You are to write a response of no more than 500 words on one of the essay topics below. Essays that are either too short or too long by approximately 20 words will be penalized. Essays should be double-spaced in 12 pt Times New Roman font. The assignment is due on blackboard on April 11 at 11:59pm. All essays should be in .docx or .doc format WITH YOUR LAST NAME AS THE TITLE OF THE FILE. Late essays will receive a 2% deduction per day from the final essay grade. Essays will be sent through the Safe Assign anti-plagiarism application.

The essay is meant to be a short, focused analysis of part of the assigned readings. It should have the following structure:

Paragraph 1: Introduction, including an underlined thesis statement—that is, an answer to the essay question.
Paragraph 2: Explanation. What is going on? A brief outline of the issue you are assessing as stated in the text. In other words, you are presenting the position of the philosopher or writer whom you are discussing as precisely as possible, with reference to the reading.
Paragraph 3: Argument. Based on the information presented in Paragraph 2, the argument paragraph answers the essay question and establishes your thesis (My thesis is correct because . . . ).
Paragraph 4: Objection/Problem. Two possibilities. (1) Raise an objection to your thesis and answer it (anticipating and responding to an objection strengthens your argument. OR (2) Introduce a remaining problem or issue that the essay analysis suggests or uncovers.
Paragraph 5: Conclusion. A brief conclusion summarizing your findings. If you do not have space for this, you can try and wrap things up in Paragraph 4.
ESSAY QUESTIONS: YOUR THESIS NEEDS TO ANSWER THE QUESTION THAT YOU CHOOSE:

1. What is Virginia Held’s point about vulnerability and its importance for morality (Section IV, pp. 1019-21)? How does it solve the dilemma between “the unreal universality of all, or the real self of individual interest” given to us by traditional (i.e., ‘male-oriented’) moral theories?

2. How, according to Iris Marion Young, is a social group different from an aggregate or a voluntary association (p. 1060)? What does this have to do with her concept of oppression? (i.e., the new concept of oppression, as opposed to discrimination)

3. In Ch. 2 of Are Prisons Obsolete? Angela Davis says that prisons were “generally viewed as a progressive reform” when they were first introduced in 19th century in the United States (pp. 26-7). What does she mean by this? How does it relate to her claim that the prison system quickly became “a means of controlling black labor” after the end of the Civil War (p. 31)?

4. “Whiteness”, Charles Mills writes, “is not really a color at all, but a set of power relations” (p. 127). What does he mean by this? What does it have to do with his claim that the “‘Racial Contract’ voluntarizes race in the same way that the social contract voluntarizes the creation of society and the state” (p. 126)?