24.134 | Summer 2025 | Undergraduate

Experiential Ethics

Op-Ed Assignment

Purpose: While we often face ethical decisions in our own lives, being an ethical citizen requires engaging others in dialogue about choices that face larger communities. In this assignment, you will practice applying course concepts in order to develop and communicate your own ethical position to a particular audience.

Task: Select a choice point faced by a community you’re in and write an op-ed to persuade them to make a particular choice. Make sure to consider several ethical lenses, options, and stakeholders. (~1,000 words)

This assignment aligns with course-level learning outcomes:

  • Explain philosophical concepts including ethical lenses, stakeholders, value-laden choice points, and structural injustice
  • Identify and critically evaluate ethical dimensions of real-world situations from current events to your own life
  • Communicate and defend your own ethical perspectives on real-world issues to different audiences
  • Advocate for a real-world ethical decision facing a community you participate in

This assignment is due during week 4.

Course Info

Summer 2025
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