Your essay will be in the form of a persuasive argumentative analysis. Book is Great Philosophical Arguments, by Lewis Vaughn, Oxford University Press, 2012.
Paper details:
Choose ONE of the three topics in chapter 7 and read TWO of the articles and notes. (The articles you may choose are #25, 26, 27, 28, 29, #30, #31, #32, #33, and 34. If an article does not have a number, you may not write about it in your essay, since it is not a complete article but instead commentary.) Then write an essay where you complete the following tasks: 1. Analyze the arguments from each paper. (There should be a lot of space dedicated to this.) 2. Using the concepts that you’ve learned over the course of the class, break down each argument. What is the thesis (or conclusion) of each essay? What are the premises? Is the argument inductive, deductive, valid, strong, does it contain any fallacies? In this task you objectively break down the argument to its core components so you have a good foundation for the rest of your paper. 3. Compare the arguments from each paper. Look at the different methods each argument uses. How do they compare to one and other? Are the essay addressing the same kinds of issues? This task could be incorporated into the next task. 4. Present an argument for why one paper has the “better argument.” (There should be a lot of careful, original work dedicated to this.) This will require developing some criteria for what makes an argument a “good” argument. Do good arguments track with popular opinion? Do the commit no fallacies? Are they inductive? Deductive? Think about what persuades you in an argument (maybe use Aristotle here.) This is the section that should really motivate your thesis. Remember, your thesis should be argumentative and take a position. Perhaps something like: On the topic of T, author A has a better argument than author B because of reason R. 5. Consider an objection to the argument you present in task #4. Consider the view that your “side” maybe isn’t the “winning” side. 6. Present a rebuttal which defeats the objection you consider. 7. In ONE paragraph, develop an argument of your own that applies to the topic at hand in the papers you’ve read. Then explain why that argument may be better than the others you’ve read. For example, if you think that universal healthcare should be a basic human right, make an argument for that and then explain why your position is better than the position you are analyzing. For each of the essays you choose to write about for your final paper, you will have to write a 2 page exegesis which aims at breaking down and explaining the argument. To be clear: it’s 2 pages PER reading. Since there are two such readings, that’s at least 4 pages. Given that the readings are quite long, there are a few ways you could go: you could give a broad and shallow account of the reading as a whole; or you could give a deep and narrow analysis of a particular passage. I’ll leave that up to you. Below are some details and tips on how to provide an exegesis Give a thorough philosophical exegesis of the relevant aspects of A’s and B’s theories This should be where you show that you understand the arguments of the philosophers that are covered in a particular topic. You DO NOT need to explain everything in complete detail, but you should justify how and why you are narrowing your focus. This should be completely neutral — just a succinct presentation of the arguments that isn’t influenced by or that mentions the case. **Note: Your exegesis will be a part of your rough draft in outline format. Specifically, the exegesis will be inserted into sectioagnns II and III of the rough draft outline.**
