how to write an essay in philosophy

General Remarks Research Question Philosophical Texts Quoting Literature Writing

How to Write an Essay in Philosophy

Matthias Egg and Tim Rz

SHS master programmePhilosophical perspectives on the exact sciences and their history

EPFL, 17 October 2012


Outline

1 Some General Remarks about Your Work

2 How to Find a Good Research Question

3 How to Work with Philosophical Texts

4 Using and Quoting Literature

5 Advice for the Writing Process


Getting Started

Recommended Reading for Beginners

Jim Pryors Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paperwww.jimpryor.net Teaching & Advice

What you have to do:

1 Choose a topic according to your interests and find asuitable research question within that topic.

2 Read some philosophical texts related to your questionand understand the arguments in these texts.

3 Develop and defend your own position in response tothese arguments.


Collaboration Within a Group

You are free to do your project alone or in a group of 2 or 3students. Working in a group enables you to

share the workload,discuss your topic with others, which is the best way oflearning about it,develop your teamwork skills.

If you work in a group, you should not completely divide thedifferent tasks among the group members. Reading anddiscussing what other group members have written is importantfor

the quality of each part,the internal coherence of your whole essay.


Collaboration with your Assistant

There will be at least 3 meetings with your supervisingassistant:

1 in October/November to discuss the choice of topic2 in February to discuss intermediate progress3 in May to discuss your results

Further remarks:

Do not hesitate to contact your assistant (by email)whenever you have questions. If necessary, additionalmeetings can be arranged.It is normal to encounter difficulties in the course of yourwork. We prefer to help you with them as early as possible,rather than in the final version of your essay!It is also possible (even desirable) to send us parts of yourwork at early stages and ask for feedback.


What Is a Suitable Research Question?

Main DifficultyIt takes a lot of work to understand philosophical texts and todefend a philosophical claim.

Therefore:Choose a sufficiently specific research question, which enablesyou to focus on only a few arguments!

A good philosophy paper is modest and makes a small point; but itmakes that point clearly and straightforwardly, and it offers goodreasons in support of it. (Jim Pryor)

Dont worry that your research question could be too specific. Itis always possible to widen the scope of your question as yougo along, but it is hard to narrow it.


How to Find a Good Research Question

1 Start with a general question that suits your interests andyour background knowledge. We encourage you to workon a topic that is connected with your main branch atEPFL.

2 Read some introductory text (e.g., from the StanfordEncyclopedia of Philosophy, Oxford Handbooks, or a goodreview article; ask your assistant for references) to identifythe main positions and arguments with regard to thatquestion.

3 Focus on one or two of these arguments and try tounderstand how they work. This involves reading someoriginal texts very carefully.

4 Based on this understanding, specify your researchquestion.


Specifying a Research Question: An Example

1 General question: What is a scientific explanation?2 Main positions: deductive-nomological model, causal

model, unification model. There are several arguments forand against each of these models.

3 Focus on one argument against the deductive-nomologicalmodel: the problem of explanatory irrelevancies.

4 Specific research question: Can the problem ofexplanatory irrelevancies be overcome within thedeductive-nomological model of explanation?


How to Read a Philosophical Text

Another Reading Recommendation

www.jimpryor.net also provides some Guidelines on ReadingPhilosophy.

Reading philosophy is not like reading a story or a newspaperarticle. Be prepared to spend much time on a few sentences!Your main task is to understand the argumentative structure ofthe text. This requires the following steps:

1 Identify the central claims of the text.2 Try to sensibly divide the text into small parts.3 Figure out what the function of each part is (premise,

conclusion, example, definition, conceptual distinction etc.)and how the parts are connected to each other.

Only when this job is completed can you begin to assess (and,possibly, criticize) the authors position.


How to Write about a Text You Have Read

Your essay should clearly show that you have understood thetexts you have read. Therefore, do not just recount what thetexts say, but try to reconstruct their arguments.

Recounting a Text

The author starts by saying X, then he says Y, and he finishesby saying Z.

Reconstructing an Argument

The author claims that X. His main argument for X is Y, whichdepends on premise Z. He seeks to make Z plausible byintroducing . . .

Focus on a few arguments (namely those which are relevant foryour research question), and reconstruct these very carefully!


