Formulating a Thesis
As stated previously, I’ve decided on covering the idea of “ethics.” This topic is still very broad and I’ve been working to narrow it to a thesis that will both examine the development of ethics (as in the development of thinking about ethics as a concept), and it’s development in response to historical trends. My thesis will most likely center around the classic “X is a reaction of Y” so I’m still working to narrow X & Y to something that isn’t extremely broad and more specific to certain post-industrialized events.
As I’ve been working and studying I’ve noticed several philosophically positive ethical ideas or political action that have arose during periods of economic hardship, as well as negative ethical ideas or actions in relation to war abroad. These trends are helping to give a basic idea of my thesis. As I continue searching for more than a handful of trends, I’ll work at pushing deeper into my argument and looking for more specific reasons as to why “X” occurs.
Hi Griffin,
I noticed your other posts deal with the U.S., and of course we need to go large with Western Civ, so take a look at some History of Ethics works and see if you can work backwards a bit to the 17th century in search of a theme.
I found this Google Book from 1967 – start in the middle maybe?
Let’s see if we can tie your specific examples into larger concepts by examining the field of the history of ethics. i’d also like to see you find some scholarly articles on the larger topic? You might find that helpful in setting your examples in context.