In a few paragraphs (c. 200-400 words), describe one issue (which you can think of as a yes-or-no question) relevant to the relation between mind and body, say briefly why this issue arises, and sketch a position on it (which may, but need not, be your own). This can be an issue that you’ve found in the reading for the course—and, if so, you should say where you found it—but it need not appear in the reading. In any case, you should not take its relevance to mind-body problem for granted but instead explain that as part of your explanation of how the issue arises for someone thinking about the relation between the mind and body.

This is intended as a opportunity for you to try out ideas for your final paper. It is not intended as a full discussion of the issue, so your emphasis should be on what might be the introductory part of your final paper—i.e., your explanation of the issue and why you are discussing it as well as a hint of the position on it that you would focus on in a longer discussion. But, even though a full discussion of the issue you describe here might require a longer paper, be sure not to pick too broad an issue; although you may end up writing your final paper on a different issue, the one you present in this paper should be one whose full discussion would fit a paper of that length, which is still relatively short.

This is again one of the ungraded assignments, so I’ll give you feedback on your paper, but I won’t grade it: you will get full credit simply for making a serious effort. While I’d be happy to accept your assignment on paper, it is more convenient for me to receive work electronically; and, since I haven’t set up the course Canvas site for assignments, that means using e-mail—my address is helmang@wabash.edu. A short assignment like this could itself be the content of an e-mail message, but I’m also happy to get e-mail attachments.