Questions for Laramie Project

UPDATE 2: Your grades are available here; you'll need your student ID to find your grade. I'll keep this thread open for one more week so that those of you who haven't completed your responses can do so.

UPDATE: Great job of discussing question 1, everyone. I think we've articulated most of the arguments, at this point, so if you're posting your response now , please respond to question 2.

Please post your response to one of the questions below by Saturday, November 7, at 8 a.m. Then respond to 2 of your colleagues by Tuesday, November 10 at 8 a.m. Your comments should be substantive and thoughtful. Try to elaborate on your ideas, and explain why you think about things the way you do.

1. Many people were particularly upset that Matthew Sheperd was murdered because he was gay. Do you think there's something particularly bad about crime when it's aimed at someone because of their inherent characteristics (like their race, ethnicity, gender) rather than, say, because you got in a fight over something with them? Why or why not?
2. One of the characters mentions that he thinks the men who committed the crime should be our teachers - that we should learn from them why they reacted the way they did and had the ideas they had. What ideas and assumptions do you think they had, that made them react the way they did to Matthew?

If you missed watching the movie in class, you can get it from the library: The Laramie Project
image published by Xnatedawgx under a creative commons attribution/share alike license

Term Paper 2: Nicomachean Ethics

Here's the link to your second term paper assignment. Let me know if you have questions as you're working on it, and have fun! (I know, I know.)

Your paper is due on Thursday, October 29. I'll give you the take-home midterm that Thursday, as well.

Discussion Questions

Please post a comment on one of the questions below. Post your answer by Saturday morning at 8 a.m.

Please respond to two of your colleagues by Tuesday morning at 8 a.m.

Make sure your answers are substantive and that you've given them plenty of thought, and elaborate on your answers. Good answers will be at least two generous paragraphs long.

1. Do you think Father Gabriel showed courage in the movie? What do you think made him courageous, or not? Do you think Father Rodrigo (Mendoza) showed courage? What do you think made him courageous?
2. Do you think violence is ever an appropriate response? Why or why not? What did you think about the divisions over the use of violence in response to the closing of the missions in the movie?
3. Do you think Cardinal Altamirano ought to have refused to carry out the terms of the treaty? What would it have accomplished? Does it matter that it wouldn't have stopped the closing of the missions? Why or why not?
4. The Waunana Indians of Columbia portrayed the Guarani in the film; rather than paying them individually for their roles, the director arranged to fund a trust for the entire village (the trust was used, in part, to lobby the government of Columbia for certain land rights for that group). Do you think that arrangement is at all problematic? Would you imagine Roland Joffe sugggesting that he fund a trust for the city of New York, in lieu of paying Robert DeNiro for his work?
   

Plato Assignment

Your assignment for this weekend is to make your own quiz on the Euthyphro. Here are the instructions; turn in your quiz on Tuesday, October 6. Have fun!

Email me with questions.

(That's a 19th Century bust of Socrates on the left)

Updated Link to Forum Grades

Here's the link to the updated PDF of your forum grades.

For privacy, you'll need your student ID number to locate your grades.

Don't forget to go to WebAdvisor and correct your email address if you didn't receive the email from me last night.

If you'd like to improve your grade, you can add to what you've already posted for additional points. If you contacted me earlier about difficulties posting, don't worry, you can still post for full credit.

I'll hold the comments open until this coming Sunday at midnight.

Term Paper 1: Moral Relativism

The forum discussion for The Handmaid's Tale is immediately below this post; scroll down if you can't see it.

Here is a link to a pdf of your first term paper, on Moral Relativism. You won't be able to answer the questions until we've covered relativism in class, but if you'd like to look at it now so that you have it in your head while we discuss relativism, please feel free.

Forum Discussion 1: The Handmaid's Tale

Think about the questions below for a few minutes, at least, before answering. Give a thoughtful, detailed answer to one of the questions below. Explain your reasoning in some detail. Give two thoughtful, detailed responses to your colleagues.

Your discussion contributions should all be posted by midnight on Sunday, September 6.

1. One thing that stands out for a lot of people is the fact that the people running the handmaid's program are all women. What motivations do you think those women might have? Why would they work so hard to maintain the program and indoctrinate other women?
2. Imagine that it's ten years later in the world of the film, and the government has succeeded in suppressing the rebels. Their program of re-education has been very successful, so that a very large majority of the population, including the handmaids, accept and even support the program. Would there be anything wrong with it? Why or why not?
3. Kate believes that she has a moral imperative to try to escape and raise her child in freedom, even though attempting escape is extremely risky, with a strong chance that she'll be killed (and the fetus along with her). Why do you think she believes the risk is worth it? Do you agree or disagree? Say why in detail.