100 Introduction to Philosophy 

PART I ESSAY WRITING GUIDELINES

Those who mark your essays are chiefly looking for two things:

(a) your understanding of material covered in or relevant to the course, reflected in your ability to analyse arguments concisely;
(b) your ability to develop your own criticisms of arguments and to develop arguments to support your own conclusions.

Hints on achieving these two:

Philosophy is not painting by numbers, and these are not the numbers! Use them with intelligence. In philosophy, as in painting, one learns how to do it by close inspection of the work of philosophers (or painters). If in doubt about how to write, write as if to explain things to people who know less philosophy than you do - try it out on your friends.

Analysis

All disciplines involve reasoning but there is a special focus on it in philosophy. In Section 2 of the course, you will be introduced to different kinds of reasoning and a vocabulary designed for talking about reasoning and argument. It is important that you master this vocabulary and get into the habit of using it when thinking about your own and other people's arguments.

The aim of an analysis of an argument is to show what the bare bones of the argument are. This is not a précis and is often best done backwards! - read on …

Ask:

1. What question is this piece asking?
2. What answer is given to that question?
3. What reasons are given in support of that answer?
4. What reasons are given in support of those reasons - and so on until you reach 5.
5. What are the 'premises' (i.e. assumptions or reasons for which no reasons are given)?
6. What sort of support are the reasons supposed to be providing for the conclusions?
7. Bear in mind throughout that you want to sift out everything which is not absolutely vital to the case being made - you want to reveal what is essential.
8. It is a fairly natural human failing to misinterpret (more or less wilfully) arguments for conclusions you disagree with, thereby making them seem weaker than they are - be wary.

Criticism

Once you have your 'wiring diagram' of the argument, you can set about criticising it relevantly:

Internal criticisms:

How well do the reasons support the conclusion?
Are there stronger reasons than the author gives for the same conclusion?
Do the reasons equally support an alternative conclusion?
Are there reasons for not accepting the conclusion, or any of the assumptions?
Does anything follow from the conclusion, which might appear to be grounds for rejecting it?
Are there ambiguities in any of the terms or claims made?
Are there alternative interpretations of what is being argued?

External criticisms:

Are there alternative answers to the question, which the author has not considered?
What reasons could be given to support these answers?

Next:

1. How might the author respond to your criticisms - it is unlikely that any of the authors you read would just say "Oh, silly me, back to the drawing board" - philosophers are not like that!
2. How would you respond to the author's supposed response?
3. Set up a dialogue (as Plato did!).

Originality

Doing this sort of analysis of philosophical writings will prepare you for presenting your own approach to philosophical questions in a similar way. You are encouraged to be creative and use your imagination and certainly to put forward your own views on questions asked, but you need to do so within the discipline of philosophy. It is often best to say what your conclusion is at the start of your essay (philosophy is not a detective story) then the reader knows where you are going and can better appreciate how you are getting there.

Ideally, essays should begin with an abstract - i.e. brief statement of the thesis of your argument and the main reasons you are offering in support of it. An abstract is not just a précis: it does not have to and usually should not preserve the order of presentation of the main body of the essay. Abstracts are usually better written after the rest of the essay.

Get into the habit of writing abstracts of everything you read. To discover what an abstract is, try reading abstracts (where they appear) of journal articles and short reviews of books.

Quotes

It is rarely necessary to quote at length in philosophy. Quotations should be offered only in support of a point or interpretation which you have also explained in your own words. You should never use the quote to 'do your talking for you'. Words quoted do not contribute to the word length of the essay.

Quotations should be clearly marked as such: given them lines to themselves, indent, quotation marks, and a precise reference which enables the reader to find the quote - this requires page numbers and edition number where relevant.

Inclusive Language

The Centre for Philosophy is committed to the University's advisory guidelines on Inclusive Language and Social Diversity, which are intended to raise awareness and assist staff and students in avoiding language which excludes, degrades or gives unintentional offence. For example, "learning difficulties" is preferred to "mentally handicapped"; "black" is preferred to "coloured"; "her/his" or "she/he" is preferred to "he"; and "humankind" or "human" is preferred to "mankind" or "man". For University guidelines see http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/equalopp/ or see guidance in the pamphlet posted on the Part I noticeboard.

Bibliographies

All texts you have referred to or used in the preparation for your essay should be listed in alphabetical order along with publishers and dates of publication. Hint: make a note of these details of everything you read as you go along. Example: Thomas Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" in James E. White (ed.), Introduction to Philosophy (West Publishing Company, 1989). You do not have to stick to exactly this format, but the information should be there.

Plagiarism

Your work should be the result of your own thought. If you are rephrasing or précising someone else's thought, you should say so and cite the source. If in doubt, err on the side of avoiding plagiarism by acknowledging and citing your source.