Hey everyone,

I have a final due for my Philosophy class on the topic of moral Philosophy.

First I have to construct a deductive moral argument.

Format:
P1: General Moral Principle
P2: Claim that the action or type of action at issue is correctly described by P1.
C: Judgement about the morality of the action or type of action at issue

Example:
P1: Any act of racial genocide is morally wrong.
P2: The **** extermination of racial minorities during WWII was an act of racial genocide.
C: The **** extermination of racial minorities during WWII was morally wrong.

I understand how to formulate an argument, but I am supposed to write a 2-3 page paper using this format... the problem being that I was instructed as follows "Don't write it like an English paper because this is a Philosophy class, I don't care about MLA format."

I have yet to find an example of a paper using this format...

 

i think what your professor is looking for is a term paper, like for a history or a sociology class... dont worry about semantics and all that other crap, load your pargraphs with the premises and subpremises, and concrete explanations of the premesis, along with examples?

using your example, here is the thought process i would work with...

P1: Any act of racial genocide is morally wrong.
-be specific in defining the above premise
-give an example in history in which racial genocide is widely known to be wrong
-explain how your historical example justifies the above premise
P2: The **** extermination of racial minorities during WWII was an act of racial genocide.
-be specific in your meaning of the above premise
-in as much detail as possible explain how the **** example is in fact an example of racial genocide
C: The **** extermination of racial minorities during WWII was morally wrong.
-go into detail to mesh it all together (bring both premises together)... ie explain just how your to premesis lead to the conclusion... and justify your conclusion

 

He used Capital Punishment as an example in class and said "Don't talk about the 'issue' of Capital Punishment"

 

make sure you explain that true morality can only exist in a world with God if you want an A lol

 

if you cant talk about the issue then use historical examples to justify your conclusion? (that is, i suppose, if you think capital punishment is morally permissible)

 

Hahaha... yeah about that...

 

Ohhh... gotcha. I wish my professor could have explained it like that. We haven't had a paper in the class or ever talked about how to write a paper.

Thanks for the help... I'll buy you a beer if I ever meet you.