Houston Community College System Philosophy Discussion

1. Choose a news story involving an individual faced with an ethical decision. Include a link to the
news story at the top of your first page.
2. Summarize the situation, the available choices, and the consequences of those choices. Based on
your chosen news story, identify the person making a choice, the options that person had available to
them, and the potential consequences of those possible choices. You should also make it clear what
choice the person actually made and what the consequences of that choice have been.
3. Take a position. In other words, make a choice. Explain what you would have done in that person’s
position. You are free to agree or disagree with the choice that was actually made.
4. Justify that choice with rational arguments. In other words, explain why you would make that
choice.
5. Include significant references to at least two thinkers discussed in class (from Unit 1 or Unit 2).
These references can be used in any part of the paper and should demonstrate thoughtful engagement
with the philosophers and ideas encountered in this course. In other words, this should be more than
using two random quotes from philosophers. You could use references to different philosophers to
explain your choice (For example, “I would have chosen to do _________ because I agree with Plato
that __________.”). You could use these references when you outline the possible choices a person
could have made (For example, “The person in this news story could have taken an Epicurean
approach and done_________”, or, “Someone following virtue theory would choose to _________
because…”).