PHI 111 Module 2: Essay
Overview
According to the doctrine of dualism, the mind is a nonphysical substance. In this way, dualism asserts that the mind is quite different from the physical brain. Moreover, according to a particular brand of dualism referred to as interactionism, the nonphysical mind interacts with the physical body/brain. Thus, for example, when one is thinking about writing this essay, the interactionist holds that our thought processes are in some sense nonphysical in character while still being tied to the brain in necessary ways.
Physicalism, on the other hand, asserts just the opposite of dualism. According to physicalism, the mind is purely a physical substance. Said differently, the mind is the brain. Under this account of the mind-body problem, of which there are different types, all processes that we would typically refer to as mental in character (thinking, doubting, questioning, dreaming, consciousness, unconsciousness) are merely underlying brain processes in action, i.e., particular configurations of neurons firing in a manner that is governed by natural law.
Essay Question: Critically evaluate either the doctrine of interactionism or physicalism. In other words, which view gives a more plausible answer to the fundamental question raised by the mind- body problem? Note that one can examine physicalism as a whole or restrict the scope of your essay to a particular type of physicalism.
Instructions
1. Click to download the Essay Writing Guide.
2. Write and submit a thoughtful, clear and succinct thesis writing assignment of 1000-1500 words, in direct response to the Module 2 assignment above.
3. Draw directly upon our assigned textbook readings for this Module in carefully crafting your detailed response.
4. In answering the essay question provided, carefully review, reflect upon, and attempt to integrate the textbook material covered in Chapter 2: Section 2.0-2.4.
5. Please double-space your submission, include your name at the top of its first page, and be sure to cite all sources quoted or paraphrased from (even if it’s only our textbook). Please take careful note of the above formatting instructions.
6. Don’t forget to include a bibliography or “works cited” page at the end!
7. Submit it to the Module 2 Essay Assignment Submission Folder no later than the last day of this Module.
See the Schedule in the Syllabus Module for due dates. Review the Rubric attached to the Assignment Submission Folder for grading information.
Module 02/EssayWritingGuide.pdf
Essay Writing Guide Essay Essential Elements
These are the essential elements that I will be looking for in your essay. Please note that this is just a brief summary. For a more detailed account of each of these elements, please carefully read the Guide to Writing a Philosophy Essay found just below. In order to have a greater understanding of what I will be looking for in your essay, it is necessary that you carefully read the complete Essay Writing Guide.
• Introduction – Here you will briefly but accurately explain one or more of the main concepts that are essential for stating your thesis statement.
• Thesis statement contained within the intro – Your thesis should be found in
your introduction and should state your conclusion/fundamental answer to the question, along with supporting reasons.
• Definitions of central concepts, along with original examples – Definitions
and examples should be clear and should speak to the educated but uninformed reader.
• Body of the essay 4-6 paragraphs long, not including the introduction or
conclusion – The body is where you will defend your thesis, define key terms and consider counterarguments.
• Paragraphs of the essay 4-8 sentences long – This is a general guideline.
Avoid paragraphs that are too short or too long.
• Two to three arguments that support your thesis – An argument can be defined as a set of premises that provide evidence and support for a definite conclusion. Arguments need to be clear and directly connected to your thesis.
• One counterargument to your thesis – The counterargument that you explain
should represent a charitable interpretation of your hypothetical critic’s response to one or more aspects of your thesis.
• One response to the counterargument to you thesis – Your task here is to
carefully respond to the prior counterargument that you laid out.
• Two brief quotations properly cited from primary sources – Primary sources can come from our text or from an outside source.
• Conclusion – Your conclusion will represent a summary of the key points of your
essay. Formatting and Mechanics
• MLA or APA Formatting. See Start Here pages for more detail. • Spelling/Punctuation/Grammar. See Start Here pages for more detail.
Total Points Possible: 50 pts Word Count: 1000-1500 words
Guide to Writing a Philosophy Essay
Why Writing a Philosophy Essay is Hard Work
George Walker Bush once said about being the President of the United States, “It’s hard work.” Such is also the case with writing a philosophy essay. What makes it hard work?
