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1) Explain how the democratic theory of civil disobedience is different from the liberal theory of civil disobedience

Sociology

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1) Explain how the democratic theory of civil disobedience is different from the liberal theory of civil disobedience. In your view, does one of these theories better describe the kind of civil disobedience involved in the paradigm cases of civil disobedience?

2) Is whistleblowing a form of civil disobedience, or is it something altogether different? Consider the exchange between Scheuerman and Brownlee in your answer.

3) Explain Butler’s proposal for racially-based jury nullification. Do you think that jury nullification can show ‘fidelity to law’ or ‘respect for law’?

Aim to develop one or two critical points in detail (taking up roughly 30-50% of your essay), rather than many different critical points. Some notes about paper format:

1) Your paper should have a short introduction (explaining your thesis). A conclusion is not necessary, though you may include one if you think it helps your ideas come across more clearly.

2) The essay should be between 1200-1500 words. 1500 words is a strict upper limit; the TA will not necessarily read past that number.

3) Remember that this is not a personal reflection paper – you should provide philosophical arguments rather than personal anecdotes. Use the papers and articles that we have considered so far in the course as guides for what philosophical arguments look like. You should avoid being too scattered in your arguments. It is better to develop one or two arguments in a lot of detail, clarifying them and defending them against potential objections, than to squeeze several arguments into a single paper.

4) You can use first-person language in the paper.

5) I’m expecting that you will use the texts (and not just the slides or external sources) to complete the assignment, so your paper should make a number of page number citations to the texts. (You can use any citation format you like, footnote or in-text, as long as it has page numbers.) If you use additional sources outside of the ones we have considered in class, you should provide some kind of bibliography with enough information to allow the grader to retrieve the source. But in general, you should avoid external sources. This is not a research essay: we want to see that you’ve reflected on the material that we’ve covered in class, not taken your opinions and arguments from external sources.

6) I’ve posted my general guide to writing philosophy essays.