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List of 200+ Philosophy Essay Topics and Questions For Students

Updated 04 Jul 2024

While the majority of university students may assume that choosing a philosophy essay topic is easy, it does not work well in practice. Depending on what philosophy school you would like to choose, you should think of a list that must be brainstormed. Therefore, our philosophy essay topics below are meant to keep you inspired and help you see practical examples that can serve as a starting point. You will also learn how to write a philosophy essay and how to tell a good topic from a poor one. When you have a good idea to start with, you will already overcome the challenges of finding a good topic.

✍️ Writing Philosophy Essay: Definition & Tips

Before you start with philosophy paper topics, ensure that you know the basics of essay writing. Begin with essay structure to academic features, take time to study your grading rubric and ask our essay service questions when something is unclear. Here is what you must consider:

Ensure that you envision your philosophy essay’s topic by narrowing things down.
Create an outline by choosing various key arguments.
Read various literature dealing with the things that interest you.
Focus on your weaknesses by looking up terms and facts.
Choose your research methodology: persuasive, argumentative, explanatory, etc.
Create a bibliography to support chosen ideas with reliable sources.

Your philosophy research paper topics structure should follow these aspects:

Compose a strong thesis statement.
Use your key arguments as the body paragraph topic sentences.
Add a hook sentence to your introduction part.
Provide evidence for each idea that is not yours.
Present your ideas with the help of bridging words.
Add counter-argument ideas if it is necessary to support your point.

Tips on Writing Philosophy Essay

Explain a philosophical concept.
Provide real-life examples to help your audience understand complex aspects.
Compare theories by seeking contrasts.
Structure your philosophical ideas from easy to complex.
Provide personal analysis to support each argument.

Once again, always provide due evidence if you are using any external ideas!

What are some Philosophy topics?

Some topics may deal with the nature of human existence, the things we know, the definition of concepts, and moral ethics. It is also possible to choose case study examples by turning to the works of Socrates, Plato, or more modern philosophers like John McDowell.

📙 50 Philosophy Essay Topics

We shall start with not-so-difficult philosophical ideas that will deal with the general subjects related to this challenging field of science. While Philosophy is about thinking and analysis, your research writing should not be vague or unclear. Read your chosen topics aloud, change the wording, and see whether you can support some paradigms with good sources and explanatory analysis.

The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Rights and Wrongs
Existentialism in the 21st Century: Relevance and Application
The Philosophy of Mind: Consciousness and Identity
Stoicism as a Way of Life: Practical Applications
The Impact of Nietzsche's Übermensch on Modern Society
The Concept of Justice in Plato’s Republic
Free Will vs. Determinism: The Philosophical Debate
The Role of Suffering in Human Development According to Buddhism
The Ethics of Genetic Engineering: Playing God or Advancing Humanity?
The Influence of Social Media on Personal Identity
The Philosophy of Language: Meaning and Interpretation
Environmental Ethics: Responsibilities to Nature and Future Generations
The Problem of Evil: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives
The Concept of Happiness in Aristotelian Ethics
Feminist Philosophy: Theories and Implications
The Intersection of Philosophy and Science: Conflicts and Complementarities
The Philosophy of Education: Purpose and Approach
The Concept of Liberty in Political Philosophy
The Ethics of Care: A Challenge to Traditional Moral Theories
The Philosophy of Art: Aesthetics and Meaning
The Notion of Self in Eastern and Western Philosophies
The Ethics of Animal Rights and Welfare
The Philosophy of Religion: Faith vs. Reason
The Impact of Technology on Society: A Philosophical Inquiry
The Concept of Duty in Kantian Ethics
The Philosophy of History: Patterns, Progress, and Purpose
The Role of Intuition in Philosophical Thought
The Ethics of Euthanasia: Autonomy and Morality
The Philosophy of Space and Time: Understanding the Universe
The Notion of Justice in Rawls vs. Nozick
The Philosophy of Friendship: Aristotle’s View and Modern Perspectives
The Concept of Beauty: Subjective vs. Objective Standards
The Ethics of Globalization: Economic Justice and Human Rights
The Influence of Hegel’s Dialectics on Contemporary Thought
The Philosophy of Sport: Fair Play, Competition, and Virtue
The Notion of Truth in Postmodern Philosophy
The Ethics of Immigration: Rights, Policies, and Morality
The Role of Logic in Philosophical Argumentation
The Philosophy of Love: From Plato to Modern Times
The Ethics of Surveillance: Privacy vs. Security
The Concept of Power in Foucault’s Philosophy
The Philosophy of Leisure: The Value of Free Time in a Productive Society
The Ethics of Consumption: Materialism and Sustainability
The Notion of Community in Communitarian Philosophy
The Philosophy of Language and Technology: Communication in the Digital Age
The Ethics of War: Just War Theory and Pacifism
The Concept of Alienation in Marxist Philosophy
The Philosophy of Humor: What Makes Something Funny?
The Ethics of Cloning: Human Dignity and Reproductive Technology
The Philosophy of Aging: Wisdom, Ethics, and the Value of Life

Remember that you can always narrow things down to what fits your essay!

📝Easy Philosophy Paper Topics

These easy Philosophy essay topics should provide you with a basic idea before we proceed with more complex ideas:

The Concept of Happiness: What Makes Life Fulfilling?
Free Will vs. Determinism: Do We Truly Have Choices?
The Ethics of Animal Rights: Should Animals Have the Same Rights as Humans?
The Impact of Technology on Society: A Philosophical Perspective
The Philosophy of Friendship: What Makes a Good Friend?
Introduction to Stoicism: How Can Stoic Principles Improve Our Lives?
The Role of Education in Shaping Society
Personal Identity: What Makes You, You?
The Ethics of Euthanasia: Right to Die or Duty to Live?
The Philosophy Behind Environmental Conservation
Happiness vs. Pleasure: Understanding the Difference
The Importance of Ethics in Business
Understanding Empathy: Its Importance and Impact
The Concept of Justice in Modern Society
Mindfulness and Philosophy: Living in the Moment
The Influence of Media on Public Opinion: A Philosophical Analysis
The Philosophy of Art: What is Artistic Beauty?
The Concept of Duty: Kantian Ethics Explained
Philosophical Perspectives on Poverty and Wealth
The Role of Intuition in Decision Making

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☝️ Argumentative Philosophy Essay Topics

They are meant for clear arguments where you make a stand with an aim to defend what you believe in or bring up arguments to discuss things with your fellow students. Here are some ideas:

Is Morality Relative or Absolute?
Can Free Will Exist in a Deterministic Universe?
Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat to Human Existence?
Do Humans Have an Obligation to Preserve the Natural Environment?
Is the Concept of the Social Contract Relevant in Today's Society?
Should Genetic Engineering Be Subject to Ethical Limitations?
Is Democracy the Best Form of Government?
Can War Ever Be Justified Ethically?
Is Capital Punishment Morally Defensible?
Does the Existence of Evil Disprove the Existence of God?
Is Euthanasia Ethically Permissible?
Should Wealth Redistribution Be a Central Aim of Society?
Is Education a Right or a Privilege?
Does Technology Enhance or Diminish Human Interaction?
Is Animal Testing Justifiable?
Can Objective Truth Exist in Morality?
Is the Pursuit of Happiness a Worthwhile Life Goal?
Should Privacy Be Sacrificed for Security?
Is Censorship Ever Justifiable in a Free Society?
Does Society Have a Duty to Provide Healthcare to All Its Citizens?

📚 Practical Philosophical Topics For Essays

If you can apply a school of philosophy or some subject in practice, take a look at these Philosophy essay ideas:

The Ethics of Consumerism: Philosophical Perspectives on Consumption and Sustainability
Philosophy in the Workplace: Ethical Leadership and Corporate Responsibility
The Role of Philosophy in Education: Teaching Critical Thinking and Ethical Reasoning
Mental Health and Well-being: A Philosophical Examination of Happiness and Fulfillment
Digital Life: The Impact of Social Media on Identity and Relationships
Environmental Ethics: Philosophical Approaches to Climate Change and Conservation
The Philosophy of Science: Understanding the Limits and Possibilities of Scientific Knowledge
Philosophical Perspectives on Gender Equality and Feminism
The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Rights, Responsibilities, and the Future of AI
Philosophy of Religion: Faith, Rationality, and the Meaning of Life
The Intersection of Philosophy and Art: Aesthetics and the Value of Art
Philosophical Approaches to Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
The Ethics of Healthcare: Patient Rights, Access, and the Doctor-Patient Relationship
Philosophy and Political Activism: The Role of Ideas in Social Movements
The Philosophy of Language: Communication, Misunderstanding, and Meaning
Ethical Consumerism: The Moral Implications of Our Purchasing Choices
The Ethics of Technology: Privacy, Surveillance, and Freedom in the Digital Age
Philosophy of Education: The Purpose and Value of Learning
The Ethics of Immigration: Rights, Policies, and Global Responsibility
Philosophical Perspectives on Aging and Mortality

🌎 Worldview Essay Topics

This section is dedicated to those subjects that reflect how a person sees the world. It brings up philosophy essay questions that sum up what a person beliefs in. For example:

The Influence of Culture on Moral Values: A Comparative Analysis
Existentialism and the Search for Meaning in the Modern World
The Impact of Religion on Worldviews: A Global Perspective
Humanism vs. Spiritualism: Contrasting Life Philosophies
The Role of Science in Shaping Contemporary Worldviews
Eastern vs. Western Philosophies: Diverse Paths to Understanding Reality
The Concept of Karma in Different Cultural Contexts
Materialism and Consumer Society: Philosophical Critiques
The Philosophy of Time: How Different Cultures Understand Time
Environmental Worldviews: From Anthropocentrism to Eco-centrism
The Digital Age and Its Impact on Human Perception and Interaction
Fate vs. Free Will: Determining the Course of Our Lives
The Notion of the Self in Philosophy and Psychology
Globalization and Its Effects on Cultural Identity and Worldviews
Postmodernism: Challenging Traditional Narratives and Beliefs
The Concept of Utopia: Visions of a Perfect Society
Ethical Relativism: Understanding Morality in a Pluralistic World
The Intersection of Art and Philosophy in Shaping Worldviews
Philosophical Perspectives on Death and the Afterlife
Technology and Transhumanism: Redefining Human Nature and Future

