Study Help

It's easy to get lost in the trees of philosophical arguments and lose sight of the forest--the important large-scale positions and the basic reasons for holding those positions. The study questions below are meant to help guide your review of the material and ramp you up to writing a successful essay. Remember that as we cover material in class we are not promoting any one position. Rather, we are looking at positions and considering the arguments for and against them. So, like a good juror listening attentively in a court case, it's important at any given time to keep track of :

(a) What the position under discussion is

(b) What the argument is

(c) Whether the argument is for or against the position

Recommended Readings

* John Perry and Michael Bratman's suggestions for reading philosophy from their Introduction to Philosophy textbook.

* Jim Pryor's Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper is very helpful, especially if you haven't written a philosophy paper before.