.txt file containing everything you wrote..txt file is what you upload to NotebookLM as your source, and it is also what you submit to Canvas.Before we can think clearly about ethics, we need to understand how we already think—often without realizing it.
Every ethical judgment you make sits inside a larger framework of assumptions about reality, knowledge, human nature, and value. Philosophers call this a worldview. It's your mental operating system, running silently in the background, shaping what seems obvious, what seems questionable, and what seems impossible.
Here's the problem: worldviews are nearly invisible to the people who hold them. They feel like "just how things are" rather than one way of seeing things. This creates a serious obstacle to genuine ethical thinking. If you can't see your own assumptions, you can't examine them, and unexamined assumptions control your conclusions.
This assignment asks you to do something difficult: make your worldview visible. You'll identify the core beliefs and commitments that shape your moral intuitions, see how they connect to each other, and discover where they might be in tension. Only after this work can we productively engage the ethical theories and dilemmas we'll study this semester.
What you'll create: A visual map of your worldview built from written reflections on four fundamental questions. You'll write honest responses about what's real, how you know what's true, what humans are, and what matters, then use NotebookLM to generate a mind map that shows how those beliefs fit together.
Answer in your own words in the boxes below. Write at least one full paragraph for each—more if you want the room. Be honest and be specific. The bullet points under each layer are prompts to get you started, not a checklist you must answer one by one.
Philosophers call this "metaphysics" — your beliefs about the nature of reality
This is about what you think actually exists in the universe.
Prompts to consider:
Explain your position on what is fundamentally real. One paragraph minimum.
Philosophers call this "epistemology" — your theory of knowledge and justification
This is about what you trust when you're trying to figure out if something is true.
Prompts to consider:
Most people trust a combination of these, but usually rank them differently.
Explain which sources of knowledge matter most to you, in what order, and why. One paragraph minimum.
Philosophers call this "philosophical anthropology" — your understanding of human nature
This is about what you think human beings fundamentally are.
Prompts to consider:
Explain what you think humans are and what makes us matter. One paragraph minimum.
Philosophers call this "axiology" — your theory of value, including ethics
This is about what you think has value or importance.
Prompts to consider:
Identify what you value most and where you think moral rules come from. One paragraph minimum.
This is the part that turns four separate answers into a worldview.
Explain at least one important connection among your beliefs and identify at least one place where your beliefs may not fit together perfectly.
One paragraph minimum, covering both. Write more if you need the room.
Worldview-Map_YourName.txt. Look in your Downloads folder.If the download does not start: use Copy All Text instead, paste it into a blank document, and save it as a .txt file (in Word or Google Docs, choose Save as or Download and pick Plain Text (.txt)). A Word .docx or a Google Doc works in NotebookLM too, but plain text is the most reliable.
.txt file you exported in Step 2.Vague writing produces a vague map. If the map looks thin, that is usually the map telling you something true about the reflections.
Once your mind map exists, you have one more short piece of writing to do — and it lives on its own page, with its own export and its own Canvas submission.
You'll answer three questions there: what surprised you, what was hardest, and how the map helped. One paragraph minimum each. Do this after you've built and looked at your map, not before.
Open it in a new tab if you'd rather keep this page handy. Your writing here is saved separately and won't be affected.
Three items, submitted in Canvas:
Worldview-Map_YourName.txt, exported from this page (the same file you uploaded to NotebookLM)Worldview-Reflection_YourName.txt, exported from the reflection page in Step 4Two separate text files, one link. Check that the link opens for someone who isn't you — see the technical notes below.
✓ Honest, thoughtful responses — not just what you think sounds good
✓ Specificity — actual beliefs, not vague platitudes like "I believe in being a good person"
✓ Clear connections between layers — show how your beliefs fit together
✓ A genuine tension — not one invented to check a box
✓ Evidence of real thinking in your final reflection
✗ The "right" worldview — there's no grade for having beliefs I agree with
✗ Perfect consistency — nobody's worldview is perfectly consistent
✗ Length for its own sake — one sharp paragraph beats three padded ones
✗ A "pretty" mind map — NotebookLM handles that; I'm grading your thinking
✗ Certainty about everything — "I'm not sure" and "I'm still figuring this out" are legitimate answers