📖 Plato Essay Topics

It is hard to find another personality that would be as important for the field of Philosophy as Plato. Here are several philosophy topics for essays that deal with Plato’s beliefs and the timeless heritage. For example:

The Theory of Forms: Understanding Plato's Concept of Reality
Plato's Allegory of the Cave: Interpretations and Implications
Justice in Plato's Republic: An Analysis of His Ideal State
Plato and Democracy: Critique and Perspectives
The Role of the Philosopher-King in Plato's Ideal Society
Plato's Concept of the Soul: Tripartite Structure and Its Significance
Education in Plato's Republic: Methods and Philosophical Foundations
Plato's Views on Art and Imitation: An Examination of the Ion and the Republic
The Significance of Plato's Academy in the Development of Western Philosophy
Comparative Analysis: Plato and Aristotle on Virtue and Happiness
Plato's Symposium: Love, Beauty, and the Path to the Divine
The Influence of Socratic Method on Plato's Dialogues
Plato's Critique of Sophistry and Its Relevance Today
The Concept of Eudaimonia in Plato's Ethical Philosophy
Plato's Timaeus: Cosmology and the Nature of the Physical World
Plato and the Theory of Knowledge: Justified True Belief
The Role of Myth in Plato's Philosophy: From the Gorgias to the Phaedrus
Plato's Political Philosophy: The Challenges of Realizing the Ideal State
The Immortality of the Soul in Plato's Phaedo: Arguments and Critiques
Plato's Influence on Christian Thought and Theology

💡 Enlightenment Essay Topics

This section explores interesting topics that relate to the period of Enlightenment. Here is the list to consider:

The Role of Reason in the Enlightenment: A New Approach to Knowledge
Voltaire and the Fight for Religious Tolerance
The Impact of the Enlightenment on Modern Democratic Thought
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Concept of the Social Contract
Enlightenment Critiques of Monarchy and the Path to Republicanism
The Influence of Enlightenment Thought on the French Revolution
Comparative Analysis of the Scottish and French Enlightenment
Women of the Enlightenment: Contributions and Challenges
The Enlightenment and Its Role in the Development of Modern Science
Immanuel Kant and the Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Freedom
The Enlightenment and the Arts: A New Aesthetic for a New Time
Deism and the Enlightenment: Rethinking the Divine
The Legacy of the Enlightenment in Contemporary Education
Enlightenment Philosophers on Human Rights and Equality
Economic Thought in the Enlightenment: The Beginnings of Modern Economics
The Enlightenment’s Influence on Modern Legal Systems
Critiques of the Enlightenment: Romanticism and Counter-Enlightenment Thoughts
The Spread of Enlightenment Ideas Through Europe and Beyond
The Enlightenment and the Birth of Modern Political Ideologies
Philosophical Debates on Morality and Ethics During the Enlightenment

📜 Transcendentalism Essay Topics

In simple terms, Transcendentalism is a philosophy that came to be in the 19th century, aiming for self-sufficiency. The main belief states that people are originally good but are corrupted by society and the wrong teaching or negative examples. It is one of the most varied branches of philosophy as can be seen from the topics below:

The Core Principles of Transcendentalism: An Introduction
Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Philosophy of Self-Reliance
Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: Living in Harmony with Nature
Transcendentalism and Its Influence on American Literature
Margaret Fuller: A Transcendentalist Feminist Perspective
The Role of Nature in Transcendentalist Thought
Transcendentalism and Its Critique of Materialism
The Social and Political Activism of Transcendentalists
Transcendentalism: A Predecessor to Environmental and Ecological Movements
The Concept of Individualism in Transcendentalist Writings
Transcendentalism and Education: The Legacy of Bronson Alcott
The Influence of Eastern Philosophies on Transcendentalist Thought
Transcendentalism in Contemporary Society: Relevance and Reflections
The Relationship Between Transcendentalism and Romanticism
Transcendentalist Views on Religion and Spirituality
The Impact of Transcendentalism on Civil Disobedience and Social Change
Transcendentalism and the Arts: Exploring Aesthetic Expressions
Critiques of Transcendentalism: Limitations and Counterarguments
The Legacy of Transcendentalism in Modern American Culture
Exploring the Concept of the Over-Soul in Transcendentalist Literature

❓ Philosophy Essay Questions

When you choose a good Philosophy essay topic, always ask yourself a question. Take a look at how it has been done below:

What is the nature of reality, and how can we truly know anything about it?
Is free will an illusion, and are our choices predetermined by external factors?
Can moral judgments be objective, or are they entirely subjective?
What is the role of consciousness in defining personal identity?
How do language and thought influence our perception of the world?
Is it possible to achieve true happiness, and what would it entail?
What is justice, and how can a society ensure its fair distribution?
Can artificial intelligence ever attain consciousness or moral reasoning?
What does it mean to live a good life, and how should individuals strive to achieve it?
How should we balance individual freedom with social responsibility?
Is there a universal standard for beauty, or is beauty entirely subjective?
What is the significance of death in giving meaning to life?
How do power dynamics shape ethical considerations and social structures?
Can science and religion coexist, or are they fundamentally incompatible?
What is the ethical responsibility of humans towards the environment and non-human life?
How does the concept of the self evolve in the digital age?
Is there an ethical obligation to pursue truth, even at the expense of personal happiness?
What role does suffering play in personal growth and the development of character?
How can societies best balance tradition and innovation in shaping the future?
What are the ethical implications of genetic engineering and biotechnology on future generations?

What is a good topic for a philosophy paper?

One of the most popular topics in Philosophy today is whether people are born as good beings or we already come to this world with all the negative traits. While it is popular, you can narrow things down by focusing on criminals, youth gangs, or volunteers (as an example of the good ones).

How to Find Excellent Philosophy Essay Topics?

When you have a plethora of philosophy ideas, it is easy to get lost, which is why you should follow these simple Philosophy topic choice tips:

Find something that truly inspires you. If your topic does not motivate you, it will always show.
Choose a certain school of philosophy as your methodology.
Read on various philosophers and examine their famous works.
Narrow things down and change the wording.
Research similar works on the topic.

When you have already chosen something, read it aloud and try to think about keywords by writing them down in a list. Once done, connect your essay topic with the thesis statement. Choosing the right philosophy essay topics can be overwhelming, so if you're struggling, you might consider seeking professional help to write my philosophy paper and ensure your arguments are well-structured and compelling.

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160 Philosophy Essay Topics

An essay on a philosophical topic can be challenging in several different ways. If you haven’t been assigned a topic, then you need to carefully consider both the type of philosophy you want to illuminate as well as the topic and the philosopher who originally championed the idea. This calls for a fair amount of research. If you need a place to start, there is an extensive list of topics below that are broken down by the schools of thought and/or the eras that inspired them.

Researching a Philosophy Topic

Philosophers are the embodiment of deep thinkers, and many of the best ones have offered up theories and perspectives that have gone on to influence the world. It helps to pick a specific school of thought, whether it is the classical Greek, Transcendentalism, Rationalism, or another, and then research the school of thought as well as the era that inspired them. This often calls for researching the specific philosophy and accomplishments of a specific philosopher.

While researching a topic or a school of thought try to think of examples you can cite in the body of the essay. This might be a historical example from the era the philosopher lived in or a real-world example that is pertinent today. A concept that was pertinent when it was originally written and is still relevant now will lend strength to your essay.

Tips for Writing a Philosophy Essay

Ideally, you want to choose a topic for your philosophy essay that has a strong and defensible position, as well as relevance in the present day. The research you have already done will provide you with an intellectual foundation to make a strong and well-supported argument.

When writing a philosophy essay, you want to compose it from a third-person point of view. This gives the essay an objective perspective that engages the reader while making it clear that the ideas being presented are not coming from your own personal bias. When providing supporting facts in your argument, make sure to quote them directly, include the source, and a relevant composition that it came from. You might also need to provide the date it was originally published.

How to Structure a Philosophy Essay

Depending on the required length of the philosophy essay, you can use a standard five-paragraph structure and expand the number of body paragraphs if necessary. This will give your philosophy essay a natural flow that makes it easy for the reader to follow.

This essay structure includes an introduction with a strong thesis statement, which might include a direct quote from a well-known philosopher. You then follow up with supporting body paragraphs that have their own distinct point that is supported by strong evidence, rather than flowing together into a single idea. Then you finish with a strong conclusion that illustrates the point or demonstrates its historical relevance or relevance in present times.

Introduction

A philosophy essay needs to directly state the topic in the introduction while enticing the reader to want to learn more about the topic. It’s best to use authoritative language, while also making sure that you are speaking to the reader, rather than talking down to them about a subject that might be disagreeable.

A strong thesis statement is a critical component of a philosophy essay’s introductory paragraph. The end of the introduction should include a sentence of two that leads into the first body paragraph.

Body Paragraphs

The first paragraph of your philosophy essay should have a strong connection to the thesis statement while also offering supporting evidence. This might include a direct quote from a philosopher or a well-known historical figure. Then make sure to document when it was said and who made the statement.

Each body paragraph should be its own idea and includes well-documented examples. If another philosopher argued against the thesis, you can include that information as well to demonstrate the counterpoint.

Each body paragraph should conclude with a sentence of two that leads into the next body paragraph’s point or central theme. If you are writing a topic that compares and contrasts two opposing opinions, you can give each view its own body paragraph.

The conclusion of your philosophy essay needs to have an assertive tone while providing a definite answer to the topic. This might be demonstrating why one view is more applicable to the modern world or why one view won out over the opposing view. If there is some lingering controversy about the topic, you should try to win encourage the reader to reexamine their own personal opinions on it.

