Part 1

The purpose of this assignment is to reflect upon the role of the state. In a 2–3-page paper, address the following:
1.Explain a political philosophy with supporting citations to the textbook and online lectures in correct APA format. For example, you might discuss social contract theory or feminism. Use this APA Citation Helper as a convenient reference for properly citing resources.
2.Explain some human rights that you think should be protected by the government. Discuss whether the particular rights you discuss are better understood as “positive” or “negative” rights.
3.Explain how the ideas associated with the theory you explained might be related to the rights you identified. For example, if your essay primarily focuses on negative rights, you might discuss natural law and the social contract. If you included positive rights, one of the critiques of natural law might be relevant.
4.Discussions of political beliefs can often generate a great deal of emotion. Your participation grade for all discussion assignments is based in part on your ability to respond to your peers in a respectful and mature fashion, and this assignment is no exception. You are encouraged to present the arguments in favor of your own views and to challenge the arguments made by your peers (in fact, the critical thinking method we discussed last week is an excellent guide for how to present an argument about the role of the government), but please do not engage in personal attacks or other inappropriate communication.

Part 2

The goal of this assignment is to explore the meaning of justice. In a 3–4-page paper, address the following:
1.Compare/contrast two social philosophies. For instance, you might explain Plato, Aristotle, utilitarianism, Marx, Rawls, race theory, and/or a feminist approach. Try and select two distinct approaches. Remember to explain the theories you reference with supporting citations to the textbook and online lectures before contrasting them, utilizing correct APA format. You may want to use examples to illustrate your understanding of key ideas in each theory. Use this APA Citation Helper as a convenient reference for properly citing resources.
2. Explain how justice is understood in the two theories you contrasted.
3. Illustrate your understanding of how social justice is conceived in each with a concrete example of an injustice, i.e. a practice or reality that fails to achieve the vision of justice in the theory you chose.

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