WRITING A PHILOSOPHY PAPER

What are your goals?

1.To show that you have read and understood the assigned material.

2.To show that you have an opinion on it.

3.To persuade the reader that you are right.

How should you achieve your goals?

1.Read the assigned material carefully, probably more than once (!), and ask questions about anything you do not understand.  Stay awake in class, and take notes on anything that seems important or interesting.

2.Think about the issue, decide where you stand on it, and say clearly what your opinion is near the start of your paper. This is your thesis and you must have one.

3.Present as many good arguments for your thesis as you can, and present counter-arguments to alternative positions.  Defeating a powerful opponent is much more impressive than defeating a weak one, so make the alternative positions that you attack as strong as possible.

How should you organize your answer?

Get right to the point. State your thesis clearly in your introduction and then explain what the rest of the paper will be about. It is usually necessary first of all to explain the main arguments that you have studied that relate to the topic (what Plato thinks about life after death and why, what Kant thinks about right and wrong and why, what Descartes thinks about the mind and why, etc.). Then explain the best reasons you can think of why the reader should agree with your thesis. Then explain the alternative point of view, why it is reasonable, but also why it is wrong. Finally wrap it all up with a concluding paragraph that summarizes what you have said and that mentions any other thoughts that seem important about the issue in question, such as wider implications of what you have said.

What do you mean by "Why?" and "reasons"?

When philosophers talk about the reason why Plato believed this or that, or why the reader ought to agree with you rather than Plato, there is a certain kind of reason that they have in mind.  They mean reason in the sense of rational justification, not arbitrary cause.  In other words, if I ask why Descartes believed that the soul is distinct from the body, it is irrelevant to say that it is because he was Catholic, or raised to believe so, or mad.  What I am looking for is the reasons he gives in his writings, the arguments that he provides in support of his thesis. 

How should you write your answer?

Clearly, precisely and directly. Use short words. Use short sentences. Say exactly what you mean. This might well require the use of longer words, but only use (not ‘utilize’) them when necessary. Do not waste the reader’s time on irrelevant historical or biographical material, or on ranting about some issue that is not directly relevant. Number your pages.

Economy is the essence of style.  Follow George Orwell's rules (from "Politics and the English Language"):

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never us a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.