Paper Guidelines and Topics

Dear Students,

The paper guidelines and topics are below.  You MUST follow the guidelines closely as you write your paper.  If you write on a topic not listed below you MUST get it approved by me first.

Paper Guidelines: Intro to philosophy

1.  No title page or title needed.

2. DO NOT type more than 1000 words, double spaced, 12 pt.

3. No standard introductory paragraph needed.  DO NOT include fluff like the following: “Humans have pondered morality for ages…” “Aquinas, a famous philosopher from a long time ago…” Remember, you have a small amount of space to get a lot done—don’t waste any space.  Do not be repetitive. 

4. Be Clear!  Reread your paper out loud. Rewrite your paper.  Have a friend (preferably an English major) read the paper. 

5. You should write an outline (this is not mandatory but your paper will benefit from it).

6. Here’s is the structure I am looking for:

First Paragraph (This is a very important part of your paper.  If this paragraph is sloppy the rest of the paper will suffer.  This paragraph frames the entire paper):

Sentence 1: State the paper’s aim or thesis: e.g. This paper will argue that chocolate is better than vanilla.

Sentence 2: State the paper structure: i.e. The defense of the thesis consists in showing that chocolate increases brain power, creates more jobs, …

Sentence 3: This answers the SO WHAT? question.  What is the significance of your thesis? Why does it matter? E.g. This means that …

Body: Defend your thesis.  After you have defended your thesis you must raise an objection to your thesis.  Finally reply to the objection raised.  If you are writing a paper that objects to some claim, then you need to raise an objection to your objection, and then reply to that objection. 

                  Example:

This paper will defend the claim that God exists.

Argument section: here you argue for your thesis

Objection section: here you present an objection to your argument for your thesis

Reply section: here you reply to the objection

Conclusion: elaborate a little on why your topic is important

Conclusion: No more than a few sentences: what did we learn and why should we care.

7. DO NOT use the first person

8. Make sure that you use words correctly.

9. Don’t waste space with questions.

10. If you quote, you must cite properly (I don’t care what format you use—e.g. MLA, Chicago, Turabian, etc).  If you paraphrase, you must cite properly.  Better to be safe than sorry.  You should never quote more than two sentences at a time and you should not have many quotations in the paper.  Put it in your own words.  Please do not plagiarize; you will get a zero on the paper if you do (and may fail the course). 

11. If you decide to write on something other than one of the suggestions I give below, you MUST get your topic approved by me (if I take too long to get back to you, then write on one of the suggestions below).

12. Do not simply repeat.  Make some of your own points.  This is your opportunity to do some philosophy of your own.

13. Here are a few possible paper topics:  You may choose one of them.

a.     Explain the allegory of the cave, its relation to education, and how thinking about education with the allegory can transform the way we think about learning.

b.     Explain the allegory of the cave and some similarities and differences between it and the story of redemption found in the Bible.

c.     Explain the importance of the topic of moral relativism and moral absolutism—what is at stake in this debate? Why should we care?

d.     Explain one or two of the arguments for moral relativism, and either defend the argument from objections or raise objections to it and defend the objections against rebuttals.

e.     Explain one or two of the arguments for moral absolutism, and either defend the argument from objections or raise objections to it and defend the objections against rebuttals.

f.      Explain what a vice is and why having a vice is destructive of the person who has it

g.     Explain one of the vices, note how it differs from closely related notions, how we tend to reduce it to something more narrow, etc. Be sure to consider how someone might argue who denies that the vice in question really is that big of a deal.  What objections might they raise to the vice in question really being a vice.

h.     Explain in detail how two of the vices alienate the person who has it from God, others, and the self.  You must explain the vice well.

These are simply suggestions.  Don’t waste time trying to figure out what to write on. Pick one of the above and get going.  Of course, if you have a burning desire to write on something else, feel free to do so, but it MUST be approved by me.