The best way to learn about philosophy is by trying to explain it. The purpose of your papers is to demonstrate that you understand philosophy by explaining and analyzing it in your own words. Philosophy is about ideas, and your papers will be about the ideas of the philosophers and your analysis and response to those ideas.
Each of your philosophy papers should fulfill three writing goals:
1. To effectively describe your understanding of your chosen topic.
2. To integrate and analyze multiple perspectives on that topic from multiple sources.
3. To synthesize your own resolution to the various perspectives, a resolution that you can describe and defend.
Select a topic that interests you from among the ideas of the philosophers. Research that topic consulting multiple sources with multiple perspectives on the topic. In your paper, explain what the philosophers said and what they meant by what they said, and then give your analysis of their ideas. You should use multiple research sources to help construct your analysis, but ultimately the analysis should be yours.
The first and most important thing to keep in mind is to understand that philosophy is a dialogue. There is not one right answer in philosophy—there is a discussion about the issues raised. Writing a philosophy paper is participating in that discussion by contributing your ideas, so what you need to do is be in dialogue with the philosophers. It is not enough to just report what they said. This is not high school. College philosophy requires that you participate in the debate of ideas. You need to think for yourself in response to the philosophers. Rather than just a description of what a philosopher said, your paper should be argumentative in taking a position about what was said. NO BIOGRAPHY! No meaningless recitation of facts. Biography = losing points.
Approach your paper with the following:
1. Take it seriously and don’t be lazy – Philosophy is not a collection of facts to memorize; it is about ideas. Too many lazy students just put down some sentences they read and hope that will fly. It won’t. Everything you read the philosophers say is an attempt to express an idea. What you need to do is take the ideas behind the words seriously. Don’t just copy down some words the philosopher said; write down what you think the philosopher’s ideas were in detail. I stress again in detail! Don’t just summarize, don’t be lazy, take it seriously, and explain the ideas in depth.
2. Engage the ideas – Be in dialogue with the philosophers. Respond to the ideas of the philosophers. Tell me what their ideas mean and why you think they believed those ideas. This means engaging in a discussion, not just telling me you liked or didn’t like an idea because it’s interesting or boring to you. Tell me what you think the strengths and weaknesses of the philosopher’s ideas are, and give me your alternatives. Tell me your ideas in response to the ideas of the philosophers. Treat it as a discussion between you and the philosopher.
3. Be accurate – Philosophy is about ideas, but you still have to keep your facts straight. Don’t make stupid mistakes. For example, misspelling the name of the philosopher is a very stupid mistake.
4. EXPLAIN – The number one mistake students make is not explaining sufficiently. It is not enough to just state an idea, you must examine and explain it in detail. Go into depth. Explain what the idea means, how it fits with other ideas, what it responds to, what its implications are. Again, be in dialogue with the philosophers and their ideas. Don’t be lazy. Remember that the purpose of a philosophy paper is to show me that you understand the philosophical ideas. That’s why you have to go into depth and explain things thoroughly.
Some Don’ts
Don’t cheat! Do NOT plagiarize! Do not take material from Web sites or books and use those words as your own. You will be caught and penalized.
Don’t ignore the minimum length requirement. For example, a five-page paper means five full pages—if you haven’t reached page six you haven’t written five pages. The minimum length requirement is not arbitrary; it indicates the minimum amount of text that you must write to complete a decent paper.
Do not try to make your paper look longer than it is. I know all of the tricks, and they won’t fool me. Use only Times New Roman 12-point font, only 1-inch margins on all sides, no spacing between paragraphs. The first thing I do when opening a document is check for font size and spacing. If I have to correct either font size or spacing, you lose points.
Many students learn in high school—and can get away with it in some college courses—that all they need to do is put down a few scattered facts, show enthusiasm, and get a decent grade. This does not work in any serious college course. If your paper is just an extended version of this:
“Plato was an important philosopher.
His ideas were important. I like Plato because he had important ideas.”
then you will receive a bad grade.
A philosophy paper is not a book report. Again, this is not high school. A college philosophy paper is about ideas, not a recitation of factoids. Too often I see papers that are little more than biographical information and meaningless fluff. These papers are supposed to be about ideas, not biographical facts. Don’t be lazy and try to fill up space in your paper with biography unless you can clearly demonstrate how those facts directly affect the philosopher’s thoughts.
This is not a journal entry or a freewriting exercise; it is an academic research paper. Your topic is the ideas of the philosophers. Although you are supposed to respond to those ideas with your own ideas, don’t make the mistake of launching off on tangents or talking about yourself, your friends, your family, etc. Yes, you can give your opinion—but about the philosophers’ ideas. Yes, you can relate the philosophers’ ideas to our current time and society, but only talk about those things to help explain and analyze the philosophers’ ideas.