Senior Seminar

Spring  2019

Length: 2-3 pages (not including cover or bibliographical pages, or supporting material)

Format: 12 point font, Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins, double spaced, page

numbers.

Due: Tuesday, 23 April 2019, via Canvas, before seminar.

Write a paper that 

engages with Aquinas and his ideas about human nature, ethics,

and law.

You may use any 

one 

of the prompts below. Your paper claim should pertain to the

issues raised by the prompt, but 

do not use a “direct” answer to a prompt question as 

your paper claim

.

Prompt #1: Which system of law would your prefer: a system of simple laws, or a system

of complex laws (like the ones we currently have)? Why? [For the purposes of this

prompt, I’ll use “complex” to refer to complexity at the level of Aquinas’ text.]

This paper asks you to compare the functions of law in Aquinas and Confucius. We seem

to live in a legal system closer to the one Aquinas envisions than the one Confucius does. 

Is this a good thing for us as citizens? Why? Some questions to consider:

• Should the law be only comprehensible to experts?

• In both systems, the law educates citizens; in which one can it actually do so?

• Can a system of complex laws educate citizens (like today’s American

population)?

• Does the complexity of our laws reflect the complexity of our world? If so, should

we “trade-off” a complex system of law for the benefits of our complex world?

Why is this “trade-off” worth it? How could you argue for this “trade-off”? What

metric would we use to compare the benefits or costs of each?

Prompt #2: Write about a passage from the Aquinas selections on Canvas. 

As always, position your claim at the end of your introductory paragraph.

NO OUTSIDE SOURCES