Assignment Paper

1) choose one of the topics below:
1.In the 19th century Nietzsche claimed, “God is dead, he remains dead, and we killed him.” What are the
implications of this statement? Consider selfhood, morality and free will.
2.Write a comparative paper which explores Kierkegaard (grandfather of religious existentialism) and
Nietzsche (proto-type for atheistic existentialism).
3.Albert Camus wrote the Myth of Sisyphus which asks this: if life is absurd (which he claims it is) then
what makes life worth living? Explore Camus’ philosophy of absurdism and why we must still “imagine
Sisyphus happy.” (excerpt on blackboard).
4.John Locke states that property is a natural right of man. What is his main argument for suggesting this?
Karl Marx states that private property should be abolished. What is his main argument for suggesting this?
You may include contextual considerations in your response.
5.Immanuel Kant wrote a newspaper article “What is Enlightenment?” What is it? How does he define
freedom?
6.Discuss Heidegger’s phenomenology. What is the very basic difference between his phenomenology and
epistemology? Review Critchley’s blog post on Mineness, Being-in-the World, Thrownness, Anxiety and
Being toward Death and reconstruct Heidegger’s view of the human condition, meaning of life and purpose.
7.In particular psychology students: you could read Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontent and
write a paper on how Freud biologizes Nietzsche’s “Master-Slave” morality and “Will to Power” in his
exploration of suppressed desire.
8.Propose your own topic (must be approved and be a topic from our text-book – i.e.: feminism,
postcolonial theory or environmental philosophy).
2)Write a 900 word essay using at least one peer reviewed secondary source as well as original material.
3)*PAPER DETAILS AND POTENTIAL TOPICS
(Paper: MLA style: double space, font size 12 – times new roman, works cited page). Use the original text
and at least one other peer-reviewed secondary source. Sparknotes, Wikipedia or other non-scholarly
sources will result in a negative score.