Choosing the right topic for your philosophy essay can be challenging. There are many different schools of thought spanning thousands of years and historical eras. The following list of the topic below have been broken down into the schools of philosophy and relevant themes. They are a great jumping-off point for your research process.

Classical Greek and Roman Philosophy Topics

Did Socrates really exist, or did Plato make him up to offer perceived validity to his own Philosophy?
Does Aristotle’s concept of The Hearthless man have an equivalent in the modern age?
Is Aristotle’s notion of Eudaimonia akin to the pursuit of happiness, or can Eudaimonia be accomplished like the Buddhist idea of Nirvana?
In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics he discusses the different forms of human friendship. Compare and contrast the differences between Telia Philea and friendships of convenience. Using modern-day examples.
Was Socrates’ decision to drink the hemlock the correct moral choice, or was he driven to accept suicide by his ego?
Does Plato’s Republic make sexism acceptable in his age, or was Plato uninformed about the importance of equality in ancient Greek society?
Aristotle’s idea of Hexus notes that nature fits us with emotion for a reason and that no emotion is morally wrong. Instead, Aristotle notes that it is the reason or virtue behind that emotion that constitutes a good or a bad Hexus. With this in mind can you give real-world examples of when Anger was virtuous and Happiness was devoid of moral virtue?
What did Socrates mean when he said that “The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living?
Are the stoic philosophers the bridge between classical Roman polytheism and Christianity?
Would the Renaissance Era have been possible, had it not been for the Golden Age of Islam preserving Greek & Roman philosophy during the European Dark Ages?
What Did Plato Mean when he said “Those who tell the stories rule society.”
Explain Aristotle’s view on the importance of intellectual virtue.
Was Aristotle correct when he said, “The Moral Virtues Are Not Innate?”
What did Plato mean when he said, “knowledge only comes when we are able to justify and account for our true beliefs.”
Why did Cicero convalesce to stoicism?
What is the Epicurean philosophy of life?
What do epicureans believe about happiness?
Does epicurean philosophy have a place in modern life?
Compare and contrast the difference between how pleasure is valued in epicurean philosophy compared to how to is valued in hedonism?
Compare and contrast the difference between epicurean happiness and Artistotle’s view on eudaimonia.

Stoicism Topics

What are the three main beliefs of stoicism?
Did the stoics see Gods as omnipotent apart from nature, or integrated as an active element of the natural world?
Why is self-control a critical component of stoic philosophy?
How do the Stoics believe happiness is achieved?
What are the two duties of stoicism?

Hedonism Topics

Does hedonism recognize other motivations besides please and pain?
How does hedonistic philosophy define good and evil?
What is hedonist moral philosophy?
How does hedonistic philosophy interpret the appreciation of art?
What is aesthetic hedonism?
Does hedonism promote substance abuse?
Does hedonism encourage the objectification of women?
Does hedonism promote internet pornography?
Is the drive to legalize marijuana a form of hedonistic philosophy?
Does hedonism treat alcoholism as permissible?

Nihilism Topics

What are the four different types of nihilism and what makes them different?
Is Nihilism inherently pessimistic or realistic?
Can nihilism co-exist with religious belief?
What did Nietzsche mean when he said “God Is Dead?”
Why did Nietzsche believe that all imposed values and meanings need to be repudiated

Existentialism Topics

Explain the relationship between Anxiety and Authenticity through the lens of existentialist philosophy.
Explain Irrationality/Absurdity through the lens of existentialist philosophy.
What is Cartesian Dualism?
What did Des Carte mean when he said “I think therefore I am?”
Explain Kierkegaard’s writing in the context of his approach to Christianity.
Why do existentialist philosophers believe that it is impossible to find the true reasons and explanations of events?
Explain Jean-Paul Sartre’s Opinions on Existentialism and Human Emotions.
What is the influence of existentialism in Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage?
What is the influence of Existentialism in the Literature of Samuel Beckett?
How did existentialism influence Psychoanalysis, and Behaviorism?

Topics on Transcendentalism

What did Emerson mean when he said “The mind once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions?”
Did the philosophy of Emerson influence John Muir’s views on naturalism?
What did Thoreau mean when he said a higher law than civil law demands the obedience of the individual.
What is the common thread between the transcendentalist concepts of individualism, idealism, and the divinity of nature?
What is the significance of the battle between the red ants and the black ants in Thoreau’s book On Waldon Pond?
What did Thoreau mean when he wrote “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”
Compare and contrast the differences between Kant & Hume on the concept of transcendentalist idealism.
Does transcendentalism offer a philosophy that promotes “The truest way of life?”
Why is time in nature away from civilization a critical component of transcendental philosophy?
What is the significance of Emerson’s “Consequences of Self-Doubt.”
How does Transcendentalism make a link between philosophy and science
Compare and contrast the differences between the American 19 th Century version of transcendentalism and the Eastern notions of transcendentalism.
Explain transcendentalism’s conflict with the industrial revolution.
Was John Muir a transcendentalist?
Are Luddites their own philosophical system or an extreme version of transcendentalism?

Marxism Topics

Has the negative relationship with failed communism hindered Marxism as a contemporary school of philosophy?
What is the relationship between Marxism and social science?
Explain Karl Marx’s Theory of Alienation.
Do the ideologies of Marxism affect 21 st Century western culture?
Why does Spencer believe that human nature is flexible and is in the process of advancement?
How doe the concept of Surplus Value influence the division of social & economic classes?
Why does Marxism devalue the importance of religion?
Explain why the Young Hegelians refute religion in place of a philosophical system?
Explain Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s view on the role of money in human life.
Compare and contrast the differences between Marx’s view of socialism and the communism of Russia in the 20 th

Eastern Philosophy Topics

Compare and contrast Zazen and Rinzai Zen forms of Buddhism.
Is the “Ah-Ha” moment of “Satori” a requirement in the pursuit of nirvana as it is recognized in modern-day Buddhism?
Is Buddhism a religion, a philosophical life practice, or both?
The philosophy of the Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth are very similar. Though they both came from a completely different upbringing. Does this affect the principles of the religions they founded or is the exposure to the poverty of Jesus’ childhood and the wealth of the Buddha’s early years merely background details in their stories?
When the Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree he said “As the earth is my witness. Seeing this morning star, all things and I awaken together.”
Why is begging for one’s meal an important tenant of classic Buddhist daily practice?
How do Siddhartha’s four sights on the road influence the Buddha’s teaching about the four noble truths?
What is the relationship between the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold path?
When Siddhartha gives up asceticism he takes food from a peasant woman, what does this symbolize, and does it influence his eventual awakening as the Buddha?
Does Herman Hess’ novel Siddhartha make Buddhism more or less accessible for Western culture to assimilate?
What did the Buddha mean when he said “If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.”
Is the Caste system of India based on moral philosophy and religious beliefs or is it a form of discrimination and classism?
In Hindu philosophy what is the difference between dharma, and karma?
Can the concept of Karmic rebirth be used to forgive someone’s misdeeds in this current life?
Compare and contrast the moral influence of reincarnation offered by many Eastern Religions and the concept of eternal life offered by Christianity. How do these different philosophical concepts affect the choices made in everyday life?
Do the six systems of Hindu philosophy Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta work together seamlessly?
Is Sun Tzu’s The Art of War a philosophy text or an ancient military guide?
What is the relationship of ren (humanity) and li (ritual propriety) in the philosophy of Confucius?
Explain the Confucian concept of de “Virtue.”
How did the philosophy of Mencius and Xunzi differ from the philosophy of Confucius?
How does the philosophy of Confucius address Family, filial piety,and ancestor worship?
Is Neo-Confucian critical of Daoism and Buddhism
Does Neo-Confucian philosophy offer up effective solutions to the problem of evil?
Explain the Cheng-Zhu theory of human nature.
Explain Neo-Confucian theories of mind and how it applies to modern culture
What are the main tenents of Taoism?
How are currents interpreted in Taology?
Does the Tao concept of Letting Go have value in modern western culture?
In Taoism is there a connective relationship between simplicity, patience, and compassion.
Does Daoism compete with Confucianism or stand beside it?

Philosophy in Modern Literature and Movies

Is the novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance truly about the Metaphysics of Quality, or is it Robert Pirsig attempting to cope with his electroshock therapy experience?
Does William Van De Wettering’s novel The Empty Mirror make the Zen practice of Koan study more feasible, or less accessible to Westerner modalities of thinking?
In Kahlil Gibran’s book The Prophet he says “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don’t, they never were.” What did he mean by this?
In Primo Levi’s book Bear Meat, he said “the sea’s only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong. Now, I don’t know much about the sea, but I do know that that’s the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions, facing blind, deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your own hands and your own head.” What does he mean by this?
Is Dan Millman’s book “The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior” a bridge between Buddhist philosophy and Western Culture or is it a standalone philosophy onto itself?
Explain the existentialist philosophy of the Shawshank Redemption?
In Into The Wild does Chris McCandless succeed in “Killing The False Being Within?”
Does the philosophy of the Celestine Prophecy offer a realistic way of life, or is it better off being classified as fiction?
Does the heightened compassionate approach to the medical philosophy of Patch Adams have a place in modern medicine?
Is transcendentalism properly represented in the movie Dead Poet’s Society?

Rationalism Topics

Compare and contrast the differences between rationalism and empiricism.
Is rationalism’s view of questioning everything tediously unnecessary?
Is Des Carte truly a rationalist philosopher.
Is there a difference between traditional rationalism and the Scottish Englightenment?
What caused the Scottish Enlightenment.
Compare and contrast the differences between the philosophy of David Hume and Adam Smith.
Compare and contrast the differing philosophies of David Hume and Des Cartes.
How does rationalism address the theory of knowledge?
What is the conflict between rationalism and the romantic movement?
Is constructivism a separate philosophy or a form of rationalism?

