Term Paper Guidelines- Intro to Philosophy

The term paper you write for this class should be a position paper (2000 words).. That is, you take a certain view and either you argue for it or critique it. Here are some steps you need to follow:

1. Choose any topic that interests you.  

2. Construct a brief abstract which sums up what you intend to do in your paper. Here is an example from one of my own published papers in Philosophia Christi Journal (2011):

Title: Frank Jackson's Location Problem and Argument from the Self

Abstract: E. J. Lowe argues in Personal Agency that the self is physically embodied yet not identical with any physical body, nor with any part of a physical body, such as the brain. For Lowe, the self is an agent that is capable of carrying out intentional actions. Call this the thesis about the self (TS). In this paper my purpose is to develop and defend TS and argue that Frank Jackson's serious metaphysics (SM) fails to account for the nature of the self. This paper is outlined as follows: Section I presents Lowe's theory of the self. In section II, I present Jackson's central claims of SM. In section III, I develop Jackson's SM as an objection against Lowe's TS. In section IV, I respond to objections raised against Lowe's TS and then critique Jackson's claim that if an entity is not locatable within the framework of physicalism it should be eliminated. In section V, I conclude that Lowe's TS is superior to Jackson's SM."

3. Be clear about you want to do once you decide what to write your paper on. Ask yourself:Do I want to critique this view or defend it? Always give reasons for claims that you make. Don't simply list opinions without defending them.

4. Consider objections against your position and also respond to those objections. Your paper must be argument based as opposed to just mere exposition. For detailed information on how to write a good philosophy paper, look at the following two links:

Jim Pryor's Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper:

http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html

For Jim Prior's, Philosophical Glossary for Beginner's. Look at:

http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/vocab/glossary.html/

Suggested Topics for the Term Paper

1. Is modest foundationalism a better view compared to the classical Cartesian foundationalism? If so, why?

2. Does physicalism a plausible view of human nature? Is so, why? If not, why? 

3. Is consequentialism a satisfactory view of morality? If so, why? If not, why?

4. Discuss Edmund Gettier's case against the sufficiency of the three components of knowledge, namely justification, truth and belief (JTB). For example, do you think that Gettier's thought experiment effectively shows the inadequacy of the traditional analysis of knowledge, that is, JTB? If so, why? If not why?

5. What is your take on substance dualism? Do you support it? If so, why? Do you reject it? If so, why?

6. Discuss the problem of universals? Do you think properties are entities that exist in more than one place at the same time or properties are particulars that do not exist in more than one location at the same time?