Phi 272 F09 writing assignments, fourth paper

Prepare to write on one of the topics below, displaying both your understanding of author you write about and your own thought. My intention is that you plan your answer and construct an outline but that you leave the actual writing until the final period. So, during the exam period, I’ll ask you to use only class texts and notes and any notes you have written on a sheet with these instructions. (If you don’t have the handout, here it is: paper 4 handout.) It’s very hard to say anything useful about the intended length of this sort of paper, but I tend to think of it as comparable in scale to your first paper.

I’ll suggest three sorts of topics. All concern the material on philosophy of physics and philosophy of biology you’ve read in the last four weeks of the course (i.e., since Kuhn).

• Choose an issue discussed in the material from this part of the course, present an author’s view of it, outline an opposed or alternative position (which may or may not be your own), and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the two positions.

• Compare parts or aspects of two of the things we’ve read in this part of the course. Provide an exposition of a part or aspect of each of things you are writing about (but don’t attempt to summarize anything like the whole of a day’s assignment) and discuss their similarities and differences.

• Compare some aspect of one of the things we’ve read in this part of the course with something you read earlier. If you choose to do this, your main focus should be on the recent reading, with the earlier material discussed only for the light it sheds on the material from the last part of the course.

Since you won’t write a draft, I can’t offer to read one; but I’ll be happy to look over your notes and discuss your planned answer with you—remember that this is a paper, not an exam.