Humanism Topics

Does humanist philosophy promote atheism?
What are the three core beliefs of humanism philosophy?
How has humanism philosophy influenced modern psychology?
How has humanism philosophy changed over the last century?
As a metaphysical doctrine, how does humanism related to the natural world?
Does humanism reject the philosophical divinity of nature in transcendentalism?
Humanism borrows many aspects of Aristotle’s notion of Eudaimonia, but not all of them, why?
What is the importance of self-determination in humanism philosophy?
Does humanism support scientific skepticism?
How has humanism influenced modern politics?

Middle Eastern Philosophy

Has the Koran discouraged the development of Middle Eastern Philosophy
Is Islam a philosophy or a religion?
Is Arabian philosophy a derivative of Classical Greek philosophy?
Was the Golden Age of Islam bolstered by Classical Greek philosophy?
What is Arabic Logic?
Platos influence on Ab? Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyy? al-R?z?.
How the philosophy of Saadia Gaon influenced Jewish Law.
How did Yahya ibn Adi use philosophical knowledge to produce defenses of Christian theology that were grounded in classical thought?
The influence of Aristotle on Avicenna.
How did Aristotle influence Sohrevardi in founding the Islamic school of Illuminations?
How did Fakhr al-Din al-Razi integrate philosophy into his model for the cosmos?
How did the philosophy of Kâtip Çelebi influence 16th and 17th-century social change in the Ottoman empire
How did the philosophy of Dara Shikoh find common underpinnings shared by Hinduism and Islam?
How did the philosophy of Muhammad Abduh help introduce liberal thought to the Islamic world?
How did Fatema Mernissi address the conditions for women in the Islamic world?

Political Philosophy Topics

How do ethics affect socio-political policy?
Is agrarianism philosophy represented in today’s political parties?
How did the Federalist papers influence our modern democratic system?
What is the difference between liberalism and socialism?
What is the difference between conservatism and fascism?
What is libertarian political philosophy?
Does paternalism still affect political philosophy?
What is progressivism in political philosophy?
Is effective altruism necessary for globalism to thrive?
How would Socrates view our current notions of Civil Disobedience?

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Philosophy essay writing guide

Introduction.

This guide is intended to give new students of philosophy some preliminary advice about writing philosophy essays at university. For many of you, writing a philosophy essay will be something of a new experience, and no doubt many of you will be a little unsure of what to expect, or of what is expected of you. Most of you will have written essays in school for English, History, etc. A philosophy essay is something a little different again. However, it is not an unfathomable, mysterious affair, nor one where anything goes.

Just what a philosophy essay is will depend a lot, as you'd expect, on just what philosophy is. Defining philosophy is always a more or less controversial business, but one way to think of what is done in university philosophy departments is to think of the difference between having a philosophy and doing philosophy. Virtually everyone "has a philosophy" in the sense that we have many basic beliefs about the world and ourselves and use certain key concepts to articulate those beliefs. Many of us initially come to thus "have a philosophy" (or elements of several philosophies) often only unconsciously, or by following "what's obvious" or "what everybody knows", or by adopting a view because it sounds exciting or is intellectually fashionable.

"Doing philosophy", on the other hand, is a self-conscious unearthing and rigorous examination of these basic beliefs and key concepts. In doing so, we try to clarify the meanings of those beliefs and concepts and to evaluate critically their rational grounds or justification. Thus, rather than having their heads in the clouds, philosophers are really more under the surface of our thinking, examining the structures that support - or fail to support - those who trust that they have their feet on the ground. Such examination may even help to develop new and firmer ground.

Doing philosophy, then, begins with asking questions about the fundamental ideas and concepts that inform our ways of looking at the world and ourselves, and proceeds by developing responses to those questions which seek to gain insight into those ideas and concepts - and part of that development consists in asking further questions, giving further responses, and so on. Human beings across the world have been engaged in this sort of dialogue of question and response for many centuries - even millennia - and a number of great traditions of reflection and inquiry have evolved that have fundamentally influenced the development of religion, art, science and politics in many cultures. The influence of philosophical thinking on Western civilization, in particular, can be traced back more than 2,500 years to the Ancient Greeks.

In philosophy, a good essay is one that, among other things, displays a good sense of this dialectic of question and response by asking insightful, probing questions, and providing reasoned, well-argued responses. This means that you should not rest content with merely an unintegrated collection of assertions, but should instead work at establishing logical relations between your thoughts. You are assessed not on the basis of what you believe, but on how well you argue for the position you adopt in your essay, and on how interesting and insightful your discussion of the issues is. That is to say, you are assessed on how well you do philosophy, not on what philosophy you end up having. Nonetheless, you ought to make sure that your essay's discussion is relevant to the topic. (See Section 5.2 below on relevance.)

It is hoped that you enjoy the activity of essay writing. If you have chosen to study Arts, it is likely that you will have a particular interest in - even a passion for - ideas and the variety of forms and genres in which ideas are expressed and explored. The argumentative or discursive formal academic essay is one such form, and one which can be a pleasure to read and to write. Thus, the assessment that is set in philosophy courses is primarily an invitation to you to pursue what is already (or, hopefully, soon to be) your own interest in writing to explore ideas. However, your immediate goal in writing an academic philosophy essay ought not to be to write a personal testament, confession or polemic. Rather, you should primarily aim at articulating, clearly and relatively dispassionately, your philosophical thinking on the topic at hand. Nevertheless, the kind and degree of personal development one can gain from taking up the challenge to think and to write carefully, clearly and thoroughly is certainly something to be greatly valued.

This guide is intended to help you get started in the business of writing philosophy essays. As you practise your philosophical writing skills, you will develop your own technique, and learn what is appropriate in each particular case. So you may well come to "work around" many of these guidelines. Nonetheless, it is important that you pass through that which you seek to pass beyond.* In addition to your own writing, your reading of other philosophers will help you to develop your sense of what constitutes good philosophical writing. As you read, note the various styles and techniques that philosophical authors employ in their treatment of philosophical issues. Practice and studying good examples, then, are the most valuable ways to develop your essay writing skills.

This guide is, moreover, only one of many publications that introduce philosophy students to essay writing. Some others you may like to consult include:

A. P. Martinich, Philosophical Writing, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997)
J. Feinberg and R. Shafer-Landau, Doing Philosophy: A Guide to the Writing of Philosophy Papers, 2nd ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2001)
Z. Seech, Writing Philosophy Papers, 4th ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2003)
R. Solomon, "Writing Philosophy", Appendix to his The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy, 6th ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2001)
S. Gorovitz et al., Philosophical Analysis: An Introduction to its Language and Techniques, 3rd ed. (New York: Random House, 1979)

Also, the websites of many philosophy departments in universities around Australia and the world contain downloadable essay writing guides or links to them.

*This phrase is adapted from Jacques Bouveresse, "Why I am so very unFrench", in Alan Montefiore, ed., Philosophy in France Today (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 12.

What do I do in a Philosophy essay?

Philosophy essay topics are not designed to provide an intellectual obstacle course that trips you up so as to delight a malicious marker. They are designed to invite you to "grapple with" with some particular philosophical problem or issue. That is to say, they are designed to offer you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of a particular philosophical problem or issue, and to exhibit your own philosophical skills of analysis, argumentation, etc. These twin goals are usually best achieved by ensuring that your essay performs two basic functions (your understanding and your skills apply to both):

an exposition of the problem or issue in question (often as it is posed in some particular text); and a critical discussion of the problem or text

These two functions can, but need not always, correspond to physically or structurally distinct sections of your essay. See Section 5.1.

The expository ("setting forth") aspect of your essay is where you should make clear what the issue is and why it is an issue. Where you are dealing with an issue as it is presented in some particular text, your aim should be to make clear what it is that the author in question meant in their text, what they see as the issue and why they see it as an issue. This does not involve merely quoting or paraphrasing a text. Of course, occasional quotation and paraphrase may be appropriate - sometimes necessary - but these ought not to constitute the sole or major content of your exposition. Where you do quote or paraphrase, make sure you attribute your sources in footnotes or endnotes. (See Section 7.)

Exposition is, then, primarily a matter of developing in your own words what you think the issue is or what you think the text means. In all expository work you should always try to give a fair and accurate account of a text or problem, even when the exposition becomes more interpretive rather than simply descriptive. You ought to be patient and sympathetic in your exposition, even if you intend later to criticise heavily the philosopher in question. Indeed, the better the exposition in this regard, usually the more effective the critique.

An important part of exposition is your analysis of the text or issue. Here you should try to "break down" the text, issue or problem into its constitutive elements by distinguishing its different parts. (E.g. "There are two basic kinds of freedom in question when we speak of freedom of the will. First, … . Second, …", or "There are three elements in Plato's conception of the soul, namely... He establishes these three elements by means of the following two arguments... ") This also involves showing the relationships between those elements, relationships which make them "parts of the whole".

As well as laying out these elements within a text or issue, you can also (when appropriate or relevant) show how a text or issue "connects up with" other texts, issues, or philosophical and/or historical developments, which can help to shed further light on the matter by giving it a broader context. (eg "Freedom of the will is importantly connected to the justification of punishment", or "Plato's tripartite theory of the soul bears interesting resemblances to Freud's analysis of the psyche", or "Kant's transcendental idealism can be seen as reconciling the preceding rationalist and empiricist accounts of knowledge".)

An exposition of a text need not always simply follow the author's own view of what it means. You should, of course, demonstrate that you understand how the author themself understands their work, but an exposition can sometimes go beyond this, giving another reading of the text. (eg "Heidegger might deny it, but his Being and Time can be read as developing a pragmatist account of human understanding.") A given text or issue may well be susceptible to a number of plausible or reasonable interpretations. An exposition should aim to be sensitive to such variety. When appropriate, you should defend your interpretations against rivals and objections. Your interpretation ought, though, to be aimed at elucidating the meaning or meanings of the text or issue and not serve merely as a "coat-hanger" for presenting your own favoured views on the matter in question, which should be left to your ...

