What is more tenable, idealism or materialism
(Slightly Expanded From Syllabus):
RESEARCH PAPER (80 PTS)
The paper must be a minimum of 1500 words (approx. 6 double spaced pages). The paper should have standard formatting and consistently conform to one of the major styles of citation (as per the short analysis papers), and should develop a specific question or theme in philosophy pertaining to the many we encounter this semester. Students are expected to consult and incorporate no less than 3 peer reviewed sources.
The question/theme can be an expanded treatment of one of the short analysis papers, but in such cases the research paper will be expected to have wholly original content that builds on that exercise (at most the research paper can gesture back at the analysis—e.g., “in my analysis paper I examined the critical challenges of utilitarianism, concluding X, here I will consider Y”—cutting and pasting original content from the analysis paper is unacceptable).
Your paper should pose and answer a specific question, or achieve an objective explored among the many during
the semester. Some starting point examples include:
Metaphysics:
*Reality beyond the senses? Assessing the rationalist argument for and empiricist argument against reality beyond
the senses (Plato, Descartes, Hume, Locke)
*What is more tenable, idealism or materialism? Neither, why/how?
*Is mind–body dualism a “problem?” Whether so, can it be resolved?
*Assessing classic arguments for the existence of God…
*Assessing Berkeley’s immaterialism…
*Assessing Plato’s/Descartes’s/Locke’s argument for the existence of a soul…
Ethics/moral philosophy:
*Is moral relativism coherent/defensible?
*How should the Covid–19 pandemic be approached ethically: deontology, utilitarianism, or virtue ethics? (Many
alternatives to considering the pandemic here: the three major moral traditions can be assessed on their own…)
*What is the ‘problem of evil?’—is it a “problem,” whether so, why? And is there a solution?
*Can there be morality without religion?—the relationship between morality and the Church (various avenues to
take here).
Epistemology:
*Escaping Plato’s Cave? What are the implications of Plato’s cave allegory for education?
*What (if any) are the limits to skepticism? Is absolute knowledge/certainty possible?
*Does Descartes’s achieve his goal for an absolute foundation for knowledge?
*Is there such a thing as “a priori” ideas/knowledge? (Does the “synthetic/analytic” distinction work?)
Aesthetics and/or Love:
*Film/literature/other art and/as philosophy…
*Assessing Plato’s understanding of love…
ONLINE LINK FOR GUIDANCE ON PHILOSOPHIC WRITING
The following online link provides helpful guidelines regarding good philosophic writing (courtesy of Professor
Jim Pryor and his colleagues from Princeton University):
http://www.princeton.edu/~jimpryor/general/writing.html (Links to an external site.) (if this link is broken
Google “Jim Pryor philosophy guidelines”)
RUBRIC: the two sided grading rubric provided on Canvas is an excellent guide for your writing in this class.
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