Final Group Projects

Schedule of Parts and Due Dates

Friday July 26th

Decide on Groups and Provide a Short Discussion* of the Central Topics of Interest to the Group (5pts)

Friday August 2nd

Turn in General Plan for Project** (5pts)

Friday August 9th

Final Project Due (20pts)

 

*Short Discussion: This should be no more than a page and should be the product of discussions amongst all group members concerning which of the topics we have addressed so far would be of most interest to the group. Come up with three or four topics everyone could see working on for the final project, and discuss why each of these deserves further exploration.

I will look over these and get you feedback that will be designed to help you narrow your focus as we read through and discuss the Frankfurt text.

**General Plan for Project: This should be much more detailed than the short discussion. Here, I am looking for:

  1. A decision concerning the specific topic your group will be addressing, and why you have decided to focus on this topic.
  2. A discussion of how you plan to present the results of your work on the topic (essay, PowerPoint/Keynote/Prezi presentation, video of dramatic enactment, etc.) including why you think this medium (or these media) will be well suited to saying what you have to say.
  3. An indication of the division of responsibilities for producing the final product; i.e., who will be doing what over the course of the next week.
  4. An outline of your schedule for getting the work done.  

Guidelines for Final Project

  • Think about your audience. You want to show that you have been thinking about this topic, that you understand the challenges that arise when we take these questions seriously, and that you have identified and assessed some potentially productive ways of responding to these challenges. That is not all you want to show, however. You want to show your audience that they should be thinking about these things too. So, imagine your audience as being comprised of reasonably intelligent people who don’t know you personally, and who have never taken a course like this one. Don’t assume they are already interested in seeing how your project came out, or in hearing what you have to say on the topic. Accept the responsibility of making it clear to them why they should pay attention to what you are saying, or, at least, be sure to grab their attention in a way that will motivate them to continue engaging with what you are up to.
  •  Present the topic philosophically. While you might be interested in expressing yourself, in drawing attention to a problem, in exploring your own view, and/or in persuading your audience of something, none of these should be your primary objective. The primary objective is to consider the topic from the perspective of someone who desires to achieve a level of knowledge, understanding, or wisdom concerning some issue that has the following features:  it is important to a lot of different people, for a lot of different reasons; there are understandable differences of opinion on the issue; it is not ‘all the same’ whether we start with or reach some workable consensus, or, alternatively, break off the discussion and simply say that everyone has their own opinion.  If you treat the topic as one where anyone with any sense whatsoever is bound to see things exactly the way you do, then no matter how clear and persuasive your discussion is, and no matter how plausible your claims may be on other grounds, you will be failing at the central task of the project.
  • Approach the project systematically. This follows from the previous two points. If you identify your audience and think about how to engage them in a discussion of the importance of the topic, and of the difficulties in treating it in a straightforward and obvious way, this will require you to introduce some structure into the discussion. For example, you will need to identify the topic, indicate why it is an important one to think about, draw on what you take to be common sense or common knowledge concerning the topic, show where challenges present themselves, consider some of the ways we might address these challenges, and wrap things up in a way that is consistent with what you think you can accomplish at this stage in your own thinking about it. You don’t have to present your work in a way that draws explicit attention to your doing each of these, but it should be possible for someone like me, to look at the finished product and see where you are accomplishing each of these tasks.

 

 

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