Renee Descartes
Final Paper Assignment 7 – 10 pages, double spaced, 12 pt. font, one-inch margins, no title page
Any attempt to evaluate a philosophical theory presumes that one has done a sufficient job of interpreting that theory. One common mistake made by those who are new to philosophy is to leap to an evaluation of a text before offering a sufficient interpretation.
Thus, as students of academic philosophy, one of our primary tasks is to learn how to argue for an interpretation of a text, while referencing the interpretive work of well-known scholars.
For this assignment, choose a canonical text in the history of philosophy and present a well- create a clear, concise and relatively complete presentation of one thinker’s system (the metaphysical and epistemological arguments they make in the text).
However, in order to achieve this goal you’ll need to complete significant research
before writing a rough draft.
You’ll also need to cite at least one scholar who has published books and/or articles on your topic (in a “secondary source”), so that you can establish your own interpretation in reference to recognized scholarship.
Do not write a sprawling book report or simply list themes as they are given in the text. Instead, carefully present a logically consistent interpretation of your author’s arguments.
In other words, explain what your author means by making certain claims.1 Interpret their writing.
In order to make your interpretation concise and relatively complete, look for an explicit theme or conclusion in your author’s arguments.
Find statements that look like conclusions. For example, look for statements about the nature of reality, the possibility of knowledge with regard to sense experience, or issue in the primary source(s) you’re using.
Once you have skimmed through a few of these sources, choose a your interest. The following is a list of some of the more well-known philosophers in Western history:
Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Cicero, Aquinas, Spinoza, Descartes, Leibniz,
Bacon, Hobbes, Hume, Locke, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Dewey, James, Russell, Husserl, Frege, Heidegger, A. J. Ayer, Carnap, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Quine,Davidson, Derrida, Foucault, Ricoeur, Habermas, Irigaray, Adorno, and, of course there are many contemporary thinkers one could add (a list too long to include here).
Choose a thinker who seems to present a coherent and/or interesting theory (not necessarily one with which you agree).
Then start by reading some of the oversimplified interpretations of that thinkers writings, such as short “overview” books.