Recounting vs. Reconstructing: An ExampleFrom J. Pryor: Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper

Original text passage (D. Hume, 1740):

All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into twodistinct kinds, which I shall call impressions and ideas. Thedifference betwixt these consists in the degrees of force andliveliness, with which they strike upon the mind, and make theirway into our thought or consciousness. Those perceptions, whichenter with most force and violence, we may name impressions;and under this name I comprehend all our sensations, passions,and emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul. Byideas I mean the faint images of these in thinking and reasoning.

Example of a bad paraphrase:Hume says all perceptions of the mind are resolved into two kinds,impressions and ideas. The difference is in how much force andliveliness they have in our thoughts and consciousness. Theperceptions with the most force and violence are impressions.These are sensations, passions, and emotions. Ideas are the faintimages of our thinking and reasoning.


Discerning the Structure of a Text

All the perceptions of the human mind resolvethemselves into two distinct kinds, which Ishall call impressions and ideas. Thedifference betwixt these consists in thedegrees of force and liveliness, with whichthey strike upon the mind, and make their wayinto our thought or consciousness.

Those perceptions, which enter with mostforce and violence, we may nameimpressions; and under this name Icomprehend all our sensations, passions, andemotions, as they make their first appearancein the soul.

By ideas I mean the faint images of these inthinking and reasoning.

introduces a distinctionbetween two kinds ofperceptions: impressionsand ideas

characterizesimpressions

characterizes ideas


Recounting vs. Reconstructing: An ExampleFrom J. Pryor: Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper

Example of a better paraphrase:Hume says that there are two kinds of perceptions, or mentalstates. He calls these impressions and ideas. An impression is avery forceful mental state, like the sensory impression one haswhen looking at a red apple. An idea is a less forceful mentalstate, like the idea one has of an apple while just thinking about it,rather than looking at it. It is not so clear what Hume means hereby forceful. He might mean. . .

This paraphrase makes clear the structure of Humesdistinction.It also gives an example to illustrate the distinction.It serves as a good starting point for further thinking, e.g.,about what Hume means by forceful.


When Are References Necessary?

References are necessary whenever you use results,arguments, data, etc. of others.In our case, this applies to philosophical authors as well as authors fromother branches, such as mathematics, physics, CS, engineering, etc.This means: if you use a five year old script of a lecture in linear algebrafor your paper, then you have to add a reference to this script.References are not necessary in the case of commonknowledge. Examples of common knowledge are: Paris isthe capital of France, or World War 1 lasted from 1914 to1918.mathematical definitions, theorems, as well as laws of physics are NOTcommon knowledge in general.

Important practical adviceNote down references in every stage of the writing process.Otherwise, you may forget where the ideas come from, andretrieving them at the end will be tedious work!


Why Are References Necessary and Useful?

Avoid plagiarism. The papers, scripts, textbooks etc. youuse are the intellectual property of others. If you do notacknowledge the use of their property, you are stealing it.Plagiarism will be sanctioned.References give context. The bibliography of a paperindicates against what background a paper was written.This is helpful because you can a) read up on thatbackground, b) check whether the author takes intoaccount the relevant literature.References keep track of sources. It can be very fruitfulto check references, especially if there is some doubt thatan author represents other peoples arguments, data, etc.correctly. (We will do this with your paper.) It is thereforeimportant to be as specific as possible.


What Kind of Literature Can I Use?

The only admissible references are to scientificliterature. This excludes references to e.g. Wikipedia, butincludes references to e.g entries of the online StanfordEncyclopedia of Philosophy.Does this mean that you cannot use Wikipedia, or anysource you like? No. Use Wikipedia to get ideas,literature, hints. But in the end, you will have to groundyour work in other souces, possibly found on Wikipedia.But why may I not quote Wikipedia? It is very wellpossible to get good information from anywhere, but theproblem is that you do not know whether information foundon Wikipedia is reliable. The difference between Wikipediaand SEP is that the latter is written by leading philosophersand peer-reviewed.


Different Ways to Include Ideas Taken from Others

1 Quotations: This is a verbal reproduction of a passagefrom a source put in quotation marks. Every change youmake to the original has to be indicated, including addeditalics, omissions etc. Quotations should only be used ifnecessary, i.e. if the exact phrasing of a passage isimportant. Quotations do not speak for themselves, buthave to be explained or paraphrased they do not savework.

