Paper on a Philosophical Topic
The purpose of this paper is to develop an argument of your own that addresses a philosophical question of your choice and that (eventually) engages with major historical philosophers in order to improve your own answer to the question. Writing this paper will go through several stages. You must turn in the assignment for each stage on time. Failing to do so can significantly decrease your overall grade on this assignment.
1. First, you need to select a topic of interest. This can be something like “Friendship” or “Causation” or “Skepticism” or “Systemic Injustice.” You must email this topic to me by September 25th (but the sooner the better!). This can be in the body of the email; it does not need to be in a separate file.
2. Second, you need to prepare a question on that topic. For the topic of friendship, for instance, you might ask “What is a friend?” or “What role(s) does friendship play in living a flourishing life?” or “Are there bad friends?” or “Can you be friends with someone who is significantly unequal to you in ways that matter deeply to both of you?” No later than October 2nd, you should email me at least three questions, in rank order of their interest to you. These can be in the body of the email; they do not need to be in a separate file.
3. Third, you need to start exploring your question on your own. Without paying excessive attention to other philosophers, write out a provisional answer to the question you find most interesting. Raise problems for that answer and complications you want to address. No later than October 16th, you should email me a .docx file with at least 600 words of free-writing. I will not be reading/grading this, so you should also include, clearly marked in the .docx or included in the email, any questions you have about how to better explore your question.
4. Fourth, you need to start drawing on texts in the history of philosophy in order to enrich your discussion of your question. No later than October 30th, you should email me a .docx with at least 600 words in which you bring at least two historical philosophers to bear on your philosophical question. In this 600 words, you should have at least one excellent paragraph with a good grammar, a clear topic sentence, a clear exposition of a philosopher’s position and how it bears on the question, and ample textual support (with references). So for the topic of friendship, I might have a paragraph with a topic sentence something like “Within friendship, one sees oneself and one’s friend as two parts of a whole, so one must be ready to give up one’s own good for that of the friendship.” I would then lay out Descartes’s view as described in our book on p. 182a-b and apply it to the case of friendship. Or I might have a topic sentence like, “Sor Juana, however, raises concerns about the status of friendship through the way that friends can re-inscribe social norms that inhibit our own development.” And then I would analyze a key passage from Sor Juana’s poem Primero Sueño in which her individual striving for truth is inhibited by her “sisters” claims that she is aiming for things too high for a woman.
5. Fifth, you should formulate a provisional thesis for your paper. This will be a claim that your paper will defend. As you write your paper, you may revise this thesis, and you should then revise the paper to best support the new thesis. You should email me a provisional thesis no later than November 6th. Note that the thesis should be thesis that answers a philosophical question, not a thesis about this or that philosopher. The thesis should be sufficiently controversial that you can think of several good arguments against it, and sufficiently interesting to sustain your (and my) attention.
6. Sixth, you should write your paper as a whole. Throughout, you should focus on using philosophers to help you make your own argument, rather than merely summarizing what a series of philosophers have said. Moreover, you should make an argument to convince someone of your thesis who might not already agree with you. This will involve, among other things, anticipating the best objections someone might have and answering them. This paper should be at least 1500 words and no more than 3500 words. This paper draft is due on November 15th. I will grade this paper in accordance with my grading criteria, and your final grade will be an average of your grade on this draft and your grade on the final draft.
7. Seventh, you should revise your paper. You should do as many revisions as you can, and I will look at as many as I can. You should also share them with peers and get feedback from them, especially if you are making use of a philosopher about whom someone else gave a presentation. Your final graded revision is due on the last day of class. (I’m happy to keep reading revisions after that, but I won’t grade them. I had one student who ended up having a paper from Philosophy 202 published in a top philosophy journal because he kept submitting revisions after the semester ended.)