Each of the texts we have read this semester raises unique, but overlapping, ethical and moral issues. Ursula LeGuin and William Styron address the challenges of ethical decision making, forcing readers to examine the nature of good and evil and our role in supporting one side or the other. LeGuin and Styron present the reader with situations that require moral judgment but, simultaneously, are paradoxical. Friedrich Nietzsche challenges our accepted notions of what is good and bad, and (like Styron) asks what role religion plays in shaping our sense of right and wrong, virtue and sin. Ron Rosenbaum explores the physiological basis of evil, and wonders whether neurology can offer objective evidence of evil.

Drawing from a minimum of two, but no more than three of the texts we have read, address the following questions:

To what extent are our moral decisions based on logic, and to what extent are they based on something other than logic (emotion, instinct, bias, etc.)? Should logic always apply in the case of moral decision making, or is it morally permissible to make decisions in ways that defy logic? If a moral choice cannot be made logically, how should we determine how to act? Explain your answers carefully using evidence drawn from the texts.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a concise, multi-dimensional argument about moral choices. Avoid simple yes or no answers; instead, develop a nuanced argument that reflects the full complexity of the questions posed. Furthermore, you do not need to explicitly answer each question that I have asked, but you do need to address the central debate I am posing.

Important: Be sure to develop your thesis and claims out of the texts we have read, not out of your own personal opinion or experience. Imagine that these texts are the only ways you have of evaluating the merits of each side of this debate, and develop your ideas from the nuances of the arguments in these two texts.

You must use quotations and examples from the essays you address. Failure to do so will lower your grade.