creative component.

The Final Integrative Project consists of three components: an analytical, integrative written component; an experiential, embodied component; and an aesthetic, creative component.

 

Written Component

This is the most traditionally essayistic part of the assignment, wherein you will be using the skills practiced in the Group Inquiries to present an integrative argument for what constitutes the good life. To complete this component, you must:

· Pick two prompts from the course

· Present the main arguments for the good life that each prompt makes

· Use any contextual sources that your groups found for question three of the respective group inquiries to provide nuance, complicate, or challenge these arguments. Do not do any additional research.

· Make your own argument of what makes the good life, based on the integration of the premises and arguments that you cite.

This section will have the rough structure of the following, where each lines indicates a paragraph:

[Prompt A] argues that [p].

[Prompt B] argues that [q].

[Context a] clarifies/complicates/challenges that [r].

[Context b] clarifies/complicates/challenges that [s].

Therefore, I argue that [t].

This structure can be abbreviated like this:

p + q and r + s → t.

or,

If p and q, and if r and s, then t.

Be extra careful not to simply restate the premises of your sources for your own argument. The point of an integrative analysis is to produce new knowledge (signified here by t). If your argument has the following structure, it is not integrative:

p + q and r + s → p + q and r + s.

or,

If p and q, and if r and s, then p and q and r and s.

Don’t do this! Show me your argumentative abilities by using your sources to make a strong, unique argument t. It is handy that t is the symbol we are using here, because this argument is also the argument you want to present as your thesis. Once you have thought through each of the logical steps above, you should have arrived at your thesis. This what you state in the final sentence of your introduction, and it is what you return to after making your argument as shown above at the end of your essay.

 

Experiential Component

The next part of your assignment is to do something experiential and embodied, and integrate that experience with the argument that you made in the first part.

You should begin this section by restating your concluding argument, t. What is the good life? What do you think the good life is, based on the sources you have presented and your own reasoning? Keep this section short.

Then, you are going to report on a new experience. This means that, at some point during the semester, you need to go and do something new so that you have an experience to report back on. This should not be something from the past, nor should it be something from class. The emphasis is on a new experience. Possible experiences could be:

· Listen to a new genre of music

· Watch a new genre of movie

· Try cooking a new recipe

· Play a new game

· Try a new art practice like drawing or painting, learning a new language with an app like Duolingo, a new fitness practice like yoga or bicycling

· Go on a new walk or hike

These are all activities that can be completed without breaking COVID-19 restrictions. If you choose to do something that is not on the list, please make sure you are safe. You are encouraged to come up with other experiences! Just make sure that experience is new for you.

Once you have had your experience, you will report on it. The report should have the following structure:

In my integrative analysis, I argue that [t].

I had a new experience [e], and I learned that [u].

Describe [e]: who? what? when? where? why?

Make observations of [e]: thoughts, feelings, questions.

Expand what you learned, [u].

Integrate what you learned with what you argued before. Does your experience clarify, complicate, or challenge your argument?