What can the pre-modern world teach us about how to be better humans in a modern, globalized world?.
I’m trying to study for my Philosophy course and I need some help to understand this question.
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I have already done the Research proposal outline, This was my TA’s Response:
You’re definitely going in the right direction with a potentially great topic. I think it is a bit difficult to see what the specific conceptual problem you are addressing is as worded in the outline – but I think you can easily reframe it to make it more clear.
Rather than asking about religions more broadly and if they benefit people, you could try asking instead about conflicts like wars, violence, etc that have occurred in the name of religion. What can be done about all this negativity surrounding religion? Do we need to get rid of religion altogether? Probably not, and as you show, there are certain aspects of buddhism that can serve as models for how religion could be beneficial.
Taking an approach like this will allow you to clearly establish the problem, address it with a question and provide a clear thesis that offers a solution to this problem. I don’t think that you want to argue that Buddhism is better than other religions, but at least it has examples we can learn from. What are these examples?
Also, try to be weary of phrases like “modern day society” as this tends to be vague and broad. Be sure to give sufficient detail into the background of the problem (i.e. what specific conflicts based on religion have surfaced? why are they problematic?)
You have a good amount of sources and this should allow you to advance your argument. Just look for the debates between scholars – are they proposing different solutions to the problem of religious conflict? which ones do you agree or disagree with? How can Buddhism benefit the debate? By using this angle, you should be able to take a good, argumentative approach to the topic.
Paper has to be from 1500-2000 words
What can the pre-modern world teach us about how to be better humans in a modern, globalized world?
