Throughout the class you will be required to complete several argumentative research papers. In these papers you will be required to develop an argumentative thesis, which will be the focus of your paper. So, what exactly am I looking for with your thesis? How do you pick one? Etc.
Firstly, it is important to realize what this paper is not. It is not a simple research paper concerned with the collection and presentation of factual data (although, you will invariably have to do some of that in your paper). Nor, is this a compare and contrast piece wherein you discuss the similarities and differences between two or more theories/ systems. Instead, it is an argumentative research paper, which means that you must have a clear position that you argue for.
Your first hurdle will be to remember that an argumentative work cannot be neutral. This is a struggle for many as most of the course work you have and will do requires the writer to remain impartial. While that is well and good for a history, science, or social science paper, it is incorrect for a philosophy paper. NO PHILOSOPHY PAPER IS OR CAN BE TRULY NEUTRAL. Why? The simple reason is that when you are writing a philosophic work you are offering an interpretation of that thing, which you are supposed to attempt to prove with your research. In doing so, you are saying that your interpretation should be seen as the correct one. You can’t really say that without asserting your own partiality. Therefore, any paper that tries to remain neutral is going to be inferior and therefore receive a reduced grade. This doesn’t mean that you can’t write in the third person (if you so desire), but it means that your work must have a clear position which it asserts as being correct. How do you pick a topic? Well, the question I get asked the most is, “Where can I find a list of topics?” To that I always say, “No such list exists.” I have never made, nor will I ever make a list of topics? Why? Well, the point of philosophy is to ask questions and seek to answer them. Both of those steps are equally important. To that end, I believe that offering a list of topics goes against what philosophy is all about. It is just as important to learn how to ask questions, or at least learn how to identify questions worth answering, as it is to try and answer them. Further, and in a more general sense, if you merely selected a topic from some arbitrary collection your papers will invariably be mere reproductions of already existing work. I don’t expect anyone in this class to write a publishable piece (though kudos if you do), but I do expect people to be invested in their work and try to express something that has meaning to them. Everyone has different interests, different backgrounds and different study focuses. Ideally, what you choose to write will be somehow related to those things.
How then do we pick our topic? Well, the answer is actually fairly simple. When the time comes for you to pick your topic, answer these questions to the best of your ability: