600 words essay apa format philosophy

Dear Class,

Below, you will find your third, and final, writing assignment of the semester.  You are to pick one of the following 5 prompt questions and compose an essay of no less than 600 words—or, roughly, two full pages, double spaced, size 12 Times New Roman font, standard margins—due no later than midnight (via ecampus) on Friday, December 18th.  Late assignments will not be accepted without previous arrangements having been made prior to the deadline, and, as the syllabus clearly states, you must turn in all assignments in order to be eligible to pass the class.  Your response must be thorough and well-written, with references to the text.  I highly recommend visiting the Writing Lab (remember that providing proof that you visited the Writing Lab, Online Writing Lab, or a Grammar Review session will automatically raise your grade half a letter).  Lastly, I encourage you to use secondary sources, but be sure to cite them to a fault; if I catch a whiff of plagiarism, then you automatically fail the assignment and are subject to further disciplinary actions by the Dean of Liberal Arts.  

Be bold in your undertaking; again, I wish you the best of luck!

Q.1) How is one to understand, pursue, and achieve happiness according to Epicureanism? One would do well to consider the following: hedonism; pleasure as a natural (physis) good; death; false beliefs; universal determinism vs. free will; the classification of desires; the virtue of moderation; friendship.

Q.2) How is one to understand, pursue, and achieve happiness according to Stoicism? One would do well to consider the following: self-sufficiency; the harmony between will and nature; Destiny; equanimity; virtue; intention; duty; natural law.

Q.3) According to Saint Augustine, how is the world ordered, and what does such order suggest about the nature of God? One would do well to consider the following: Plotinus’ notion of the One; emanation versus voluntary, loving creation ex nihilo; The Great Chain of Being; being as intelligibility; the metaphysical status of nothingness.

Q.4) How does Saint Augustine present the problem of evil? One would do well to consider the following: natural evil; moral evil; The Great Chain of Being as a hierarchy of values; pride; the nature of sin; original sin; loves, both ordered and disordered.

Q.5) Saint Augustine identifies himself as a Neo-Platonist, following in the tradition of Plato and Plotinus; in what way is Augustine’s thought similar to, different from, and a development or deviation Plato’s philosophy? Feel free to focus on any feature(s) of their respective thought and offer a nuanced comparison and contrast thereon.