PHL240: Love, Hatred, and Resentment

PHL240: Love, Hatred, and Resentment WQ 2019 Directions​: Write an essay in which you connect the readings we have discussed for class with current/contemporary events and news articles. You must select and cite at least one news article (sourced online or in print) and at least one of the philosophical texts we have read for class. Your paper must summarize and explain the relevant argument of the philosophical text, and explain how it is relevant or edifying to the news article you have selected. Your essay should be 2-4 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman (or similar) font, size 12, with 1 inch margins. Use whatever citation method you are most comfortable with.

You may use the suggestions, below, to help you get started:

Suggested Topics​:

1. In Plato’s ​Republic​, Socrates argues that poets should not be permitted into the city because they cultivate the emotional part of the soul and harm the rational part. He offers several reasons for why emotions should be excluded from politics, and how good citizens should behave in public. Write an essay in which you explain Socrates’ argument, and relate it to a news article that discusses these issues in today’s context.

2. In “Feel Your Way,” Sara Ahmed discusses the stigma of the “soft nation,” and the surrounding anxieties of victimization, invasion, and manipulation by others. Write an essay in which you explain Ahmed’s analysis of this stigma, and connect it to a news article of your choosing that either corroborates or contradicts Ahmed’s view.

3. In the chapter, “Organisation of Hate,” Sara Ahmed describes the way in which hate groups, in particular, often construct narratives that situate themselves as the innocent victims of theft or invasion (and, in so doing, erase or ignore historical narratives that would challenge their innocence). Write an essay in which you summarize and explain Ahmed’s analysis regarding these narratives and their purpose, and connect her ideas to a news article of your choosing that corroborates or contradicts Ahmed’s view