Critical Dialogue

Critical Dialogue

The Goal: You will be defending one of your Opinion Paper answers against the ruthless attacks of the philosophers and their ideas we have covered in class.

The Format: Choose either a 5-6 page essay (worth up to 10 points) or an 8-9 page essay (worth up to 20 points), formatted like a play, with character names in the margins and a space between speeches. Single-space within the speeches themselves. You will need to cite your sources whenever you borrow any ideas from the readings or lecture, whether it is a quote, paraphrase, or just a concept. For citing, simply put the authors name and page numbers where the idea was found in parenthesis at the end of the paragraph that contains the borrowed ideas. For citing an idea from class, put my last name and the date; but do not give me credit for ideas I got from the readings. I dont want to see any material from outside the class used directly in your work, but, if you got any help from an outside source, this will need a full citation.

Option #1: A Cruel Therapy Session with your favorite philosophical therapist, Jeff! It is finally time for the real therapy session about your ideas and worldview. You will be producing the dialogue that I wished I could have had with you when I first read your Opinion Papers. You will be speaking for me, clearly explaining the philosophical ideas that I would use to attack your silly opinions. The comments I made on your Opinion Paper should give you some good starting points for these attacks. Then, you will also be speaking for yourself as you try your best to handle my criticisms of your Opinion Paper and try to rescue yourself from the miserable life these opinions will likely lead to.
Your therapy session begins with Know-it-all Therapist Jeff asking you your favorite Opinion Paper question and you pasting in the answer you gave in your Opinion Paper. Then Jeff will clearly explain the philosophical concepts that would be most critical and helpful for your neurotic, delusional views. Have Jeff fully and clearly explain these critiques as well as show how they apply to your opinions and your life in detail. Then, it is your turn to accept the criticism in a sob-filled apology or try to defend yourself against the criticism. This should involve plenty of back-and-forth dialogue between yourself and Jeff as you work together to solve your deepest life problems. Jeff, being the nerd that he is, will surely bring in other philosophical questions and concepts that relate to what is being discussed as you talk, and, if you want to withstand Jeffs onslaught, you should bring in philosophical concepts that help your side.

Original Opinion Paper question:
If all jobs had roughly equal salaries, you could attend college for free to qualify for these jobs, and everyone had good health insurance, would people work hard and be happier or would there be more laziness and crime than we have now?

My Answer:
In the Land of the Free we have the most expensive and least effective healthcare all because of greed from ins corporations and pharmaceutical corps. It is outrageous to think that people should suffer and even die because they cant afford healthcare in the US.
Insurance companies should not be privately-owned for-profit corporations, while numerous US citizens will go bankrupt because they cant afford their insulin because it is pharmaceutical corporations have a life sustain medication that they see fit to inflate the cost for the patient.
Free healthcare could lead to healthier workers taking less sick leave which could lead to increased productivity. Free healthcare could increase the Americans expected life span. Free healthcare could benefit the economy. Free college numerous countries have free college and have an amazing economy. Free college would be an opportunity for all US citizens to improve their life and make a difference for their family. It would be an opportunity to better our society. Both would have a positive impact.

Jeff’s responses:
[Exactly The U.S. is the only advanced economy in the world that allows health care for profit and doesn’t cover all of its citizens. Our model sucks, but we have other models we could use: Tricare is fully socialized medicine, and it is regarded as one of the best health care system in our country. We use European-style public health insurance in our system of Medicare, and this system ranks as one of our best providers as well. And we have systems like Germany’s non-profit, competitive model in our major public employers and in large companies. And these models are far less expensive and have better health outcomes. Don’t believe the lies of our for-profit corporations and their lobbyists. They benefit from our health system, but we the people do not. And guess what? The fanciest health care systems in the world, like that of France, costs their citizens 50% in taxes of what ours does in our insurance premiums and taxes.
There are two different perspectives concerning the goals of government. Some people think a government exists simply to protect property and should do little to help people, whereas other people, like me, think a government should exist to help us work together collectively to achieve things that would be too expensive and difficult if handled individually. All I ask is that with each political concern that comes up – guns, crime, equality, abortion – look for good ideas wherever you can find them, like in other countries. Economics? See Denmark. Prisons? Norway. Education? Finland. Health Care? Taiwan. Environment? Iceland. Crime and Guns? Switzerland. The U.S. is far behind in most key indicators in comparison with Europe and East Asia: health care, education, crime, inequality, abortion, racism, etc. We were the top for freedom, equality, and opportunity 50 years ago, but now we are at the bottom, and we are far and away the most unsafe. These other countries learned from us and then lapped us, while we have gone backwards. By my standard, the well-being of one’s citizens, our country is always dead last among wealthy democracies in every way you try to measure the happiness of citizens.]

The Critical Dialogue paper is for a dialogue between Jeff and I, with logic and reality to be the other “philosophers.”

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