First, a brief sermon.
Philosophy is not different from other intellectual undertakings
in the topics it addresses. Few topics addressed by philosophers are their
exclusive area of inquiry, and virtually any topic addressed by another
discipline is fair game for philosophers. Right and wrong, virtue and vice,
human behavior, language, the mind, numbers, society and politics, beauty, the
nature of the world around us, God and even the 'meaning of life'Ñall are
addressed by disciplines other than philosophy. It is philosophy's approach that is distinctive. That approach
is characterized by the depth of its inquiry into these topics and its
extensive construction of and evaluation of arguments. Once you get a real
taste of it you'll see why some, such as the 20th century
philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, have likened philosophy to a disease, a kind
of mental tic that keeps a philosopher going over and over an issue well after
most sane people will have lost patience. It's not really a disease, but one will
see Wittgenstein's point once you start doing philosophy.
It is natural to be very frustrated with philosophy until
one has gotten a little training. It is not enough to be smart or well educated
to understand philosophical positions and arguments, any more than it is enough
to be smart and well educated to understand organic chemistry or discrete
mathematics. I expect my colleagues in these fields to understand philosophy
about to the degree that they expect me to understand their subjects. That is
because, just as with any other field, it takes quite a bit of training to get
beyond a superficial understanding of philosophy. Philosophical training
requires that one do it oneself. And one cannot do philosophy without writing
philosophy.
Now, the commandments.
Hear, O would-be
philosophers, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day,
that ye may learn them, and keep and do them!
1.
THOU
SHALT REWRITE, REWRITE, REWRITE! And then rewrite again. No one ever wrote
anything very good without rewriting it. No one ever wrote anything very good
the day before it was due. No one. Ever. If it's not rewritten, it's probably
crap.
2.
THOU
SHALT PICK A MANAGEABLE ISSUE. You can usually rephrase a philosophical issue
as a question, one to which you could give different answers. Try to do this
with your own issue; if you can't you're probably in trouble. Pick an issue
that you can thoroughly address in the pages you have available. Careful discussion
of one issue is good; a superficial paper covering everything that comes to
mind, bad.
3. THOU SHALT TAKE A STAND. A
philosophy paper is a thesis defense. Take a position on your issue and defend
it.
4. THOU SHALT PLAN. At some point in
the process of writing, list the points you want to make in favor of your
thesis. Each paragraph should make one of these points. At the end of your
paper, you should have a collection of paragraphs making a set of points that,
taken together, support your thesis.
5. THOU SHALT INTRODUCE THINE ISSUE AND
POSITION. A good paper must have an introduction, though it doesn't necessarily
need a conclusion. A good introduction is a map of your paper. It begins by
stating the issue, then states what position you will take on that issue. Then
it gives an overview of how you aim to defend it.
6. THOU SHALT GIVE SIGNPOSTS: Plant
flags and signposts as you go, referring back to the map of the paper in the
introduction. "This completes my treatment of blah, now I shall turn to
blah blahÉ.In this section, I'll argue for blah blah; in the next, I'll take up
blah blah blah." That sort of thing.
7. THOU SHALT BE CLEAR. Forget for this
class what you may have been told in English composition courses. Boring, but
clear papers get better grades in philosophy than exciting, but unclear papers.
For instance, it is desirable to begin a paper with something like:
"Socrates argues in the Republic that justice is one of the highest goods. But does he
actually answer Glaucon's Challenge? In this paper, I shall argue that he does
not...." It is not at all desirable to begin with: "Lightning
flickered through the blinds. On the desk lay a whiskey-soaked copy of the
Republic and an empty box of Gitanes. Phil Ossifee, head throbbing, pulled
himself off of the carpet and, for one last time, sat himself before his trusty
Underwood..."
Clarity sub-rule: Go through your paper and eliminate as
much of the 'passive
voice' as you can.
8. THOU SHALT ARGUE!
You can get an A+ on this paper defending an opinion that I disagree with.
Likewise, I may fail you even if I agree 100% with your opinion. What this
shows is that, so far as this class is concerned, I do not care much about your
opinion. What I care about how you reason for it, and this I care about very,
very much. I care so much about how you reason for what you believe that I am
going to base your entire grade on how well you reason. This is because
philosophy is about arguments, not opinions. Indeed, having an opinion does not
require philosophy. Everybody has an opinion. Few have reasons for their
opinions, and fewer still, good reasons. So be warned that I have less interest
in what you believe than in the reasons why you believe it. If you give no
reasons, then it is as good as not writing a paper at all.
9. THOU SHALT BE REASONABLE. No matter
how good your argument is, there will be objections worth making. Your paper
should address some (NB: not to your thesis, but your support for that thesis).
It shows that you have thought this through.
10.
THOU
SHALT ADDRESS THINE AUDIENCE: Do not write a paper to me. I already know the
material and how to argue. I want to know whether you know. And one test of whether
you know is whether you are intelligible to someone who doesn't know the
material. So our paper should address an intelligent reader who knows little or
nothing about the topic.
AMEN