1. It’s abstract, and abstract thinking isn’t easy.
2. It’s technical, and technical writing requires considerable brain power.
3. It’s systematic, and being systematic requires being organized, which we all know is work.
4. It’s explicit, and being explicit entails knowing exactly what your point is and it requires the ability to find the correct language to convey this point, which can be a real pain.
5. It employs critical thinking skills, and critical thinking skills do not necessarily come naturally.
6. It’s foreign to many of us, and tasks that are foreign often require more time and effort to complete than tasks that aren’t foreign.
7. It can be emotionally challenging, and doing things that are emotionally challenging can be, well, difficult.
What a Philosophy Essay Isn’t
While there is considerable overlap between writing philosophy essays and writing of other sorts, a philosophy essay is unique in many respects. For example, being explicit, systematic and technical are characteristics of a good philosophy essay, yet if a short story was too explicit, systematic and technical it may end up being quite poor. For this reason, it is worth expanding on what a philosophy essay isn’t.
1. Creative writing—with creative writing, it can be quite important to be aesthetically
pleasing and to show, as opposed to tell, your reader what your point is. However, in a philosophy essay being aesthetically pleasing is by no means a requirement, and explicitly revealing your point is critical to the task at hand.
2. Poetry—while there can be philosophical ideas contained in poetry, a philosophy essay is distinct from this. Vagueness, ambiguity and the like can be virtues of a poem; not so when it comes to a philosophy essay.
3. Editorials—editorialized writing is often written with emotionally charged language and consists of a series of loosely connected opinions. In philosophy essays, this is not the case. Opinions need to be backed by arguments and bound by a distinct and well defined goal.
4. Purely descriptive writing—being properly descriptive is very important in a variety of settings. For example, if your boss emails you and asks you to describe the expenditures for a particular month, accurate descriptions are essential. Likewise, if you are telling an adventure story for magazine, a clear and true account of the adventure can be just what pulls the reader in. Yet, while correct descriptions of
events are important in a philosophy essay, they are not enough. An evaluative component is central. In essence, the task of a philosophy essay will be to not only describe a particular theory or position, but also to explain why it is a good one.
What a Philosophy Essay Is
In general, a philosophy essay is a carefully articulated defense of a thesis statement. A philosophy essay will have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Each part of it will hang together in a clear and coherent manner.
1. Introduction—the introduction is where you will “set the stage” for what will follow. More specifically, you will briefly explain one or more of the main concepts you will be discussing in your essay that are essential for stating your thesis statement. Your introduction should be concise and dedicated to giving the reader just enough information for conveying the meaning and relevance of your thesis statement.
2. Thesis—your thesis should be expressed in one or more sentences. For this class, I would say no more than three. Here, you will state your position on a particular topic and give a basic sketch of why this is your position. That is, you will state the reasons that support your conclusion on the topic in question, i.e., you will state your basic philosophical argument. For a more detailed account of the characteristics of an argument, please visit this site:
• http://www.philosophypages.com/lg/e01.htm. As you read it, carefully note the critical difference between an argument’s premises and conclusion, and the logical relationship that premises share with the conclusion.
3. Here are a few examples of theses that are problematic and why they are problematic. The last one is a good thesis.
a. “In this essay, I will answer the assigned essay question by giving my view of active euthanasia and whether or not it should be legal.” Don’t tell the reader that you will answer the essay question. State your answer to the essay question.
b. “I will argue that passive euthanasia is legal.” Uninteresting and merely descriptive. Passive euthanasia IS legal in all states.
c. “I will argue that euthanasia should be legal.” Too general. Which type of euthanasia?
d. “I will argue that active euthanasia should be legal.” This is better, although the thesis is not informative enough. Why should it be legal? State your reasons.
e. “I will argue that active voluntary euthanasia should be legal because it is supported by the principle of beneficence and principle of autonomy. Moreover, I will argue that the most common slippery slope arguments that are used against active euthanasia are not decisive.” Eureka!
