The War on Compassion

  • How accurately and reflectively it uses relevant terminology and draws on salient (i.e., most pertinent and important) course concepts, arguments, theorists, debates, etc.
    • Its quality of reasoning (providing clear and relevant reasons; well-justified
    conclusions)
    • Its degree of clarity in expression and organization
    • Where applicable, how well it uses examples for illustration and/or support
    • Conditionally: its originality of ideas and examples (you will be rewarded for taking
    thoughtful risks, but lack of significant originality will not count against you)
    Question 1:
    In “The War on Compassion,” Carol Adams suggests that oppression and brutality often require a linguistic framing process called “massification.” Explain this process and, drawing on Fausey et. al. or Mercier in addition to Adams, present and defend an account of the relationship between language and social justice.
    Question 2:
    Explain the respective views, as we examined them in our course, of Chomsky and Gopnik on the nature of language development. Draw on their articles and your consideration of their views’ respective implications (e.g. re-study of language or language education), to defend one of these accounts of language development.