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'—all 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..."
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