Write an essay (of roughly 2-3 pp. or 600-900 words) focused on material from one of the philosophers we have read. The point of this paper is to give you a chance to explore further an issue of interest to you and to provide a basis for me to evaluate both your understanding of the material we’ve read and the depth of your thinking about a philosophical issue. With this in mind I ask that your essay include the following elements:

The amount of material you discuss in your exposition will vary with the topic you are addressing, but the total amount of text you consider should be small. In most cases, it should amount to substantially less than a page.

The objection could also take the form of an exposition of something in the same source, but you may not find an objection described there. And, even if objections are described, you need not present one of them, presenting instead one that you have constructed. Although you might construct this objection by speaking for yourself or by suggesting something that someone else you’ve read might agree with, it is also quite acceptable to present an objection that is neither your own nor in the reading so far.

I think of the three elements of this assignment as having roughly equal importance, so you might think of devoting about a page to each. There can be considerable variation from this, however, so the key thing is to take each of the three seriously. In particular, your discussion of the relative strength of the two sides (i.e., the third element) should be more than a brief concluding comment.

We’ve already covered too many issues for me to provide a useful list of possible topics. The reading guides indicate some of the topics appearing in particular texts, but don’t feel limited to the topics noted there. You are likely to do your best work with a topic you find interesting, so thinking back through passages, issues, or ideas that caught your attention is probably the best way to look for a topic. You should feel free to pursue ideas that have come up in discussion whether or not you are the one who introduced them. And don’t hesitate to seek my help in choosing a topic or finding material relevant to it.

When choosing a topic, be careful to keep it fairly narrow; this is a short paper and it will be easier to achieve the depth of thought and clarity of writing I will be looking for if you do not attempt to cover too much ground. That means that you may be able to address only one aspect of even a short passage. Also, be careful not to attempt to give an exposition of an author’s views by paraphrasing or even summarizing everything in the part of the text you are discussing; instead think through what is said there, decide what is relevant to the topic you are addressing, and design an account of the material in light of this and the space you have available.

You should make clear the specific location of the passage or passages you discuss (using a bibliographic citation, page references, and perhaps brief quotations), and you should do the same for the objection if you have found that in something you read. If you have devised the objection by modifying something you have read, you should cite that source, too, indicating why you are citing it (e.g., by saying something like, “This argument is suggested by … though it is different from the argument offered there”). The general idea is to enable a reader to locate any textual material you have in mind.

Although I’ll be willing to accept your essay on paper, I’d prefer that you send a copy by e-mail (either as an attachment or in the body of a message). My address is helmang@wabash.edu.