History of Philosophy Lecture 10 Writing Philosophy Papers By David Kelsey

Guidelines Here are some general guidelines for writing a philosophy paper: 1. Your philosophy paper will make an argument. 2. The philosophy paper you will write in this course will be of 2 kinds: –a. The positive approach: –b. The negative approach:

Keep it modest & starting the writing process 3. Keep the scope of your paper modest. 4. How do you start the paper writing process? –Read and think about it –Work backwards

Start early & be simple 5. Start the paper early, at least a few weeks in advance of the due date. –Finding your thoughts on a subject can be difficult. 6. Be Simple: –Simple straightforward prose

Make the structure obvious and Be concise yet fully explain 7. Make the structure of your paper obvious: 8. Be concise yet fully explain –Cover one or two small points but do fully explore them

Chuck out what’s unnecessary 9. Chuck out unnecessary paragraphs: –Each paragraph should be necessary in making your argument –Each sentence should be a necessary part of its paragraph –Each word should be a necessary part of its sentence

Avoid vagueness and ambiguity, anticipate objections & editing your draft 10. Avoid vagueness and ambiguity. 11. Anticipate objections:Imagine the reader of your paper is a devil’s advocate in the worst kind of way. 12. Read and re-read your draft

Vagueness A vague statement is one whose meaning is indistinct, imprecise or lacks details. Degrees: Vagueness isn’t all or nothing. It comes in degrees. –Apartment example

Clarifying vagueness Desirable vagueness: sometimes vagueness is actually desirable. –Being Romantic Clarify: If we come across a vague statement we can simply try to clarify the lack of detail or indistinct-ness. –Job example

Vagueness and Propositions A vague statement –it is unclear what proposition the sentence asserts at all. –It could be any one of a number of propositions

Ambiguous Claims An ambiguous claim is one that is subject to more than one interpretation. Claim x   –P1 P2

Semantic Ambiguity A sentence that is semantically ambiguous is one which contains an ambiguous word or phrase. For example: Fixing the ambiguous word

Syntactic Ambiguity A sentence is syntactically ambiguous when it is ambiguous because of its grammar or the way it has been structured or put together. When you have come across a semantic ambiguity you can simply alter the grammar Or you might need to re-write the claim altogether.

Grouping Ambiguity Grouping ambiguity: –unclear whether some word in the sentence is referring to a group or an individual. –Secretaries and Physicians –Lawnmowers and dirt bikes