philosophical thinking

8476The final essay assignment is your opportunity to explore and reflect on the development of your philosophical thinking regarding the work you did over the course of this term. This essay is unlike the kind of writing we’ve previously practiced in the course. In Module 1 Discussion Forum, you made some argument about philosophy and the workplace based on your philosophical intuitions. In the final essay assignment, you’ll review what you wrote there, and reflect on how your “pre-philosophical” opinions might have changed, developed, or deepened while studying these topics in philosophy more closely.
In this course, we’ve surveyed a number of topics from the cannon of Western Philosophy, including ethics, politics, religion, metaphysics, and epistemology. However, as many students have come to notice, philosophy is not just something that happened in the past and in textbooks; it is a living field of enquiry which is influenced, and which does influence, the work and life of people throughout society. In our final essay, we will explore those links between the philosophical cannon and contemporary life by considering a particular application of a philosophical topic.

Section A: In addition to the selections that you’ve already mastered from the text, please read one additional essay in the text. You may choose from:

1. The Philosopher as Ethics Consultant in a Psychiatric Ward, Clifton B Perry (p 49) *ATTACHED*
Section B: Your Essay Project will give you the opportunity to review your thinking as it may have evolved from your assertions during the first week of the course regarding questions in philosophy in practice, to your more principled and reasoned arguments later in the course. Before you begin writing your finished project, you should go back to the Module 1 Discussion Forum and review your answers to the introductory discussion questions during the first week. Pick one in particular. It should be one about which your thinking might have developed during the course, and which you can discuss the topic of “philosophical reflection” meaningfully. Notice that a development might include changing your position, but it also might include deepening your understanding of the problem as it relates to philosophy in practice. Choosing the one in which your thinking developed will make the Final Essay Project more interesting (and easier).

Section C: In your essay, talk about the way that your thinking has developed from your “pre-philosophical assertions” which you posted in the Module 1 Discussion Forum, to the more sophisticated position that you developed in your subsequent reflection essay on that topic after reading the essay in Section A.

To begin, (1) copy/paste your initial Module One Discussion Forum assertion, and then (2) defend a thesis in which you argue either for or against your assertion in Module 1 Discussion Forum. Talk about your subsequent argument in the later module and reflection essay. You might review this important post, entitled “What is philosophy”, as you begin to think on the topic of philosophical reflection.

https://robinson-philo.github.io/Chapter-12-Conclusion/Chapter%2012Conclusion/What_is_Philosophy.htm

Think about the role of reflection in the philosophical process. How have you reflected more deeply and in a philosophical way, on the topic that you’ve chosen for this project? Given what you’ve learned in the course, can you make a more sophisticated judgment than you were able to do in the first week?

In particular, try to locate the place where you moved from something like “simply a theory”, or personal preferences and feelings, to something more like the analytic and synthetic mode of operation that is identified with the philosophical activity (discussed in the link above).
Please format your essay according either to MLA or APA format, and include a complete bibliography. There is no word count limit for this assignment.