Essay Assignment Intro to Philosophy Instructions In the first unit in this class, we have focused on two things; weve looked at various texts in which the authors suggest how one ought to live ones life and we haveattempted to identify and report arguments. This assignment will bring these together. You are asked to consider the following two questions: how should you live your life?What would count as the highest good, the best form of life, for you? No, really, go spend some time considering that and come back. Ill wait. Ok, now that youve sorted that out, consider our authors, each of whom have distinctanswers to the above questions. In case youve already forgotten, Im talking aboutAristotle, Epictetus, Epicurus, Albert Camus, Thomas Nagel, Susan Wolf, and DavidBenatar. For this essay, you must consider one of these authors. Go back to his or her text and identify the passages where he or she answers the above two questions. You might findthat the author really answers both questions at the same time, or not. Having found the passages, you must next try to find not only the author’s answer(s) tothe above question(s), but the reasons offered in support of his view. What your paper must contain: Now -and only now! is it time to write. Here is what your paper must contain: 1. First, identify which author youll be considering. 2. You must next state, clearly, simply, and accurately, what your chosen author wouldsay in response to the above questions. This should not be more than a singleparagraph get to the point! This might even be called your thesis or controlling idea. Its the idea youll be exploring in the rest of the paper. 3. Next provide the reasons why the author believes what you have just claimed hedoes. Consider no more than one reason per paragraph. So, if you find threereasons, then write at least three paragraphs for this part. 4. In each paragraph, explain each reason simply, clearly, and accurately. Then elaborate a bit on what that means and try to show why or how it supports the mainclaim, How does this reason help him or her? 5. You must also provide evidence! That is, you must provide textual evidence supporting your claim that the authors in question really has this reason yourediscussing. The best and easiest way to do this is to quote, briefly and accurately,the passage where the author actually says the reason. Then restate it in your ownwords, explaining the passage as I described in number 4, just above. Remember, though, the evidence does not speak for itself. You must interpret and explain it. But you also must remain true to the text youre discussing and the textual evidence willmake that happen. 6. Ideally, the reasons you present will indeed be relevant to the main claim youpresented (i.e., the answer you claim your author would give to the question(s) above). Dont provide reasons that are irrelevant or even contrary to the main claim!You are trying to support it, remember. Also note that all of this is reporting what the author said, not what you think. 7. Finally, evaluate what you have just said. The author said it, but is it right? Do youbuy it? Why or why not? Write a single paragraph evaluating the argument youvejust presented. Ideally, if you disagree, youll identify the reason or reasons you think are weak and why. 8. And please do all of the above with good written English, readable, clear, etc 9. Dont panic! Ill discuss this assignment in depth, including citation practices and so on. Once you have finished, set it aside for as long as possible ideally two or three days. Return to it and re-read it. And then seriously plan on revising it. Many sentences, youll find, are less clear than you thought, or need reworking, etc… If you want to be a good writer (see all: get an A), plan on revising at least once. Having areliable/smart friend or classmate read it over and give you feedback is even better. Do it; youll benefit immensely. Youll note that I have described four to six paragraphs (one to present your thinkers view, one to three for the reasons in support of the view, one to summarize the wholeargument, and one to evaluate it). So how long should the paper be? At least theedouble-spaced, 12 pt font pages, with one inch margins, etc… and no more than five or so. I am lenient on these specifications, however. Finally, because I am asking you to provide evidence form the text for your claims aboutthe text, you must cite those passages properly. What counts as proper? Well, Ill bediscussing this at length, in class, but let me say this. Everything you take verbatim (i.e,word for word quote) must be cited in some obvious way so that I know it is not your own words and so that I can go and look at the source you got it from. So if you arequoting a webpage, give me the address and date you accessed it; quoting a book?Give me the title, author, publisher, year, and page number. Quoting one of my handouts? Give me the file name and date you accessed it. But listen: you need to doexactly the same thing even if you are merely paraphrasing the text. If the ideas arent yours, you need to cite it too, in just the same way. This even means you mighthave to cite a friend who told you something, or whatever. If in doubt, cite.
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