Teams that go first will get first choice. Remember that you do not know which side you will be on. It is therefore to your advantage to pick issues for which both sides will have strong positions. I chose the topics thinking that to be true of all of them, but if you think that a topic has a clear answer, you will do well to avoid it.

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1. Should it be legal in the United States to buy automatic weapons? Why or why not?

2. Under what circumstances, if any, is it right to take a human life? If you claim that it is never right, your proposal should articulate why. [Depending on how you approach it, you may want to narrow this appropriately. For example, you might want to make a claim of the form: “It is always permitted to take a human life when...” or “It is permitted to take a human life only when...”, forgoing any claim that the condition is necessary for its being permissible to take a life, claiming only that it is sufficient, or vice versa. Or you could narrow it in some other helpful way. But if you narrow it to the point that your claim is uninteresting (not constructively contestable), you will lose points under ¶2 of the guidelines.]

3. What is a sexist act?

4. X is a language iff ________________ . (Your proposal will be subject to a charge of circularity if the right side of the definition contains any linguistic terms, e.g., ‘communicate’, ‘means’. You may, however, use psychological terms like ‘believes’ or ‘intends’.)

5. Why should we preserve the environment?