Phi 346-01
Spring 2014
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Phi 346-01 S14
Requirements: first paper (default due date: Wed. 2/12)

Write a paper (c. 2-3 pp. or 600-900 words) in which you discuss a passage in which one of the people you have read so far makes a claim to which you can imagine someone (perhaps you) having an objection. In your discussion of this passage, you should do the following:

briefly describe the claim,

outline the reasons the author gives for making it (or the reasons you surmise if none are given),

indicate the reasons why someone might object, and

discuss the relative strength of the two sides in a way that indicates how someone sympathetic to the original claim might respond to the objection.

I won’t attempt a list of possible topics, but I’ll be happy to help you look for one if nothing comes to mind. The passage you write about will vary in length depending on the topic (and need not be contiguous text), but the sort of claim together with reasons that you could address in a paper this length will probably be on the scale of several sentences or a short paragraph.

Although I’ll be willing to accept your essay on paper, I’d prefer that you submit it electronically. One way to do that is to send a copy by e-mail (either as an attachment or in the body of a message). My address is helmang@wabash.edu. (An alternative, if it is more convenient, is to upload the file to your group on the Canvas site for the course; but, if you do that, please send e-mail to alert me.)