Prompts
SENECA
Select one of Seneca’s letters that furnishes advice on a practical/moral problem and write an essay that explains the advice Seneca offers and applies it to a circumstance of contemporary relevance. For instance, you may wish to write about Seneca’s theory of fear (see Letter 13) and how to manage it in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. You may also cite passages from other letters that support your position.
KANT
Prompt One: Discuss Kant’s distinction in the Preface between logic, physics, and ethics as thoroughly as possible, in the terms Kant himself employs in the Groundwork. Be sure to explain why Kant draws these distinctions (and what this has to do with the statement of purpose for the work as a whole, which Kant gives us at 4:392).
Prompt Two: The opening pages of the first section of the Groundwork begin with an account of the good will. What (on Kant’s view) constitutes the goodness of the good will? Why does he think that the good will must be the locus of moral worth? And what role does the appeal to the good will play in the argument of Groundwork I? You should say something about where Kant doesn’t think moral worth is to be found. And your answer should address the distinction between acting out of duty (aus Pflicht) and acting out of inclination (aus Neigung), with Kant’s several examples and our discussion of them in view.
Prompt Three: It was said in class that the categorical imperative of morality cannot embody any of the particular features of human action (ends, motives, circumstances, consequences, and the like). Discuss this claim as fully as you can. Keep in mind what was said in the Preface to the Groundwork concerning a priori and a posteriori knowledge, and Kant’s insistence that the moral law must be applicable everywhere and at all times (it must be, in his own words, “universal” and “necessary”).
NOVALIS
Novalis’s Faith and Love can be read as an essay in the philosophy of moral education. Write an essay that considers several of its chief claims (about the French Revolution, the exemplary status of the king and the queen, the basis of political unity in fragment 36, etc.) from this point of view (i.e., as contributions to a theory of moral education).
