Paper 1
Paper 1
Interpretation and Analysis
Contemporary Philosophy
Due Monday March 6
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Assignment: Please respond to one of the following prompts in a 1-2 page, double spaced paper. The interpretative paper asks that you develop a close reading of one text we have studied, focusing on the details of the author's argument. Provide at least one quotation as evidence to support your interpretation. (15 points).
(1) In Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre claims that “existence precedes essence.” What is your understanding of this position? What are the conditions of this existence, understood as a free project?
(2) In the Ethics of Ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir claims that the ambiguity that defines the human condition is that we are both “subject” and “object.” What does she mean by subjectivity and objectivity, and how is this understanding a part of authentic ethics?
(3) In “What is Metaphysics?” Martin Heidegger argues that our understanding of “beings” is structured by our fundamental attunement in the world. What are the key structures of this attunement, and how do they reveal beings?