Critical discussion

This is where your thought gets more of the centre stage. Here you should attempt to develop a response to the issues which your exposition has made clear, and/or, in the case of a discussion of some particular text, attempt to give a critical appraisal of the author's treatment of the issue. In developing a response to a philosophical problem, argumentation is, again, of central importance. Avoid making unsupported assertions; back up your claims with reasons, and connect up your ideas so that they progress logically toward your conclusions. Consider some of the various objections to and questions about your views that others might or have put forward, and try to respond to them in defence of your own line of thinking. Your goal here should be to discuss what you have expounded so as to come to some conclusion or judgement about it. ("Critical" is derived from the Ancient Greek for "to decide, to judge".) Critical discussion is thus not necessarily "destructive" or "negative"; it can be quite constructive and positive.

In the case of a critical appraisal of a particular author's text, you can negatively criticise the author's arguments by pointing out questionable assumptions, invalid reasoning, etc. If, on the other hand, you think that the text is good, then your critical discussion can be positive. This can be done by revealing its "hidden virtues" (that is, by showing that there is more to the author's arguments and views than what lies on the surface) and/or by defending an author against possible and/or actual criticisms. (eg "Norman Malcolm argues that Descartes is mistaken in assuming that dreams and waking episodes have the same content.* However, Malcolm fails to appreciate the subtlety of Descartes' argument in the First Meditation, which allows Descartes to claim . . .") Just to expound an author's arguments and then say "I disagree" or "That seems right" is not really enough - you need to "have something to say" about it. Of course, by all means go on, after finding fault with some philosopher, to answer in your own way the questions tackled or raised by the author. (eg "Simone de Beauvoir's analysis of women's oppression in The Second Sex suffers from serious weaknesses, as I have shown in Section 2 above. A better way to approach the issue, I shall now argue, is to . . .".)

Where you are not primarily concerned with evaluating or responding to a particular text, your critical discussion can be more focused on your own constructive response to the issue. (eg "Having used Dworkin's account to clarify the meanings of the concepts of 'the sanctity of life' and 'voluntariness', I shall now argue that voluntary euthanasia is morally permissible because its voluntariness respects what is of value in the notion of the sanctity of life" - where you now leave Dworkin behind as a source and move on to give your own account.)

* See Norman Malcolm, "Dreaming and Skepticism", in Willis Doney, ed., Descartes: A Collection of Critical Essays (London: Macmillan, 1967), p. 56.

Guide to researching and writing Philosophy essays

5th edition by Steven Tudor , for the Philosophy program, University of Melbourne, 2003.

This fifth edition of How to Write a Philosophy Essay: A Guide for Students (previous editions titled A Guide to Researching and Writing Philosophy Essays ) was prepared in consultation with members of the Philosophy program, the University of Melbourne. For advice and assistance on this and earlier editions, thanks are due to Graham Priest, Barry Taylor, Christopher Cordner, Doug Adeney, Josie Winther, Linda Burns, Marion Tapper, Kimon Lycos, Brendan Long, Jeremy Moss, Tony Coady, Will Barrett, Brian Scarlett, and Megan Laverty. Some use was also made of materials prepared by the Philosophy Departments of La Trobe University, the University of Queensland, and The Australian National University.

Disclaimer: University, Faculty and program rules

Please note: this booklet does not provide authoritative statements of the official policies or rules of the University of Melbourne, the Faculty of Arts, or the Philosophy program with regard to student essays and examinations or any other matters. Students should, therefore, not rely on this booklet for such information, for which they should consult the various appropriate notice boards, handbooks, websites, and/or members of staff.

Essay topics

What do philosophy essay topics look like? There are, very roughly, two basic kinds of philosophy essay topics: "text-focused" topics and "problem-focused" topics. Text-focused topics ask you to consider some particular philosopher's writing on some issue. (eg "Discuss critically David Hume's account of causation in Part III of Book I of his A Treatise of Human Nature " or "Was Wittgenstein right to say that 'the meaning of a word is its use in the language', in his Philosophical Investigations, Sec. 43?"). Problem-focused topics are more directly about a particular philosophical problem or issue, without reference to any particular philosopher's text. (eg "Is voluntary euthanasia morally permissible?" or "What is scientific method?")

There is another sort of topic, one which presents a statement and asks you to discuss it, where that statement is a "made up" or, at least, unattributed quote. (eg. "'Without belief in God, people cannot be moral'. Discuss.") I shall regard these as variations of the problem-focused type of topic. Where you are asked to discuss some such statement "with reference to" some specified text or philosopher, then that topic becomes more text-focused. (eg "'Without belief in God, people cannot be moral'. Discuss with reference to J.L. Mackie's Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. ") Occasionally, a topic presents an unattributed statement, but the statement is, in fact, a quote from a particular philosopher you've been studying, or, at least, a good paraphrase of their thinking. (An example of the latter: "'All the ideas in our minds originate from either sense perception or our reflection upon sensory information.' Discuss.", in a course devoted to John Locke, whose views are summed up in the quoted statement, though those words are not actually his.) Should you take such topics as problem- or text-focused? Rather unhelpfully, I'll say only that it depends on the case. You might ask your lecturer or tutor about it. Whichever way you do take it, be clear in your essay which way you are taking it.

The difference between text-focused and problem-focused essay topics is, however, not very radical. This is because, on the one hand, any particular philosopher's text is about some philosophical problem or question, while, on the other hand, most philosophical problems (certainly virtually all those you will be given as essay topics at university) will have been written about by previous philosophers.

The basic way to approach text-focused topics, then, is to treat the nominated text as an attempt by one philosopher to deal with a particular philosophical problem or issue. The essay topic will, generally speaking, be inviting you to do philosophy with that philosopher, to engage with them in thinking about the issue, whether that engagement proves to be as an ally or an adversary. The chosen text will usually be one which has been (or deserves to be) influential or significant in the history of philosophy, but the task is not to pay homage to past masters. But, even if homage is your thing, the best way to do that here is to engage with the master philosophically.

With regard to problem-focused topics, you will often find your exploration of the problem aided by taking some text or texts which have dealt with it as reference points or prompts. This is not always strictly necessary, but many of you starting out in philosophy will find it helpful to do so - it can help you give focus to your response to the question. (Thus, you might, in an essay on the topic "Is voluntary euthanasia morally permissible?" take it upon yourself to use, for example, Ronald Dworkin's Life's Dominion and Peter Singer's Practical Ethics as reference points. Or, in an essay on the topic "What is scientific method?", you might set up your answer via a comparison of the two different accounts in Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Paul Feyerabend's Against Method.*) How will you know which texts to adopt as reference points or prompts, if none is mentioned in the essay topic itself? One way is to consider what texts have already been mentioned with regard to the topic in your course reading guide and in lectures and tutorials. Another way is to do some of your own research. On this see Section 4 below.

* In this guide, in giving examples of how to go about answering an essay question, I am not necessarily giving any concrete or reliable advice for any particular topic. The examples are primarily to do with the form or style or strategy you might find helpful.

Researching your essay

To do research for your philosophy essay you need to do only two things: read and think. Actually, for problem-focused essays, thinking is the only truly necessary bit, but it's highly likely that you will find your thinking much assisted if you do some reading as well. Philosophical research at university is a little different to research in most other disciplines (especially the natural sciences), in that it is not really about "collecting data" to support or refute explanatory theories. Rather, the thinking that's involved in philosophical research (as part of one's preparation for philosophical writing) is more a matter of reflecting critically upon the problems in front of one. Researching the writings of other philosophers should, therefore, be primarily directed towards helping you with that reflection rather than aiming at gathering together and reporting on "the relevant findings" on a particular topic. In many other disciplines, a "literature review" is an important research skill, and sometimes philosophy academics do such reviews - but it is rare that philosophy students are asked to do one.

What, then, to read? It should be clear from your lectures and tutorials what some starting points for your reading might be. (All courses provide reading guides; many also have booklets of reading material.) Your tutor and lecturer are also available for consultation on what readings you might begin with for any particular topic in that subject. Independent research can also uncover useful sources, and evidence of this in your essay can be a pleasing sign of intellectual independence. Make sure, though, that what you come up with is relevant to the topic. (See Section 5.2 below on relevance.) Whichever way you proceed, your reading should be purposive and selective.

In the case of essay questions that refer to a particular text, you should familiarise yourself thoroughly with this text. Usually, such a text will be a primary text, i.e. one in which a philosopher writes directly about a philosophical issue. Texts on or about a primary text are called secondary texts. (Many philosophical works will combine these two tasks, and discuss other philosophical texts while also dealing directly with a philosophical issue.) Some secondary texts can be helpful to students. However, don't think you will only ever understand a primary text if you have a nice friendly secondary text to take you by the hand through the primary text. More often than not, you need to have a good grasp of the primary text in order to make sense of the secondary text.

How much to read? The amount of reading you do should be that which maximises the quality of your thinking - that is, you should not swamp yourself with vast slabs of text that you can't digest, but nor should you starve your mind of ideas to chew over. There is, of course, no simple rule for determining this optimal amount. Be wary, though, of falling into the vice of looking for excuses not to read some philosopher or text, as in "Oh, that's boring old religious stuff" or "She's one of those obscure literary feminist types", or "In X Department they laugh at you if you mention those authors in tutes". If someone wants a reason not to think, they'll soon come up with one.

Philosophical writings

Most philosophical writings come in either of two forms: books or articles. Articles appear either in books that are edited anthologies or in academic journals, such as Philosophical Quarterly or Australasian Journal of Philosophy. Some academic journals are also on the internet. Most articles in the journals are written by professional philosophers for professional philosophers; similarly with many books. But by no means let this put you off. Everyone begins philosophy at the deep end - it's really the only kind there is!

