30-Day Book Challenge: Day 26

Day 26 – A book that changed my opinion about something

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Applying Ethics. It wasn't really the book itself that changed my opinion on something but rather an assignment associated with the book. This was my primary textbook for a philosophy class I took in my second semester of college. (It was one of my top five favorite classes I ever took at Mizzou, btw.) Each chapter in the book deals with a major ethical dilemma (war, abortion, euthanasia, etc.) and presents different philosophical viewpoints on each issue. Occasionally, my professor asked the class to write "reaction" essays to an issue and defend one viewpoint. Our papers didn't necessarily have to reflect what we really believed, and there were times I defended the position I didn't personally side with just because I felt like it.

When I got to the essay about capital punishment, things got interesting. I had never had strong feelings one way or the other, but I did tend to lean toward one side of the debate. While writing my paper, however, I learned that I most definitely was on one side of the fence, and it was not the side I had previously imagined myself to agree with. Now isn't that the ideal academic assignment: something that shows you a part of yourself you had never known before? No wonder I loved that class so much. (Thanks Dr. Melanie Johnson-Moxley!)

P.S. - I admit this post is a little bit of a cop-out because I picked a book about ethics, but I honestly couldn't think of any novels that had changed my mind about something.