These writing assignments are meant to help you think about the readings and to prepare you for class discussions. For that reason, when you write a response it is important that you give your opinions and that you relate your thoughts to the reading. Remember that these are exam questions and that they are graded as such. You ought to write them as though you are writing questions on a midterm or a final exam.

Respond to one of the following questions by writing a response on the class Discussion Board on Blackboard at least one hour before class on the date the question is listed. Put your name in the text of the question and give the question number as listed below. Without these I can't tell who wrote the question or what you are responding to. You then have until Midnight on the following Sunday of that week to revise your response if you wish to do so and to submit it for grading. To submit your responses, send them via email to milofsky@bucknell.edu.

Your final version of this question is due by midnight, Sunday, September 6.

2-1 Discuss the notion that malaise affects human services by selecting one type of service like health care, education, or environmental protection.. You might think about how the Obama administration has zeroed in on specific failures in the provision of human services. Tell what you or others think is wrong. Is the failure a matter of inattention, misdirection, or bad policy? Tell how our approach to action might differ with these three sources of failure in human service programs.

2-2. Our chapter suggests that one reason social scientists have avoided advancing moral positions about social questions is that we support the argument that there are very few absolute, universal values. Is this true?

Let's consider obesity. Is obesity the result of bad personal choices and moral failures and are people responsible for their excessive weight? Two short articles arguing pro and con on this issue, one by Leonhardt and one by Zinczenko, have been placed on Blackboard, to help with your thinking about this issue.

Would affected individuals be thinner and healthier if people worked to be more disciplined and socially responsible? Remember that obesity causes higher medical care expenses and these must be paid by other citizens when health insurance rates go up. What would that mean to say that obese peple should be more responsible or moral and how could we as a society encourage this greater morality? Talk about where you think "morality" comes from and whether social problems are the result of bad morals. You might want to argue, alternatively, that family problems are most caused by social structural problems. If that's the case, what role then does free choice have in terms of personal health?

2-3. Based on your reading in the Prologue and Chapter One, what is pragmatic liberalism?

2-4. What does "failure of civility" mean?