Short Writing Assignment #1 for PHIL 120 (Fall 2009)
Instructor: Dr. Jan Garrett
Most recent alteration: September 10, 2009 Three short papers are due over the course of the semester, at the Friday session of the third, seventh, and twelfth weeks of classes, unless you are notified otherwise.
The first short paper is due Friday, September 18, for those writing on Confucianism or Upanishadic Hinduism; Monday, September 21, for those writing on the Defense Speech of Socrates (Apology) (or the Crito.)
The best way to begin preparing for these papers is to read the appropriate textual material well in advance and work through the corresponding Study Questions that have been provided on the course website. Be engaged in the classroom discussion of these texts in the weeks before the SWA is due.
Start work on these papers several days before they are due, so you can revise your original drafts while consciously paying attention to the virtues of good papers, also known as Intellectual Standards, and trying to ensure that you have followed the requirements stated below.
Incidentally, such intellectual standards are normally used by teachers in evaluating written work in subjects like ours. You might as well be aware of what they are.
The papers should be in essay style, broken into paragraphs of no more than ten lines each. Papers may be from 500 to 700 words in length. They should be double-spaced and employ complete sentences, most of them declarative sentences. How the sentences are related to one another should be clear.
On the first page of the paper, put your name, email address, assignment indicator (SWA 1, SWA 2, etc.), class and section (e.g., 120-002), the date the assignment is being turned in, and the word count. Please do not forget the word count.
Quantity
If you have not written 500 words of original composition, you have probably not done enough.
When figuring the word count, do not include any quoted material in your word count.
Documentation
Do not fail to properly quote material taken directly from the textbook. Document your direct quotations using embedded page numbers, for instance (11) for page 11 of the textbook. Plagiarism is an academic offense. Please read and be sure to understand this FAQ page on plagiarism.
If you use any outside sources, please minimize borrowing passages from these for purposes of writing the paper. If you do directly cite an outside source, be sure to cite accurately and provide an accurate bibliographic reference to your source. Plagiarism is an academic offense.
I reserve the right to require that you supply me with a copy of your outside source, so that I can check your use of sources.
For a sample short writing essay on a philosophical topic, this may be helpful, but pay attention to the note at the beginning.
Options for Discussion in Third Week SWA (SWA 1):
Confucianism (Do not discuss the views of both Mencius and Hsun-tzu.)
Upanishadic Hinduism (Do not discuss the views of both Shankara and Ramajuna.)
The Defense Speech of Socrates
The Socratic dialogue Crito
I. Confucianism or Upanishadic Hindusim Explain in your own words the particular philosophy of human nature on which you have chosen to write. Usually, the diagnosis and solution sections of the chapter in Ten Theories provide the heart of the philosophy at issue, but they do not stand on their own: they usually assume an encompassing world view or metaphysics and a theory of human nature, so those must be addressed as well. The task is to show you've understood the essentials and could explain them to somebody else.
II. The Defense Speech (Apology) and Crito For the Apology focus on the following questions: Granted that Socrates is trying to prove his innocence with respect to the charges against him, how does his story of his getting into, and practice of, philosophy undercut those charges? What, from his perspective, is the problem that most of his fellow citizens have? What alternate set of values does Socrates defend? Why is his activity more honorable than that of winning Olympic athletes? Relate the last three questions to the charges against him.
Those writing on the Crito will have the disadvantage that we will not be discussing this dialogue in class. If you select it, focus on the arguments given by Crito for what he says Socrates should do and, especially, the arguments given by Socrates (or rather "the laws" that are speaking through Socrates) for why he should not do as Crito urges. What sorts of things does Socrates value most highly? What sorts of things do Crito and the Athenians that voted to condemn Socrates value more highly?