Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne Philosophical Import Paper
Description
Content: Your final paper should examine an issue of philosophical import in some depth. This may be done in a variety of ways, but the paradigmatic example would be to discuss what one philosopher says about the issue, discuss how another philosopher disagrees, and finally offer your own evaluation of these two differing views–for example, by synthesizing them, denying them both, or arguing that one is more plausible than the other for whatever reason. Fortunately, you have a rough draft of precisely that paper already written, so the best way to complete this assignment will be to go back to your three short papers, edit them in accordance with the feedback you’ve been given, add an introduction, conclusion, and transition paragraphs, and polish it until it shines. The final product should be about 2000 words.
The issue you examine may be a metaphysical claim, a value claim, or an epistemological claim, but it should be one of those! Your paper should cite few sources–obviously you should cite the original or translated work of any philosopher you discuss, but beyond that you should not use more than three or four other sources. Your bibliography should not be included in your word count. I do not have a citation format preference beyond “consistent.”
Your paper will be graded across five areas:
Did you identify a specific argument about metaphysics, values, or epistemology? (0-10 points)
Did you clearly and accurately explain the positions on this matter of two historically important philosophers? (0-30 points)
Did you provide your own conclusion on the matter, backed by careful reasoning and evidence and grounded in the thoughts of the philosophers you’ve cited? (0-20 points)
Did you cite the original text(s) of those philosophers, along with no more than four other academically appropriate sources, in a consistent and recognized citation style (e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago)? (0-20 points)
Is your paper grammatically correct, proofread, formatted as instructed, and otherwise linguistically coherent? (0-20 points)