONE of the following:
1. “Divine Command Theory is a religiously grounded moral philosophy that undermines some
of the core tenets of religious belief.” Critically discuss and evaluate this statement.
2. The paradox of tolerance is that we must tolerate the intolerant. If we think that morality is
elative to our culture, can we judge the morality of other cultures? On what grounds can
we do so?
3. Choose two of the three theories of morality that are grounded in rationality (i.e. Social
Contract Theory, Utilitarianism, and Kantianism). In what way is each theory based on what
is rational, and what makes one theory more compelling than the other for determining
what is morally right?
4. Select a specific example of social injustice. Apply Rawls’ theory of justice to the example
and show the implications of your analysis for your chosen problem.
5. What do you think would be the most just approach for Australia to take with respect to
fixing or mitigating the problems caused by climate change – is it to adopt a historical
approach for determining what is just, or a forward-looking approach? Explain and give
easons to support your view.
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Qualitative Marking Ru
ic for Essays:
HD D C P F
Understanding
and Knowledge
Demonstrates a
deep and critical
understanding of
the text and
issues.
Demonstrates a
deep
understanding of
the text and
issues.
Demonstrates a
sound
understanding of
the text and
issues.
Demonstrates a
satisfactory
understanding of
the text and
issues.
Insufficient
evidence of a
satisfactory
understanding of
the relevant
issues.
Argument and
Critical Analysis
An excellent
argument and
deep critical
analysis of the
elevant text and
issues.
A very good
argument and
critical analysis
of the relevant
text and issues.
A clear argument
and critical
analysis of the
elevant text and
issues.
A satisfactory
argument and
critical analysis
of the relevant
text and issues.
A poorly stated
and defended
argument and
little or no
plausible critical
analysis.
Judgment and
Focus
Focuses on the
most important
issues to the
ight degree.
Focuses on
elevant issues
to the right
degree.
Mostly focuses
on relevant
issues to a
easonable
degree.
Reasonable
focus on the
elevant issues.
Inadequate focus
on the relevant
issues.
Additional
Research
Excellent use
and integration
of relevant
esearch;
excellent
selection of
appropriate
esearch.
Good use and
integration of
elevant
esearch; good
selection of
appropriate
esearch.
Satisfactory use
and integration
of relevant
esearch;
satisfactory
selection of
appropriate
esearch.
Adequate use
and integration
of relevant
esearch;
adequate
selection of
appropriate
esearch.
Poor use of
esearch; little or
no research
undertaken; uses
only i
elevant
esearch.
Referencing Co
ect
eferencing with
no e
ors.
Co
ect
eferencing with
very minor
e
ors or
shortcomings.
Co
ect
eferencing with
some minor
e
ors or
shortcomings.
Mostly co
ect
eferencing with
some minor
e
ors or
shortcomings.
Problematic or
inco
ect
eferencing.
Originality and
Creativity
Demonstrates
excellent
originality and
creativity.
Demonstrates
good originality
and creativity.
Demonstrates
satisfactory
originality and
creativity.
Demonstrates
minimal
originality and
creativity.
Demonstrates
negligible
originality and
creativity.
Communication Excellently and
clearly
communicated;
contains little to
no e
ors of
language.
Very clearly
communicated;
may contain a
few minor e
ors
of language.
Clearly
communicated;
may contain
some e
ors of
language.
Adequately
communicated;
may have a
number of e
ors
of language.
Poorly
communicated;
may contain
frequent and
serious e
ors of
language.
Length The co
ect
length.
About the
co
ect length.
Somewhat too
long or too
short.
Too long or too
short.
Significantly too
long or too
short.
please-read-this-before-starting-the-essay-a5tufovj.txt
The Topic chosen:
3. Choose two of the three theories of morality that are grounded in rationality (i.e. Social Contract Theory, Utilitarianism, and Kantianism).
In what way is each theory based on what is rational, and what makes one theory more compelling than the other for determining what is morally right?
- Please use philosophical tone in the essay
Readings for the essay:
. Mill, John Stuart. 2006.