De Anza College Classical Ethics Reflection Paper

The assignment is to write a personal reflection paper on the selections from the Readings In Classical Ethics book we have been conducting a study of. Introduction

{Choose 7 of the following 9}

The Ethics of Stein

The Ethics of Plato

The Ethics of Aristotle

The Ethics of Epicurus

The Ethics of Seneca

The Ethics of Augustine

The Ethics of Kant

The Ethics of Mill

The Ethics of Manning

My [meaning your] Reflections on Ethics

Conclusion

The individual sections on “The Ethics of ____” will not be expected to be comprehensive in nature and thus do not require any outside research. I would simply like you to give a brief explanation of the ethics of the philosopher in question covering some of the basic issues we covered in class. How does this philosopher define happiness? What are some of the major pitfalls to attaining happiness for this philosopher? What issues need to be worked out or balances need to be maintained in order to attain happiness as defined by this philosopher?

A good thing to do with regard to these descriptions is to search for a one sentence thesis statement that describes each ethical theory. For example: “Mill’s theory seeks to bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest amount of people.” Start your section on each philosopher in this way and then delve into some of the other questions. Please do not make these descriptions into one long critique. For you really do not have the credibility to critique a philosopher until you demonstrate that you, at least to some extent, understand their thought.

I suggest you write the body of the paper first and then write the “My Reflections on Ethics” section afterwards. A good way to go about this is to simply answer the classical question of ethics (“How can I live the good and happy life?”) for yourself incorporating some of the ideas from the 7 philosophers you choose to write about in the main body of the paper. Then write a conclusion and, after everything else is done, write a short introduction to the paper.