Markets and the Good Life

Read the instructions below carefully and completely before beginning. It includes the questions to answer, details about the required organization of the paragraphs, and formatting guidelines. You may not consult or cite any material not assigned for this course or specified in these instructions. There is no word minimum or maximum. Of course, you will want to write enough to address the requirements sufficiently. But do not write more than you need to do so. With excessively "wordy" responses, it can be more difficult to follow the flow of your thought and to see that you have addressed the requirements.

Be sure to read and follow the formatting instructions for essays.

Be sure to read the explanation of the rubric criteria used in assessing the essays.

The assignment

First paragraph

Paul Camenisch provides a moral principlePreview the document meant to be used to evaluate the products and services offered by a company. This principle is most clearly stated in the bottom half of page 64. Restate the principle in your own words. (Note, however, that you shouldn't feel the need to shy away from using some of the specific terms he uses. For example, don't feel the need to avoid using "human flourishing" and use something less specific or perhaps incorrect like "human happiness.")

Second paragraph

Remember Richard Kraut's conception of human flourishingPreview the document? You talked about that in Essay 1. Dust it off and get ready to use it again. First, review Kraut's definition. Be sure to read the definition on page 137 (top). But it's also important to take time to read carefully Kraut's more detailed examples of how this definition is realized in concrete ways. So be sure to take another look at the specific examples on pages 138-141 and 143-144.

Now having reviewed Kraut's conception, pick some product available on the market today that would clearly be considered (by most people) to be a good one when using Camenisch's principle. That is, identify and discuss a product available for purchase that would pretty clearly contribute to human flourishing (when using Kraut's conception). Discuss this by identifying at least two human powers that are typically affected through the using (or otherwise interacting with the product in the intended way). Describe how these powers are affected. This could be because the product helps the consumers develop these powers. Or because they help the consumer exercise them. Or both.

Third paragraph

Now identify and discuss a product that many people (not necessarily you) might or do consider to be a product that is detrimental to human flourishing (using Kraut's definition again). Try to imagine the case that critics of the product might make against it in terms of Kraut's conception of human flourishing. What powers might the consistent use of this product in its intended way prohibit or erode its possession, development, or exercise? Identify two powers or two ways that the same power is affected.

Fourth paragraph

John Waide criticizesPreview the document a pervasive form of advertising that he calls "associative advertising." What is this form of advertising and what is Waide's primary objection to it? How does Waide's objection connect with Camenisch's principle about evaluating products and services? (Of course, Waide is concerned with how many products and services are marketed and not with the products themselves - but nonetheless there is a commonality in their criticisms.)

Fifth paragraph

Find and discuss an advertisement that satisfies Waide's description of associative advertising. Provide a link in You Tube to that advertisement. What is the marketed product? What non-market good is being associated with that product? What non-market skills, character traits, capacities, or knowledge does one need to acquire in order to truly and really experience that non-market good?

Sixth paragraph

Finally, Michael Sandel is concerned (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. with the effect of market-style thinking as applied to traditionally non-market realms of human culture and society. Try to states in your own words what his primary objection is. Then illustrate this objection by explaining his example involving wedding toasts. What, exactly, in the problem with the buying and selling of wedding toasts?