- We will meet in my office, once per week, for each week of Michaelmas term and for the first two weeks of Hilary Term.
- During Michaelmas term, we will cover one topic every two weeks. During Hilary, we will cover one topic every week.
- Prior to each meeting, you should submit (i) an essay answering the question assigned for that week and (ii) a typed up body of condensed notes from the reading you've completed.
- The essay should be no more than 1400 words long and should be submitted as a Google Doc. (You are welcome to write your essay using a different word processor. But once you finish writing it, you should create a Google Doc and paste what you wrote there.)
- The notes can be of whatever form is most useful for you. I find that a 'map' of the different philosophical positions, with each position labelled with the main arguments for (and each counterarguments against) to be particularly useful; I lay out these arguments for and against just using bullet points. Again, they should be uploaded as a Google Doc along with your essay.
- This essay length is short: that's because I'm looking for quality, not quantity. If you haven't redrafted the essay twice before submitting it, then you probably aren't investing enough time in polishing the essay.
- For each topic during Michaelmas term, in the first week you'll submit an original essay and set of notes. For the second week you'll revise that essay and set of notes, partly on the basis of what we discussed in the first tutorial.
- You should share your essay and notes with me (william.macaskill@philosophy.ox.ac.uk) no later than 5pm the day before the tutorial. For example, if we are meeting on Thursday at 3pm, you should submit the essay by Wednesday at 5pm. I will treat late submissions as non-submissions and will not read them.
Boldfaced books are strongly recommended.
- Berger, F. R., Happiness, Justice, and Freedom: The Moral and Political Philosophy of John Stuart Mill, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
- Bykvist, K., Utilitarianism: a Guide for the Perplexed, London: Continuum, 2009.
- Crisp, R., Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Mill on Utilitarianism, London: Routledge, 1997.
- Ryan, A., The philosophy of John Stuart Mill, 2nd ed., Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998.
- Ryan, A., J. S. Mill, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974.
- Skorupski, J., John Stuart Mill, London: Routledge, 1989.
- Skorupski, J. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Mill, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Research
Writing
For more resources on writing, see the final section of 'How to Do Well in Philosophy, part 1', listed above.