How Religion Motivates People to Act Morally

Description of Assignment
The final paper will be due at the end of the course, during finals week, and should be between three and five double-spaced pages in length (not counting bibliography). I’m not going to penalize you if it’s a sentence or two over or under the page limit, but keep as close to the limit as you can.
Papers are due to me at 6 am on Monday, April 29th. Five points will be taken off for every day that they are late; at the end of the second full day late (so 6 am on Wednesday May 1st), I won’t be accepting any more papers. The paper should be submitted on Canvas in a word document (doc or docx), double-spaced, in a reasonable font size/style, with numbered pages, a bibliography or works cited page, and your full name clearly printed on the first page and included in the file name of the document.
In the paper you should take a position on one of the controversial ethical questions that I list below, and construct an argument to defend that position. You may write on a topic other than the ones I’ve provided, if (a) it is something we covered in class, and (b) you discuss your paper ideas with me ahead of time and receive my permission to write on that topic.
This is not a “research” paper. You do not need to read and reference any philosophical works beyond those from the assigned class readings. However, I am not going to forbid anyone from exploring readings relevant to their topic, beyond those assigned in class. This could include other readings in either of the textbooks that I didn’t assign, other philosophy books/papers available in the library or online, or philosophy encyclopedias and other reference materials. Typically, these additional works should just be used to supplement your treatment of the assigned readings. You are on your own in finding additional readings (a good place to start would be the “Suggestions for Further Reading” section at the end of FOE, and the works cited at the end of each chapter).
There are two additional works that many of you might find helpful for background info/context:
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato(dot)stanford(dot)edu/
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www(dot)iep(dot)utm(dot)edu/
Paper Topic Questions
1. Is it true that religion is needed to get us to do our duty? If so, how might religion motivate people to behave morally? Is this kind of motivation problematic? Why or why not?
2. Suppose that most animals behaved a certain way. Would that provide some evidence that it is natural for us to follow their lead? And is “human nature” in that sense relevant to human morality?
3. If you had the chance to enter Nozick’s “experience machine” for the rest of your life, would you do it? Why might the idea of the experience machine pose a challenge for hedonism? Is the challenge successful? Why or why not?
4. Which utilitarian reply to the problem of injustice do you think is the most promising? Is it ultimately successful? Why or why not?
5. Do you think that there are any absolute moral rules? If not, why not? If so, what are they, and how can their absolute status be defended against the utilitarian view that the ends justify the means?
6. Why does the existence of fanatics pose a challenge to Kant’s moral theory? How do you think that the Kantian should respond?
7. What in your opinion is the strongest argument against Kant’s Principle of Humanity? Is it successful? Why or why not?
8. If rationality and autonomy explain why we are as important as we are, how (if at all) can we explain the moral importance of infants and non-human animals?
9. Is it immoral to be a free rider? Is it irrational? Does the existence of free riders raise a serious problem for contractarianism? Why or why not?
10. What is the priority problem for virtue ethics? Do you think the virtue ethicist has an adequate reply to this problem?
Note: Whether a given question from the list below is available as a paper topic depends on whether I ultimately decide to cover that topic in the last three weeks of class (I’m going to make a final decision on which topics to cover very soon, in part based on your feedback). If I decide to replace either abortion or gun control with a different topic, I will provide at least one paper question for that topic.
11. Is the fetus a person? Does it ultimately matter for the purposes of determining whether abortion is morally permissible or not?
12. Choose one (one!) article on abortion from the following list: (a) Thomson, (b) Marquis, (c) Warren. Closely examine and critically evaluate the argument. Is it successful?
13. Choose either the article by McMahan or the article by Huemer on the issue of gun control. Provide a close examination and critical assessment of this argument: is it successful? Why or why not?