Reference no: EM133328671

Assignment:

We read Judith Butler's chapter entitled: "Can One Lead a Good Life in a Bad Life?, which is from her book, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly.

Her question--Can One Lead a Good Life in a Bad Life?--is now the topic of your paper. Working with the terms Butler uses to frame and address the question:

(I) Explain how she answers it and

THEN also

(Il) Explain your own answer while discussing at least three (3) other philosophers we've read this summer session in your discussion (Butler + 3), even though they do not address the question directly, as they may help you clarify your own view. For example,

1. How might Plato's attempt to decouple justice from the "interest of the stronger" be relevant here?

2. Is Aristotle's account of justice helpful in answering this question, as he talks about happiness (aka the good life), and he defines justice as being fair to others as well as to oneself?

3. What about Beauvoir's conception of the ethics of ambiguity, where existential uncertainty and dependency on other people is a starting point for ethics?

4. Might pragmatism, and the kind of revisionism it entails, not just about truth, apply equally to other central philosophical concepts, such as justice?

5. Or the different conceptions of Enlightenment we discussed?

6. Can there be a good life when there's epistemic INjustice, or racism, or any other form of injustice?

Lewis's discussion of groundwork, grounding, groundlessness in art may also be relevant?

Ps- for the other three philosophers , you can discuss Aristotle , Beauvoir and Plato