There are, however, many books written for student audiences. Some of these are general introductions to philosophy as a whole; others are introductions to particular areas or issues (eg biomedical ethics or philosophy of science). Among the general introductions are various philosophical dictionaries, encyclopedias and "companions". These reference works collect short articles on a wide range of topics and can be very useful starting points for newcomers to a topic. Among the most useful of the general reference works are:

Edward Craig, ed., The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (10 vols.) (London: Routledge, 1998)
Paul Edwards, ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (8 vols.) (New York: Macmillan, 1967)
Robert Audi, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
Ted Honderich, ed., The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)
Simon Blackburn, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)
Thomas Mautner, ed., The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy (London: Penguin, 1998)
J.O. Urmson and Jonathan Ree, eds., The Concise Encyclopedia of Western Philosophy and Philosophers (London: Routledge, 1993)
Edward N. Zalta, ed., The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (an internet-based reference work: plato.stanford.edu/ )

Note taking

Note taking, like your reading, should not be random, but ought to be guided by the topic in question and by your particular lines of response to the issues involved. Note taking for philosophy is very much an individual art, which you develop as you progress. By and large it is not of much use to copy out reams of text as part of your researches. Nor is it generally helpful to read a great number of pages without making any note of what they contain for future reference. But between these two extremes it is up to you to find the mean that best helps you in getting your thoughts together.

Libraries and electronic resources

The University's Baillieu Library (including the Institute of Education Resource Centre), which is open to all members of the University, contains more than 2,500 years' worth of philosophical writings. The best way to become acquainted with them is by using them, including using the catalogues (including the Baillieu's on-line catalogues and subject resources web-pages), following up a work's references (and references in the references), intelligent browsing of the shelves, etc.

In the main Baillieu Library, the philosophical books are located (mostly) between 100–199 in the Dewey decimal system, and philosophical journals are located in the basement. The Reference section on the ground floor also has some relevant works. The Education Resource Centre also has a good philosophy collection.

In addition to hard-copy philosophical writings, there is also a variety of electronic resources in philosophy, mostly internet-based. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy was already mentioned above. Links to other useful internet sites (such as the Australasian Association of Philosophy website) can be found through the Baillieu Library's web-page and the Philosophy Department's web-page.

A strong word of warning, however, for the would-be philosophical web-surfer: because anyone can put material on a website, all kinds of stuff, of varying levels of quality, is out there - and new-comers to philosophy are usually not well placed to sort their way through it. Unless you have a very good understanding of what you're looking for - and what you're not looking for - most of you will be much better off simply carefully reading and thinking about a central text for your course, eg Descartes' First Meditation, rather than wandering about the internet clicking on all the hits for "Descartes". Exercise your mind, not your index finger.

Writing your essay

Planning and structuring your essay.

It is very important that you plan your essay, so that you have an idea of what you are going to write before you start to write it. Of course, you will most likely alter things in later drafts, but you should still start off by having a plan. Planning your essay includes laying out a structure. It is very important that your essay has a clearly discernible structure, ie that it is composed of parts and that these parts are logically connected. This helps both you and your reader to be clear about how your discussion develops, stage by stage, as you work through the issues at hand.

Poor essay structure is one of the most common weaknesses in student philosophy essays. Taking the time to work on the structure of your essay is time well spent, especially since skill in structuring your thoughts for presentation to others should be among the more enduring things you learn at university. A common trap that students fall into is to start their essay by writing the first sentence, then writing another one that seems to follow that one, then another one that sort of fits after that one, then another that might or might not have some connection with the previous one, and so on until the requisite 1,500 words are used up. The result is usually a weak, rambling essay.

There are, of course, no hard and fast rules about how to structure a philosophy essay. Again, it is a skill you develop through practice, and much will depend on the particular topic at hand. Nonetheless, it might be helpful to begin by developing an essay structure around the basic distinction between your exposition and your critical discussion (as discussed above). In this it will be important that you make clear who is putting forward which point, that is, make it clear whether you are presenting your own thoughts or are expounding someone else's. (Again, confusion in this regard is a common problem in student essays.) It can often help your structuring if you provide headings for different sections (possibly numbered or lettered). Again, this helps both your reader to follow your discussion and you to develop your thoughts. At each stage, show clearly the logical relations between and the reasons for your points, so that your reader can see clearly why you say what you say and can see clearly the development in your discussion.

Another key to structuring your essay can be found in the old adage "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Tell 'em. Then tell 'em what you've told 'em", which provides you with a ready-made structure: Introduction, Main Body, and Conclusion.

In your Introduction, first introduce the issues the essay is concerned with. In doing so, try to state briefly just what the problem is and (if there is space) why it is a problem. This also applies, of course, to issues covered in text-focused essay topics. Next, tell the reader what it is that you are going to do about those problems in the Main Body. This is usually done by giving a brief sketch or overview of the main points you will present, a "pre-capitulation", so to speak, of your essay's structure. This is one way of showing your reader that you have a grasp (indeed, it helps you get a grasp) of your essay as a structured and integrated whole, and gives them some idea of what to expect by giving them an idea of how you have decided to answer the question. Of course, for reasons of space, your Introduction might not be very long, but something along these lines is likely to be useful.

In your Main Body, do what you've said you'll do. Here is where you should present your exposition(s) and your critical discussion(s). Thus, it is here that the main philosophical substance of your essay is to be found. Of course, what that substance is and how you will present it will depend on the particular topic before you. But, whatever the topic, make clear at each stage just what it is you are doing. You can be quite explicit about this. (eg "I shall now present Descartes' ontological argument for the existence of God, as it is presented in his Fifth Meditation. There will be three stages to this presentation.") Don't think that such explicitness must be a sign of an unsophisticated thinker.

A distinct Conclusion is perhaps not always necessary, if your Main Body has clearly "played out" your argument. So you don't always have to present a grand summation or definitive judgement at the end. Still, often for your own sake, try to state to yourself what it is your essay has achieved and see if it would be appropriate to say so explicitly. Don't feel that you must come up with earth-shattering conclusions. Of course, utter banality or triviality are not good goals, either. Also, your essay doesn't always have to conclude with a "solution" to a problem. Sometimes, simply clarifying an issue or problem is a worthy achievement and can merit first-class honours. A good conclusion to a philosophy essay, then, will usually combine a realistic assessment of the ambit and cogency of its claims with a plausible proposal that those claims have some philosophical substance.

What you write in your essay should always be relevant to the question posed. This is another common problem in student essays, so continually ask yourself "Am I addressing the question here?" First-class answers to a question can vary greatly, but you must make sure that your essay responds to the question asked, even if you go on to argue that the question as posed is itself problematic. (eg "To ask ‘What is scientific method?' presupposes that science follows one basic method. However, I shall argue that there are, in fact, several different scientific methods and that these are neither unified nor consistent.") Be wary, however, of twisting a topic too far out of shape in order to fit your favoured theme. (You would be ill-advised, for example, to proceed thus: "What is scientific method? This is a question asked by many great minds. But what is a mind? In this essay, I shall discuss the views of Thomas Aquinas on the nature of mind.")

This requirement of relevance is not intended as an authoritarian constraint on your intellectual freedom. It is part of the skill of paying sustained and focused attention to something put before you - which is one of the most important skills you can develop at university. If you do have other philosophical interests that you want to pursue (such as Aquinas on mind), then please do pursue them, in addition to writing your essay on the set topic. At no stage does the requirement of relevance prevent you from pursuing your other interests.

Citing Philosophical "Authorities"

There might be occasions when you want to quote other philosophers and writers apart from when you are quoting them because they are the subject of your essay. There are two basic reasons why you might want to do this. First, you might quote someone because their words constitute a good or exemplary expression or articulation of an idea you are dealing with, whether as its proponent, critic, or simply its chronicler. (eg "As Nietzsche succinctly put the point, 'There are no moral phenomena at all, only a moral interpretation of phenomena'.*") You may or may not want to endorse the idea whose good expression you have quoted, but simply want to use the philosopher as a spokesperson for or example of that view. But be clear about what you think the quote means and be careful about what you are doing with the quote. It won't do all the work for you.

The second reason you might want to quote a philosopher is because you think their words constitute an "authoritative statement" of a view. Here you want to use the fact that, eg Bertrand Russell maintained that there are two kinds of knowledge of things (namely, knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description) in support of your claim that there are two such kinds of knowledge of things. However, be very careful in doing this, for the nature of philosophical authority is not so simple here. That is to say, what really matters is not that Bertrand Russell the man held that view; what matters are his reasons for holding that view. So, when quoting philosophers for this second reason, be careful that you appreciate in what exactly the authority lies - which means that you should show that you appreciate why Russell maintained that thesis. Of course, you can't provide long arguments for every claim you make or want to make use of; every essay will have its enabling but unargued assumptions. But at least be clear about these. (eg "For the purposes of this essay, I shall adopt Russell's thesis* that ...").

* Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, trans. R.J. Hollingdale (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973 [first German ed.1886]), Sec. 108.

* See Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967 [first pub. 1912]), Ch. 5.

Philosophy is by its nature a relatively abstract and generalising business. (Note that abstractness and generality are not the same thing. Nor do vagueness and obscurity automatically attend them.) Sometimes a longish series of general ideas and abstract reasonings can become difficult for the reader (and often the writer) to follow. It can often help, therefore, to use some concrete or specific examples in your discussion. (Note that there can be different levels of concreteness and specificity in examples.)

Examples can be taken from history, current events, literature, and so on, or can be entirely your own invention. Exactly what examples you employ and just how and why you use them will, of course, depend on the case. Some uses might be: illustration of a position, problem or idea to help make it clearer; evidence for, perhaps even proof of, a proposition; a counter-example; a case-study to be returned to at various points during the essay; or a problem for a theory or viewpoint to be applied to. Again, be clear about what the example is and how and why you use it. Be careful not to get distracted by, or bogged down in, your examples. Brevity is usually best.

