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Evaluating the Sanity: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, on Trial 

Three Minute Hamlet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1xtcNxmbKU

Watch this three minute summary of Hamlet.

Read these articles for class: 

Davis Sanity of Hamlet.pdf

Greg Hamlet's Hallucination.pdf

Hamlet is Sane: 

Criteria for evaluating sanity/insanity: 

Hamlet is Insane:

Criteria for evaluating sanity/insanity:

More Practice with Evaluation Arguments:

Example: The Evaluation of sending humans into space (Good Reasons 158)

• Practicality: space travel enhances scientific knowledge and many technological benefits have resulted from the research done in this objective. (Pro)

  

• Aesthetics: Space travel is essential to the way we understand ourselves as humans; US astronauts in space is an idelible American cultural image. (Pro)
• Ethics: The huge expenditure required for human space travel would be better used elsewhere. We can more cheaply send robots instead of humans. Human life is endangered by space travel. (Con)

Weighting Criteria: Often, as in the space travel example above, there will be both positive and negative conclusions based on your criteria (after all, if there were *only* good or *only* bad consequences from an action, we probably wouldn't have to bother doing a formal evaluation).

Example: Reverse engineering the "Stop Loss or 'Loss of Trust'" article:

• Item being evaluated: US Military "Stop Loss" policy
• Stakes: Are people aware of the stop loss policy and how it works? "People like me"
• Criteria: Honest/forthright? Safety? Impact the people most intensely involved (recruits & families & employers)