>So, J, you think that I should not have been bothered by the freshman who
>presented me, when I was teaching, with John Rawls' Two Concepts of Rules,
>offered as his own term paper? (I flunked him for class.) jks
A more creative approach would be to make sure that he plagiarized it well - i.e. check how well he absorbed the concepts and its implications. After all, "borrowing" good ideas from other people is the main engine of civilisational progress - the peoples who do not plagiarise stay stagnant - the claims of intellectual commodity producers notwithstanding.
After all, the concept of "originality" and "intellectual property" is but a demand for monopoly rights by intellectual commodity producers. Claiming "ownership" of thoughts and ideas is absurd.
wojtek