English expression

There's another old saying: "If you can't say what you mean, then you can't mean what you say" - and this very much applies to philosophical writing. Thus, in writing philosophically, you must write clearly and precisely. This means that good philosophical writing requires a good grasp of the language in which it is written, including its grammar and vocabulary. (See Section 9.3 for advice for people from non-English speaking backgrounds.) A high standard of writing skills is to be expected of Arts graduates. Indeed, this sort of skill will last longer than your memory of, for example, the three parts of the Platonic soul (though it is also hoped that some of the content of what you study will also stick). So use your time at university (in all your subjects) to develop these skills further.

Having a mastery of a good range of terms, being sensitive to the subtleties of their meaning, and being able to construct grammatically correct and properly punctuated sentences are essential to the clear articulation and development of your thoughts. Think of grammar, not as some old-fashioned set of rules of linguistic etiquette, but rather as the "internal logic" of a sentence, that is, as the relationships between the words within a sentence which enable them to combine to make sense.

Virtually all sentences in philosophical writing are declarative (ie. make statements), as opposed to interrogative, imperative or exclamatory types of sentences. There is some place, though, for interrogative sentences, ie. questions. (Note that, in contrast, this guide, which is not in the essay genre, contains many imperative sentences, ie. commands.) As you craft each (declarative) sentence in your essay, remember the basics of sentence construction. Make clear what the sentence is about (its subject) and what you are saying about it (the predicate). Make clear what the principal verb is in the predicate, since it is what usually does the main work in saying something about the subject. Where a sentence consists of more than one clause (as many do in philosophical writing), make clear what work each clause is doing. Attend closely, then, to each and every sentence you write so that its sense is clear and is the sense you intend it to have. Think carefully about what it is you want each particular sentence to do (in relation to both those sentences immediately surrounding it and the essay as a whole) and structure your sentence so that it does what you want it to do. To help you with your own sentence construction skills, when reading others' philosophical works (or indeed any writing) attend closely to the construction of each sentence so as to be alive to all the subtleties of the text.

Good punctuation is an essential part of sentence construction. Its role is to help to display the grammar of a sentence so that its meaning is clear. As an example of how punctuation can fundamentally change the grammar and, hence, meaning of a sentence, compare (i) "Philosophers, who argue for the identity of mind and brain, often fail to appreciate the radical consequences of that thesis." and (ii) "Philosophers who argue for the identity of mind and brain often fail to appreciate the radical consequences of that thesis." In the first sentence it is asserted (falsely, as it happens) that all philosophers argue for the identity of mind and brain; in the second, only some philosophers are said to argue for the identity of mind and brain. Only the punctuation differs in the two strings of identical words, and yet the meanings of the sentences are very different. Confusions over this sort of thing are common weaknesses in student essays, and leave readers asking themselves "What exactly is this student trying to say?"

It will be assumed that you can spell - which is not a matter of pressing the "spell-check" key on a word-processor. A good dictionary and a good thesaurus should always be within reach as you write your essay.

Also, try to shorten and simplify sentences where you can do so without sacrificing the subtlety and inherent complexity of the discussion. Where a sentence is becoming too long or complex, it is likely that too many ideas are being bundled up together too closely. Stop and separate your ideas out. If an idea is a good or important one, it will usually deserve its own sentence.

Your "intra-sentential logic" should work very closely with the "inter-sentential logic" of your essay, ie. with the logical relations between your sentences. (This "inter-sentential logic" is what "logic" is usually taken to refer to.) For example, to enable sentences P and Q to work together to yield sentence R as a conclusion, you need to make clear that there are elements within P and Q which connect up to yield R. Consider the following example: "Infanticide is the intentional killing of a human being. However, murder is regarded by all cultures as morally abhorrent. Therefore, people who commit infanticide should be punished." This doesn't work as an argument, because the writer has not constructed sentences which provide the connecting concepts in the various subjects and predicates, even though each sentence is grammatically correct (and possibly even true).

If you are concerned to write not only clearly and precisely, but also with some degree of grace and style (and I hope you are), it's still best to get the clarity and precision right first, in a plain, straightforward way, and then to polish things up afterwards to get the style and grace you want. But don't sacrifice clarity and precision for the sake of style and grace - be prepared to sacrifice that beautiful turn of phrase if its presence is going to send your discussion down an awkward path of reasoning. Aim to hit the nail on the head rather than make a loud bang. What you are likely to find, however, is that a philosophy essay which really is clear and precise will have a large measure of grace and style in its very clarity and precision.

Remember that obscurity is not a sign of profundity. (Some profound thought may well be difficult to follow, but that doesn't mean that one can achieve profundity merely through producing obscure, difficult-to-read writing.) Your marker is interested in what's actually in your essay, not what's possibly inside your head (or indeed what's possibly in some book you happen to have referred to in your essay). So avoid hinting at or alluding suggestively to ideas, especially where they are meant to do some important work in your essay. Instead, lay them out explicitly and directly. Of course, you won't have space to spell out every single idea, so work out which ideas do the most important work and make sure that you at least get those ideas clearly articulated. In expounding a text or problem that ultimately just is vague, muddled, or obscure, try to convey such vagueness, muddle or obscurity clearly, rather than simply reproducing it in your own writing. That is, be clear that and how a text or problem has such features, and then perhaps do your best to make matters clearer.

Despite these stern pronouncements, don't be afraid of sometimes saying things which happen to sound a little odd, if you have tried various formulations and think you have now expressed your ideas just as they should be expressed. Philosophy is often an exploratory business, and new ways of seeing and saying things can sometimes be a part of that exploration.

The need for clarity and precision in philosophical writing sometimes means that you need to stipulate your own meaning for a term. When you want to use a particular word in a particular way for the purposes of your essay - as a "technical term" - be clear about it. (eg "In this essay, I shall intend ‘egoism' to mean ...") Also, be consistent in your technical meanings, or else note when you are not. Be wary, though, of inventing too many neologisms or being too idiosyncratic in your stipulations.

With regard to what "authorial pronoun" to adopt in a philosophy essay, it's standard to write plainly in the first person singular ("I", "me", "my", etc.) rather than use the royal "we" (as in "we shall argue that ..."), or the convoluted quasi-legal indirect form ("It is submitted that ..."), or the scientific objectivity of a physics experimental report. Nonetheless, stick closer to "I argue", "I suggest", "my definition", etc., than to "I wish", "I hate", "my feeling", etc. A philosophy essay is still something more intellectual and formal than a personal reminiscence, polemic, or proclamation. In terms of audience, it's probably best to think of your reader as someone who is intelligent, open to discussion and knows a little about the topic you're writing on, but perhaps is not quite clear or decided about the issues, or needs convincing of the view you want to put forward, or is curious about what you think about the issues.

Try also to use non-discriminatory language, ie. language which does not express or imply inequality of worth between people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and so on. As you write, you will be considering carefully your choice of words to express your thoughts. You will almost always find that it is possible to avoid discriminatory language by rephrasing your sentences.

Other things to avoid:

waffle and padding
vagueness and ambiguity
abbreviations (this guide I'm writing isn't an eg. of what's req'd. in a phil. essay)
colloquialisms (which can really get up your reader's nose)
writing whose syntax merely reflects the patterns of informal speech
unnecessary abstractness or indirectness
unexplained jargon
flattery and invective
overly-rhetorical questions (do you really need me to tell you what they are?) and other flourishes

There are many guides to good writing available. Anyone who writes (whether in the humanities or the sciences, whether beginners or experienced professionals) will do well to have some on hand. Most good bookshops and libraries will have some. Among the most consulted works are (check for the latest editions):

J. M. Williams and G. C. Colomb, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995)
W. Strunk and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th ed. (New York: Longman, 2000)
E. Gowers, The Complete Plain Words, 3rd ed. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987)
R. W. Burchfield, ed., The New Fowler's Modern English Usage (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)
Pam Peters, The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
Australian Government Publishing Service, Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 5th ed. (Canberra: AGPS, 1995)

Vocabulary of logical argument

Closely related to the above points about English expression is the importance of having a good grasp of what can rather generally be called "the vocabulary of logical argument". These sorts of terms are crucial in articulating clearly and cogently a logical line of argument. Such argumentation will, of course, be of central importance in whatever discipline you are studying, indeed in any sphere of life that requires effective thinking and communication. I have in mind terms such as these (grouped a little loosely):

all, any, every, most, some, none, a, an, the that, this, it, he, she, they if . . . , then. . . ; if and only if . . . , then . . . ; unless either . . . or . . .; neither . . . nor . . . not, is, are therefore, thus, hence, so, because, since, follows, entails, implies, infer, consequence, conditional upon moreover, furthermore which, that, whose and, but, however, despite, notwithstanding, nevertheless, even, though, still possibly, necessarily, can, must, may, might, ought, should true, false, probable, certain sound, unsound, valid, invalid, fallacious, supported, proved, contradicted, rebutted, refuted, negated logical, illogical, reasonable, unreasonable, rational, irrational assumption, premise, belief, claim, proposition argument, reason, reasoning, evidence, proof

Most of these are quite simple terms, but they are crucial in argumentative or discursive writing of all kinds. (Many are themselves the subject of study in logic, a branch of philosophy). The sloppy use of these sorts of terms is another common weakness in students' philosophy essays. Pay close and careful attention to how you employ them. Moreover, pay close and careful attention to how the authors you read use them. For further discussion of some of these terms and others, see:

Basic Philosophical Vocabulary, prepared by the staff of the Philosophy Department and available from the programs Office
Wesley C. Salmon, Logic, 2nd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973)
Antony Flew, Thinking About Thinking (London: Fontana, 1985)
Graham Priest, Logic: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Joel Rudinow and Vincent E. Barry, Invitation to Critical Thinking, 4th ed. (Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace, 1999)

Revising your essay

It is virtually essential that you write a first draft of your essay and then work on that draft to work towards your finished essay. Indeed, several drafts may well be necessary in order to produce your best possible work. It is a rare philosopher indeed who can get things perfectly right on the first attempt, so be prepared to revise and re-develop what you write. Don't be too precious about what you have written, if it appears that it should be sacrificed in the revision process. There is usually a very marked difference between essays which are basically first draft rush-jobs done the night before they are due and those which have been revised and polished. Give yourself time to revise by starting writing early on. For most philosophy students, the greater part of the work in essay writing is in the writing, not in the preliminary researches and planning stages. So be wary of thinking "I've done all the research. I only need to write up my notes, which I can do the night before the essay's due". This is likely to lead to a weak, perhaps non-existent, essay (and very likely a sleepless night).

