For the final essay in this course, I would like to leave your choice of essay topic fairly open and give you an opportunity to select a work of children’s literature that you would like to write about and explore more deeply for its philosophical or ethical significance in relation to the philosophical topics we’ve already looked at, ideally.
Here is a list of the philosophical topics we have covered in this course, along with some suggestions for each one of other works of children’s literature that could be relevant to that topic:
- Socrates & The Examined Happy Life (Week 3) — Children’s Books by Roald Dahl
- Herd Morality & Personal Identity (Week 4) — The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
- Plato’s Moral Psychology (Week 5) — Meg’s maturation in A Wrinkle In Time
- Environmental Philosophy (Week 6) — The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
- Giving, Motherhood, and Feminist Phillosophy (Week 7) — Little Women
- The Ethics of Anthropomorphism (Week 9) — Peter Rabbit (and others stories) by Beatrix Potter, The Lion and The Mouse, Winnie The Pooh
- The Ethics of Imaginary Wars (Week 13) — Harry Potter, The Hunger Games
- Ethical Recognition of the Other and Addressing Prejudice Through Children’s Literature (Week 14) — The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
These are just suggestions and you are welcome to choose a children’s book that is not included above or that we have not so far mentioned in this course. You also do not have to limit yourself to the philosophical topics listed above; however, if you would like to analyze your chosen children’s book in terms of a philosophical or ethical topic we haven’t discussed, please check with me first. Email me your final essay topic proposal (including names and links to the texts your planning to use) no later than the last day of classes, if you want to get my feedback and approval before you have to start writing the essay.
What To Include:
- Clearly introduce in your opening paragraph the children’s book you’ve selected to write about and the particular philosophical or ethical framework you think would be relevant to a deeper understanding of the story. Mention any relevant philosophical or ethical texts or thinkers you plan to draw from in your analysis of the children’s story you’ve selected.
- Provide a short summary of the important plot points of the children’s book such that a reader of your essay who is not familiar with the children’s story you’ve selected would nevertheless be able to follow your analysis in the paper.
- Present your analysis of the philosophical or ethical significance of the children’s book as persuasively as you can by being specific with your claims and detailed in your breakdown of the story in terms of its ethics or philosophy.
- If your analysis shows that the children’s book is ethically or philosophically problematic, suggest a way this could be handled. E.g., could the story easily be re-written or revised to make it less problematic? Could parents read the story with their children but then have a critical discussion with their children about the story afterwards? Or are the problems with the story serious enough that it can’t be salvaged for contemporary readers/children?
- If your analysis shows that the children’s book has ethical or philosophical value, explain why this value is important for children today and what difference it could make.
- Overall, it should be clear to the reader of your essay what the children’s book you selected is about, what philosophical or ethical significance or meaning you believe it has, whether you think this significance is valuable or problematic, and whether you recommend the children’s book as something for others to read.
- In other words, the final project is a bit like a book review or a book report from a philosophical or ethical perspective