2 Paraphrases: See above for how to paraphraseintelligently. Reference to your source is indispensable.

3 Ideas, Theses, Concepts: The source needs to beindicated as precisely as possible (page range orsection/chapter number), even if no specific passage isquoted or paraphrased.


How do I cite correctly? Form.

1 References in the text. They should be as specific aspossible. Example:[t]he miracle of the appropriateness of the language ofmathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is awonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve(Wigner, 1960, p. 14).

2 Corresponding item in the bibliography. Example:Wigner, E. P. (1960). The unresonable effectiveness ofmathematics in the natural sciences. Communications onPure and Applied Mathematics, 13: 114.

The exact form of items for various kinds of literature can beinferred from e.g. the bibliography in the booklet of this course.I recommend using BibTeX then you never have to worryabout formatting again.


Writing, Step 0: Essay Plan

Writing presupposes that you have settled for a good researchquestion, and have read (some of) the literature. Therefore:

Step 0: Write a research plan for your project (2 3 pages)in which you

briefly summarize (in your own words) the general contextof your research question,state clearly and precisely what your research question is,outline your plan on how you are going to address thatquestion.Here you should mention what literature you plan to focuson. Dont try to cover too much literature, but specify whichparts (chapters, sections) of the texts you think are relevant.

Send this essay plan to your TA by 23 November 2012.


Writing, Step 1: Table of Contents

Step 1: Write a table of contents. The table of contents isstructured as follows:

1 Introduction: a clear formulation of your research question,and presentation of your methods.

2 Presentation of the philosophical context of your researchquestion, and of the necessary scientific background.

3 Your main arguments, results, etc.4 Conclusion: summing up the most important results,

pointing out further, open questions etc.5 Bibliography

Note under each heading what your plan for this section is.The division into subtasks will make your life easier. Somesections will need further subdivision.


Writing, Step 2: Start in the middle

Start writing in the middle, that is, with your contribution,your main arguments, theses etc. and the necessarybackground. Dont start with introduction and conclusion.Background follows your contribution.One possibility is to start with a careful analysis of anargument from the literature that addresses your researchquestion, and then go on from there with your ownargument.Outline first: write in thoughts and theses, not insentences. No one cares about correct sentences whenwriting a first sketch.Writing down your arguments (and those of others) willhelp you get clear on your thoughts. You will find outwhether you make sense, are confused etc. So start early,especially before you feel ready to write.


Writing, Step 3: Evaluate and Restructure

You have written a first, badly formulated outline of your paper.Now:

Reread what you have written and decide if you needadditional literature, if your research question still makessense, if you need to restructure your paper etc.If you feel confident that the structure of your paper is ok,you should now start to formulate: Write a text with fullsentences and paragraphs so that other people can read it,and then show it to your TA.If you dont feel that confident, talk to your group, others, oryour TA, and restructure your paper accordingly.


Writing, Step 4: Formulate

Now you do whats left over:

Write conclusion and introduction, both not too long. Note:The conclusion is not your personal opinion section, andthe purpose of the introduction is to state what you do(question) and how you do it (outline).Revise your writing. Make sure you use plain, simplelanguage. Eliminate big words, -isms, long sentences,commonplaces. Write in paragraphs.Ask others to proofread your paper.


Writing: Some Final Words

Start early. Writing is part of the thinking process, andneeds time.Try writing in teams. All steps above, maybe except step 4(formulating) can profit from teamwork.Writing is fun, especially step 2 above. Here you will learnmost about the question you are interested in.


References

Pryor, J.: Guidelines on Reading Philosophy.http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/reading.htmlPryor, J.: Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper.http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.htmlScholl, R.: Einfuehrungskurs Methodik.http://philoscience.unibe.ch/archiv/lehre-fs-2010/ek-methodik(in German)Silvia, P. J. (2007). How to write a lot: A practical guide toproductive academic writing. Washington, DC: AmericanPsychological Association.

Some General Remarks about Your WorkHow to Find a Good Research QuestionHow to Work with Philosophical TextsUsing and Quoting LiteratureAdvice for the Writing Process

how to write an essay in philosophy

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