Name of Student
Name of Instructor (Dr. Ford)
Philosophy 1301 (or 2306)
Date (e.g. 1 October 2013)

The Treatment of the Vulnerable:
A Comparative Analysis of Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil
with King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail

In the first section state and explain the topic of the paper (the title above should give you some good information about the topic of the paper): for example, in every society there will be the powerful and those who are vulnerable to the powerful. The question becomes how to respond to the vulnerable, that is the down-and-out or needy, in that society. Introduce the two philosophers whose writings we will use to address this issue: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche is addressing this issue in a more general sense, whereas MLK is addressing it in a specific sense, the plight of the African American in the South before the enactment of the Civil Rights Legislation.

In the second section you need to state the major view Nietzsche is taking towards the vulnerable (down-and-out) in Beyond Good and Evil and how he supports that view. (There are 3 major ways he supports his claim: 1) the strong beating down the vulnerable creates what kind of society in his view? 2) his claim that we are nothing more than beasts and 3) the example he uses of the Sipo matador plant will help you explain the way he supports his viewpoint.) In the third section you need to state the major view MLK is taking in Letter from Birmingham Jail on how to treat the down and out, and how he develops and supports that view. For example, how does he believe the vulnerable blacks in Alabama should be treated? Why? (1. How does MLK appeal to appropriate authority and how do those appropriate authorities support his claim? 2. How do the whites in Alabama violate the principle of non-contradiction? Would they want to be treated the same way the blacks were being treated? 3. Were the whites committing the logical fallacy of equivocation when they said their laws were democratic and yet only the whites were allowed to vote?) After describing and analyzing the two approaches, state whose approach you prefer and explain the reason you endorse that approach. For example, show the weaknesses of the approach you reject and the strengths of the approach you prefer. Point out the strengths of the approach you support and the weaknesses of the approach you reject. Also, point out any principles of logic either MLK or Nietzsche may be using and also any logical principles they may be violating. For example, do you see any evidence of begging the question when Nietzsche claims that we are nothing more than mere beasts, violation of non-contradiction when the whites of Alabama feel that the blacks should be treated differently than the whites, appeal to appropriate authority whenever MLK quotes Augustine, Aquinas, Buber, and Tillich? Finally, state how the approach you selected might be improved upon and what you will do to address the plight of the down-and-out in your life. Remember that this page is to be no shorter than 1 ½ pages in length (NOT SHORTER!). Do NOT mess with the writing template, e.g. font size and type of font. Doing so will result in a “0” for this assignment. You must use the footnote below to cite the sources for the Nietzsche and King writings.