Are You Obligated to Think Critically and Act Ethically? - 1,500 Words

The White Rose Group

"[H]e is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and

fights against the enemy; there can be no mistake about that."

Plato, Laches, or Courage (380 B.C.)

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (Film) (連結到外部網站。)

Click CC for closed captioning.

REQUIREMENTS 

DISCUSSION RUBRIC

OVERVIEW

More Information: Timothy Snyder's 2017 book On Tyranny

Part 1: Due Thursday by 11:59 PM (100 Points)

1.  Write a 1,000-word (four-page) essay in which you develop a clear rhetorical focus regarding this question: Do people have the responsibility to think critically and act ethically? 

What is a rhetorical focus? (連結到外部網站。)

2. Use the White Rose Group as a vehicle to help you ponder the essay topic.  You will need to research who they were on the Internet.

Helpful Sources: 

• "White Rose: German Anti-Nazi Group" by Michael Ray, Encyclopaedia Brittanica (連結到外部網站。)
• "Holocaust Resistance: The White Rose - A Lesson in Dissent" by Jacob G. Hornberger, Jewish Virtual Library (連結到外部網站。)
• "The Secret Student Group That Stood Up to the Nazis" by Erin Blakemore, Smithsonian (連結到外部網站。)
• "75 years since the White Rose siblings were killed for resisting Hitler" by Julius Haswell, The Local (連結到外部網站。)

3.  Explain which--if any--of the lessons in Timothy Snyder's 2017 book On Tyranny that you think the White Rose Group practiced--or did NOT practice.

More Information: Timothy Snyder's 2017 book On Tyranny

4.  Explain which of the Common Logical Fallacies (連結到外部網站。) below--if any--that the White Rose Group may have linked to the Third Reich (the Nazis), and how these fallacies may have caused the White Rose Group to oppose the Third Reich actively.  And … consider if the White Rose Group is also guilty of fallacious thinking; did they fully understand the consequences of their actions: execution via the guillotine (they were decapitated)?

Common Logical Fallacies

• Ad Hominem (連結到外部網站。)
• Strawman Argument (連結到外部網站。)
• Appeal to Ignorance (連結到外部網站。)
• False Dilemma (連結到外部網站。)
• Slippery Slope Fallacy (連結到外部網站。)
• Circular Argument (連結到外部網站。)
• Hasty Generalization (連結到外部網站。)
• Red Herring Fallacy (連結到外部網站。)
• Tu Quoque (連結到外部網站。)
• Causal Fallacy (連結到外部網站。)
• Fallacy of Sunk Costs (連結到外部網站。)
• Appeal to Authority (連結到外部網站。)
• Equivocation (連結到外部網站。)
• Appeal to Pity (連結到外部網站。)
• Bandwagon Fallacy (連結到外部網站。)

5. Quoting:  In addition to Snyder's book, use four sources to help you explain who the White Rose Group was and to support your thesis.  You may use any sources you choose, including the sources listed above: the fallacies source and the sources for the White Rose Group.