December 1, 2005
                                                                     
                                         Group Project:
                                              Building A "Just Society"   

Greek Philosophy - PPT Presentation - Edward Hanlon, John Jay College
Essay on Plato
Essay on Aristotle
Robert Nozick:Against Distributive Justice (Critique of John Rawls)
Robert Nozick
Utopia Online Library
'Mr. Jefferson's University'....  (Architecture)
Left Has Hard Time in Era of Terrorism
Why Social Justice Matters.  Brian Barry

    Our study of the ancient Greeks’ ideas of a “just society” gives us an opportunity to investigate the whole issue of what constitutes a “just society.”

    The first thing we ought to do is come to an understanding of what justice is. 
Research what Plato and Aristotle,  John Rawls and Robert Nozick had to say about what justice is. Decide what you think justice is.  Rawls says, "justice is fairness."  However, individuals in a society will disagree on what is social fairness.  The group has to decide what justice is to create the law (rules) of their utopian society.

    We ought to investigate political thinkers who had ideas on the subject of what constitutes a “good society.” Research the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Thomas More, Jeremy Bentham, Karl Marx, John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert Nozick, Ayn Rand, Robert Bellah and John Rawls, among others.

(*)    Consider some of the following topics and issues in considering what you think a “just society” is; and how the society would handle local and world problems.

Liberty                                                                         Housing

Equality                                                                       The Environment

Human Dignity                                                           Taxation

Individual Responsibility                                            Healthcare

Education                                                                     Foreign Policy

Social Justice                                                               International Human Rights

The Economy                                                               AIDS Pandemic

Distribution of Wealth
in Society                                                                     Senior Citizens

Raising Children                                                        And Other issues you might want to address

    (A) After the group has done research on the above topics, the group collectively will write an essay that answers the questions below.  Each student - on the work he or she has done - will contribute to the written paper.  Each individual's work: 3 pages length, 12 point font, double-spaced.

 1. What is your idea of what justice is? Explain.

 2. Describe, in detail. the rules and laws of your ideal society.

 3. How  would your "just society" deal with some local, national and world
     problems as indicated above? Discuss.

 4. Is America a “just society”? Explain.

(B) Another component to the project is that each group will create a model of what they imagine their ideal society would look like physically and architecturally.

(C) Each group will present their ideas and work. Each individual in the group will give an oral presentation that covers his or her contribution to the total project work.  The oral presentations should be about 5 minutes in length. The group should create a PowerPoint presentation or a website to assist and support the speakers' presentations.

The research for the project will be done in school and at home.

Make sure you document your written work with footnotes or internal parentheses notations and include a Works Cited Page. You cannot “copy and paste.” Stay away from textbooks and encyclopedias when adding quoted materials to your paper.

Written work will be handed in: Monday, January 9, 2006.  Oral presentations will begin, Monday, January 9, 2006.