HZT 4U: Philosophy Course Culminating

For the Philosophy Course Culminating, all work will be done during your Philosophy class period. The
following lets you know what your tasks are for this culminating assignment.

Monday Nov. 8: View movie, make notes (either using the chart, or your own paper)

Tuesday Nov. 9: Complete Tasks 1 and 2 and submit to the Dropbox. This is an open-book assignment,
so you are welcome to use your notes and the information on D2L. You MUST include a SPECIFIC
reference from the textbook for Task 1. You are encouraged to use a textbook reference for Task 2.

Task 1: Explain how the movie illustrates a philosophy or a particular philosophical theory from the
following units: Intro/Human Nature and Epistemology. (Don’t forget sub-topics [e.g. “Truth” in
epistemology, or “Allegory of the Cave” in Intro.]) Relate a character/scene/dialogue to something from
both of your choices (both units must be covered in your response). You may choose to relate the movie
to a particular philosopher’s theories, but you may not use the same philosopher or philosophy in more
than one unit. Make specific reference to both the movie and the textbook (use in-text references).

Format: MLA; length: as necessary for quality work. You need not write in essay format; if you choose,
you may simply put a heading (e.g. Human Nature) and then discuss the theories you’ve found in the
movie.

Task 2: You’ll be using the sheet of quotations I gave you yesterday. On-line learners, access the file
“Shawshank Quotes” in the Content section

Choose two of the given quotations from the movie.

1. Identify the speaker.

2. Explain each quotation’s context within the movie.
3. Choose information/theories from the following units: Metaphysics and Ethics/Social
Justice. (Don’t forget sub-topics [e.g. “Time” in Metaphysics, or “Catholic Social Teaching”
in Social Justice]). Explain how your quotations relate to the information/theory from your
chosen units. One way to do this (although this is not the only way) is to discuss whether the
quotation supports the given theory or opposes the given theory. Remember, if you used a
particular philosopher in Task 1 (e.g. Kant’s Transcendental Idealism) you may not use that
same philosopher in Task 2 (e.g. Kant’s Categorical Imperative).
4. Explain whether you agree with the philosophy of the speaker.

Format: length: as necessary for quality work. You need not write in essay format; if you choose, you
may simply put a heading (e.g. Quotation # 12) and then answer the questions individually.
 PHILOSOPHY CULMINATING ASSIGNMENT MOVIE CHART

Units Topic Character/Scene Relationship

Intro/Human
Nature

Metaphysics

Epistemology

Ethics

Social Justice
 CRITERIA N/I LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2 LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4
R 50 – 59% 60 – 69% 70 – 79% 80 – 100%
KNOWLEDGE
Task One & Two o insufficient knowledge o limited knowledge of o moderate knowledge of o considerable o a high degree of
of theory/philosopher theory/ philosopher theory/ philosopher knowledge of knowledge of
Student theory/philosopher theory/philosopher
demonstrates… o insufficient o limited understanding of o moderate o considerable o a high degree of
understanding of textbook information understanding of understanding of understanding of
Task One textbook information textbook information textbook information textbook information
Student (or not included)
demonstrates… o includes a few minor o identifies speaker and o speaker and context of
o does not identify o misidentifies speaker inaccuracies in context of quotation quotation accurately
speaker and/or context and/or context identification of accurately and with insight
Task Two speaker/context
Student…
APPLICATION
Student makes o with insufficient o with limited effectiveness o with moderate o with considerable o with a high degree of
connections between effectiveness effectiveness effectiveness effectiveness
movie and
philosophies… Task One Task One Task One Task One Task One

Task Two Task Two Task Two Task Two Task Two
COMMUNICATION
Student expresses o expresses ideas with o expresses ideas with o with moderate clarity o with considerable o with a high degree of
ideas… insufficient clarity limited clarity clarity clarity

Uses course vocabulary o never o in a limited manner o correctly in a few o considerably o correctly in each
and terminology… paragraphs (some correctly in most paragraph
inaccuracies) paragraphs
THINKING
Student uses o with insufficient o with limited effectiveness o with moderate o with considerable o with a high degree of
creative/critical effectiveness effectiveness effectiveness effectiveness
thinking in analysing
key ideas…
o using no evidence from o using little or limited o using some evidence o using specific o using specific and
Supports argument… text or movie evidence from text or from text or movie evidence from both insightful evidence
movie text and movie from both text and
movie
PHILOSOPHY CULMINATING ASSIGNMENT RUBRIC