http://www.philosophypages.com/lg/e01.htm
For more information on writing thesis statements and to help you formulate your own thesis, please consult the following two webpages:
• http://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/developing-thesis • http://twp.duke.edu/uploads/assets/developing%20a%20central%20claim.pdf
4. Body—The body of your essay is where you will defend your thesis. Here, you will
carefully explain and provide original examples for key concepts/theories/substantive points. Each concept/theory/substantive point that you make needs its own distinct paragraph. Moreover, it should be clear to the reader just what point each paragraph is making and how each paragraph relates to the thesis. So, if your thesis was that ethical egoism is an implausible moral theory because it suffers from three significant weaknesses (you would state the weaknesses in your thesis), the body of your essay would involve, among other things, carefully stating and explaining ethical egoism, as well as dedicating at least one paragraph to each of the three weaknesses. Finally, it is important to explain and address at least one of your opponent’s best arguments. For the purposes of this class, your opponent’s arguments, which in some manner oppose your thesis, are called counterarguments. For a more information on counterarguments, please read the following page:
• http://revelle.ucsd.edu/humanities/writing-info/argument/counterargument.html
5. Conclusion—in the last paragraph or two of your essay, you will give a brief summary of the key points. In addition, a statement of your view is needed. It is a nice touch to frame your view in manner that also addresses your opponent’s perspective and the basic shortcomings or your opponent’s perspective. Your conclusion should be as brief as possible. For our purposes, one paragraph should suffice.
Final Thoughts
So, it should now be clear that being President of the United States AND writing a philosophy essay are both hard work and, perhaps, even for some of the same reasons. At the same time, it is also important to note that this guide is very incomplete. The intention here is not to give an exhaustive account of what constitutes a quality philosophy essay, but rather to give you some of the basics of a good philosophy essay.[1] With this in mind, let me leave you with a few things to avoid in writing your philosophy paper:
1. Relying on quotations—quotations are good, but use them sparingly to highlight key passages that you will also explain in your own words.
2. Being informal—avoid all slang in your essay. Your audience is intelligent and desires an intelligently written essay.
3. Historical pieces—don’t attempt to give a history lesson in your essay or write the ideas off as “a product of the time.”
4. Psychological profiles—don’t attempt to reduce a philosopher’s views to his/her personal psychology. Freud may have been spanked as a child, but this is not relevant to whether or not his theory of the mind is plausible.
5. Begging the question—if you said that God exists because everything written in the Bible is true, you have essentially assumed what you are trying to prove. In order for
the Bible to be true, God must exist in the first place, so appealing to it is unhelpful.
6. Trying to accomplish too much—be very careful of trying to address every single argument on a particular topic. Usually the best approach is to pick two or three arguments that support your position and explain them well.
7. Not giving print to one or more opposing viewpoints—in general, you should explain one or two counterarguments that oppose your position and why they are not decisive.
8. Straw man characterizations of one or more opposing viewpoints—always characterize counterarguments in a charitable manner. Failing to do so is a bad practice.
9. Attacking the character of someone—Clinton may have been adulterer, but this feature of his character is not a relevant criticism of his views on War in Iraq.
10. Using a dictionary as a source—rarely do dictionaries solve philosophical disputes. Dictionaries report the common usage of a term, which is usually inadequate for philosophical purposes.
11. Using a religious text as a source—Religious texts are profoundly important in many contexts, but they don’t carry much weight in a philosophy essay. See begging the question.
12. Using Wikipedia as a source—Wikipedia is a great source of information, but sometimes it is incorrect and misleading.
13. Saying “I believe” or “I feel” too much.
14. Being too wordy.
15. Asserting things without support.
16. Using emotionally charged language.
17. Using a word that you aren’t sure what it means.
18. Having a thesis that you aren’t sure what it means.
19. Hyperboles and silly or clicheish metaphors.
20. Telling the reader that “this topic has been debated since the beginning of time.”
[1] For an exhaustive account of writing a philosophy essay, see Lewis Vaughn, Writing Philosophy: A Student’s Guide to Philosophy Essays (Oxford University Press, 2006).