This assignment is meant to assess your critical understanding of the contents of the class, your capacity to reflect autonomously on them, and your capacity to formulate and defend a philosophical thesis in a written text.
How?
In a philosophy paper, you are expected to propose and defend a thesis (a major claim), offering good objective reasons in support of it. Address the prompt completely. Write a text that demonstrates you studied and understood the contents and formed your independent opinion on them. Explain key concepts with your own words.
Please note that the paper length allows you to do a bit more than the short papers; for instance, it’s a good idea to foresee a potential objection to your thesis and respond to it.
Engage with the class materials, referring directly to them and/or quoting from them. Use short sentences and a clear argumentative strategy. Always credit your sources and avoid plagiarism, including the use of ChatGPT and similar AI text generators. Don’t forget to check out the rubric!
How not?
This is not like the written version of a video-journal. You are not supposed to express your subjective opinion or to write about your own experience or feelings. You will defend your view, but this must be a philosophical thesis supported by an argument, not a subjective thought inspired by the readings or class materials.
Tips
- Address the prompt completely. If the prompt includes more than one question or aspect, your paper should address all of them.
- State your thesis at the very beginning of your paper.
- Make your argumentative steps explicit: announce them in the first paragraph, and then follow them thoroughly.
- Use short sentences and a straightforward style.
- Do not take it for granted that your reader already knows the topics that you are dealing with. You are expected to define explicitly the main concepts that you are using.
- Make sure your paper shows that you studied and understood the materials.
- Use your own words and possibly your own examples. This demonstrates autonomy and capacity for reflection, and helps the reader better understand what you have in mind.
- Connect the conclusion of the paper to the thesis that you stated at the beginning.
- Plagiarism (passing off as your own the ideas or words of someone else) is not allowed in any form. Always credit your sources. Remember that papers are automatically checked for plagiarism.
What is Prisoner’s Dilemma?The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a classic thought experiment in game theory illustrating how rational individuals might fail to cooperate even when it is in their best collective interest to do so. It is typically presented as follows: Imagine two suspects are arrested for a crime. They are isolated from each other and cannot communicate. The authorities do not have enough evidence to convict them of the most serious charge unless at least one confesses. Each prisoner faces a choice: remain silent or betray the other by confessing. – **If both remain silent:** Both receive a relatively light sentence because the authorities can only convict them on a lesser charge. – **If one betrays the other, while the other remains silent:** The betrayer goes free (no punishment), while the silent prisoner receives a heavy sentence. – **If both betray each other:** Both receive a moderate sentence, heavier than what they would have gotten had they cooperated by remaining silent. Even though mutual cooperation (both staying silent) yields a better overall outcome for both prisoners, the logic of self-interest and lack of trust pushes each to betray. The dilemma thus shows how individual rational choices can lead to a collectively worse outcome.