ENG4UI
The Essay Unit
“The Good Life” by Bertrand Russell (page 27)
An example of an essay developed by extended definition
Look up any vocabulary you cannot define. Consider the following words:
amenable (27):
supplicants (27):
philanthropy (27):
sonata (28):
utilitarian (28):
benevolence (28):
altruistic (28):
sublimation (28):
sentient (29):
superfluity (30):
conduces --verb (30):
Questions:
1. Identify Russell’s thesis.
2. a) What does Russell say about the role of knowledge in a good life?
b) How does he prove his point using historical references?
3. Why is love more fundamental than knowledge? Give an example.
4. Identify and describe the two poles of love. Give an example of each.
5. According to Russell, what is the fullest form of love? Give examples.
6. What are the limits of:
 delight
 benevolence
7. Explain Russell’s view of ethical knowledge. Do you agree?
8. a) How, according to Russell should we decide what sort of conduct is right or wrong?
b) How must we test moral rules?
9. “What we ought to desire is merely what someone else wishes us to desire.”
a) Do you agree with Russell?
b) Consider examples of how our society tries to maintain social control by altering our desires.
10. “Since all behaviour springs from desire, it is clear that ethical notions can have no importance except
as they influence desire. They do this through the desire for approval and the fear of disapproval.”
 To what extent do you agree with the above statement?
11. What distinguishes ethics from science?
12. What is “right conduct” in society?
“Civil Disobedience: Nature and Origin” by George Woodcock (page 189)
Questions:
1. Why did Thoreau write “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”?
2. a. When, according to Thoreau, should a citizen obey the law?
b. When does a citizen have a duty to break the law?
3. What is one of the essential elements in civil disobedience? (190)
4. a. How does Woodcock define “civil”? (191)
b. Does civil disobedience condone violent methods? Explain
c. What is the justification for civil disobedience? (191, top)
d. How does Woodcock ultimately define civil disobedience? (191)
5. Give an example of someone who is simply breaking the law rather than committing civil disobedience.
Explain.
6. “Civil Disobedience, in other words, places a man’s inner sense of justice above the law…. It invokes
the idea of responsibility as against the idea of obedience.” (191)
a. Do you agree? Explain.
b. Would Russell agree? Explain.
c. How does Woodcock use historical reference to support his argument? (191)
7. What conditions does civil disobedience presuppose? (192)
8. Explain the difference between civil disobedience and
a. non-violent passive resistance
b. pacifism
9. Cite two historical examples Woodcock gives to prove that civil disobedience brings earthly suffering.
“The Eichmann Trial in Retrospect” by Abba Eban (page 41)
“He who cannot remember the past is doomed to repeat it.” --George Santayana
Consider the following vocabulary:
Complacent
Terse
Inexorable
Ukase
Macabre
Chauvinism
Fallacy
Rationalism
Impotent
Expiation
Questions:
1. Why did Eban write this essay?
2. According to him, what was the theme of the Jerusalem courtroom?
3. What is Eban’s thesis? Where is it first stated?
4. a. What does Abba Eban say about technology and benevolence?
b. What does Russell say about benevolence?
c. Would Russell and Eban agree with each other about the relationship between technology and
benevolence? Explain clearly and precisely.
5. Russell convinces by method of intellectual definition. How does Eban convince? What means does
Eban use to convince his readers of the importance of his thesis? Give two examples.
6. Eban quotes Jean Jacques Rousseau on p.45.
a.
Phrase Rousseau’s generalization in your own words.
b.
Does Eban agree with Rousseau? Prove.
c.
Would Russell agree? Support.
d.
Do you? Why or why not?
7. Where is Eban’s thesis restated? Quote the restatement.
“Ethics and Engineering” by John Aitken (p. 214)
Do you know how to define the following words? If not, look them up.
Quantitative
Credo
Voluble
Metallurgical
Culled
Unequivocally
Raconteur
Pragmatic
Polarized
Castigated
Utilitarianism
Ballast
Infallible
Serendipity
Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is determinism? Why is it inadequate for an understanding of humanity?
What difficulty do Friedman and Allen experience with students of technology?
Why do engineering students need an arts background?
“There is little in our lives that is unaffected by scientific and technological advances often accompanied by
the threat or reality of disaster and disruption.”
a. Give some specific examples from the essay to support this quotation.
b. Supply some other examples from our world.
5. What are engineering students being asked to consider?
6. What revision was made to the Professional Engineers Act in 1984?
7. According to Wayman, what are the roots of engineering?
8. “Any technology tends to create a new human environment.” Do you agree? Give examples.
9. Do you agree that scientists have a moral obligation to consider the impact of the technological changes
they implement?
a. Would Russell agree? Explain.
b. Would Eban agree? Explain.
10. What is the dilemma of the whistleblower?
Would Woodcock agree with the whistleblower’s acts? Explain.
11. What is the proper role of the professional engineer?
12. What are few engineers prepared for, according to Slemon and Stevenson? What concept must they “get
hold of eventually”?
13. Respond briefly to the last sentence in the essay.
“An Interview with David Suzuki” by Ron Wideman (page 224)
Questions:
1. a) How does Suzuki view our “Western attitude which regards humans as special and somehow
separate from the rest of nature”? (225)
b) What, according to Suzuki, will be the result of this attitude?
2. a) Who is the target audience for A Planet for the Taking?
b) Who might criticize the production?
3. Explain: “the series is more about putting science in its place. It exposes the myth that science is value
free” (226).
4. “We believe that scientists can somehow provide all the answers” (226).
a. Why does Suzuki disagree?
b. What ought we to ask of science?
5. Why is Suzuki pessimistic about TV?
6. Why does Suzuki believe that ethical issues should be part of the science curriculum?
7. “I realized that we were imprisoned because geneticists had propagated the notion that many human
behaviours were hereditary, that you could characterize races as shiftless, as vagrant, as nomadic, as
unreliable” (231).
a. Explain the effect of this realization on Suzuki.
b. Compare his statement to Aitken’s view of determinism.
8. Make a list of six key quotations from the interview.