Stick to the word limit given for your essay. Why are word limits imposed? First, to give the markers a fair basis for comparing student essays. Second, to give you the opportunity to practise the discipline of working creatively under constraints. Skill in this discipline will stand you in very good stead in any sphere where circumstances impose limitations. Again, word limits are not constraints on your intellectual freedom. Outside your essay you are free to write without limit. But even there you'll probably find that your creativity is improved by working under a self-imposed discipline.

As a general rule, most student essays that fall well short of the word limit are weak or lazy attempts at the task, and most essays that go well over the limit are not much stronger or the result of much harder work - the extra length is often due to unstructured waffle or padding which the writer hasn't thought enough about so as to edit judiciously. If you structure your essay clearly, you'll find it easier to revise and edit, whether in order to contract or expand it. ("Hmm, let's see: section 2 is much longer than section 4, but is not as important, so I'll cut it down. And I should expand section 3, because that's a crucial step. And I can shift that third paragraph in the Introduction to the Conclusion.")

Plagiarism and originality

Plagiarism is essentially a form of academic dishonesty or cheating. At university level, such dishonesty is not tolerated and is dealt with severely, usually by awarding zero marks for a plagiarised essay or, in some cases, dismissing a student from the university.

When you submit your essay, you are implicitly stating that the essay is your own original and independent work, that you have not submitted the same work for assessment in another subject, and that where you have made use of other people's work, this is properly acknowledged. If you know that this is not in fact the case, you are being dishonest. (In a number of university departments, students are in fact required to sign declarations of academic honesty.)

Plagiarism is the knowing but unacknowledged use of work by someone else (including work by another student, and indeed oneself - see below) and which is being presented as one's own work. It can take a number of forms, including:

copying : exactly reproducing another's words
paraphrasing : expressing the meaning of another's words in different words
summarising : reproducing the main points of another's argument
cobbling : copying, paraphrasing or summarising the work of a number of different people and piecing them together to produce one body of text
submitting one's own work when it has already been submitted for assessment in another subject
collusion : presenting an essay as your own independent work when in fact it has been produced, in whole or part, in collusion with one or more other people

None of the practices of copying, paraphrasing, summarizing or cobbling is wrong in itself, but when one or more is done without proper acknowledgment it constitutes plagiarism. Therefore, all sources must be adequately and accurately acknowledged in footnotes or endnotes. (See Section 7.) Plagiarism from the internet in particular can be a temptation for a certain kind of student. However, be warned: there is a number of very good internet and software tools for identifying plagiarism.

With regard to collusion, it's undoubtedly often very helpful to discuss one's work with others, be it other students, family members, friends or teachers. Indeed, philosophy thrives on dialogue. However, don't kid yourself that you would simply be extending that process if you were to ask your interlocutor to join with you in the writing of your essay, whether by asking them to tell you what you should write or to write down some of their thoughts for you to reproduce in your essay. At the end of the day, you must be the one to decide what goes into your essay.

Originality

Students sometimes worry about whether they will be able to develop "original ideas", especially in light of the fact that nearly every philosophical idea one comes up with seems to have been thought of before by someone else. There is no denying that truly original work in philosophy is well rewarded, but your first aim should be to develop ideas that you think are good and not merely different. If, after arguing for what you believe is right, and arguing in way that you think is good, you then discover that someone else has had the same idea, don't throw your work away - you should feel vindicated to some extent that your thinking has been congruent with that of another (possibly great) philosopher. (If you have not yet handed your essay in when you make this discovery, make an appropriately placed note to that effect.) Don't be fooled, however, into thinking that plagiarism can be easily passed off as congruent thinking. Of course, if that other philosopher's ideas have helped you to develop your ideas, then this is not a matter of congruent ideas but rather of derivative ideas, and this must be adequately acknowledged. If, after developing your ideas, you discover that they are original, then that is an added bonus. But remember that it is more important to be a good philosopher than an original one.

Quotations, footnotes, endnotes and bibliography

Quotations in your essay should be kept to a minimum. The markers know the central texts pretty well already and so don't need to have pages thereof repeated in front of them. Of course, some quotation will usually be important and useful - sometimes essential - in both exposition and critical discussion.

When you quote the words of someone else directly, you must make the quotation clearly distinct from your own text, using quotation marks . (eg "Descartes said that 'it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.'* He makes this claim …" - where the words quoted from Descartes are in 'single quotation marks'. Note that it is relatively arbitrary whether one uses 'single' or "double" quotation marks for "first order" quotations, but whichever style you adopt, use it consistently in the one essay.) Alternatively, where the quoted passage is greater than three lines, put the quoted words in a separate indented paragraph , so that your essay would look like this:

In his First Meditation , Descartes argues as follows:

Whatever I have up till now accepted as most true I have acquired either from the senses or through the senses. But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once.* In this essay I shall argue that prudence does not in fact require us to distrust our senses and that Descartes's sceptical method is therefore seriously flawed.

In both cases, the quotations must be given proper referencingin a footnote or endnote.

When you are not quoting another person directly, but are still making use of their work - as in indirect quotations (eg "Descartes says that it is wise not to trust something that has deceived us before"*), paraphrases, summaries, and cobblings - you must still acknowledge your debts, using footnotes or endnotes.

* Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy , trans. John Cottingham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986 [first French ed., 1641]), p. 12.

Footnotes and endnotes

Footnotes appear at the foot of the same page on which the cited material appears, clearly separated from the main body of the text, each one clearly numbered. Endnotes appear at the end of the essay, again clearly separated from the main body of text, numbered and headed "Endnotes" or "Notes". Either method is acceptable, but you should choose one and stick with it throughout the one essay.

Below are some examples of how to put the relevant referencing information in footnotes and endnotes. This is not intended as an exercise in pedantry, but as a guide to how to provide the information needed for adequate referencing. The reason we provide this information is to enable our readers to find the sources we use in order to verify them and to allow them to pursue the material further if it interests them. In your own researches you will come to value good referencing in the texts you read as a helpful source of further references on a topic. Again, it is this sort of research skill that an Arts graduate will be expected to have mastered.

There are various conventions for writing up footnotes and endnotes. The Philosophy Department does not require that any particular convention be followed, only that you be consistent in your use of the convention that you do choose. For other conventions see the style guides mentioned above, or simply go to some texts published by reputable publishers and see what formats they employ.

Imagine, then, that the following are endnotes at the end of your essay. I will explain them below.

James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy , 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), p. 25.
Philippa Foot, "Moral Relativism", in Michael Krausz and Jack W. Meiland, eds., Relativism: Cognitive and Moral (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982), p. 155.
Ibid., p. 160.
Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, trans. H. J. Paton (New York: Harper and Row, 1964 [first German ed., 1785]), p. 63.
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, (London: Dent, 1973 [first pub. 1651]),p. 65.
Rachels, The Elements, p. 51.
Peter Winch, "The Universalizability of Moral Judgements", The Monist 49 (1965), p. 212.
Antony Duff, "Legal Punishment", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2001 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2001/entries/legal-punishment/ at 15 June 2003, sec. 6.

Notes explained

This is your first reference to a book called The Elements of Moral Philosophy. The title is given in full and in italics. If you are unable to use italics, then you should underline the title. The book's author is James Rachels. It's the 2nd edition of that book, which was published in New York, by the publishers McGraw-Hill, in 1993. The page you have referred to in your main text is page 25
This is your first reference to Philippa Foot's article, "Moral Relativism", the title of which is put in "quotation marks". This article appeared in a book (title in italics) which is an anthology of different articles, and which was edited by Krausz and Meiland (names in full). The rest is in the same style as note (1)
"Ibid." is short for "ibidem", which means "in the same place" in Latin. Use it on its own when you want to refer to exactly the same work and page number as in the immediately preceding note. So here the reference is again to Foot's article at page 155
Ditto, except this time you refer to a different page in Foot's article, namely page 160
This is reference to a book by Kant. Same book details as per note (1), except that, because this is a translation, you include the translator's name, and the date of the first edition in the original language
This is a book reference again, so it's the same as note (1), except that, because it's an old book, you include the date of the original edition. (How old does a book have to be before it merits this treatment? There is no settled view. Note, though, that this convention is not usually followed for ancient authors)
Here you are referring to Rachels' book again, but, because you are not in the very next note after a reference to it, you can't use "ibid.". Simply give the author's surname and a short title of the book, plus page reference. There is also a common alternative to this, whereby you give the surname, and write "op. cit." (which is short for "opere citato", which is Latin for "in the work already cited") and page reference (eg "Rachels, op. cit., p. 51.") Your reader then has to scan back over the notes to see what that "op." was exactly. The first option (author plus short title) is usually easier on the reader
This is a reference to an article by Peter Winch in a journal called The Monist. The article's title is in "quotes", the journal title is in italics. The volume of the journal is 49, the year of publication is 1965, the page referred to is p. 212
This is a reference to an article in the internet-based Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The article is titled "Legal Punishment" and was written by Antony Duff. The Encyclopedia was edited by Edward N. Zalta. Note that I have basically followed the mode of citation that the Encyclopedia itself recommends. (This is one sign of the site being a reputable one. Where a site makes such a recommendation, it's best to follow it.) I have, however, also added the date on which the article was retrieved from the site, and put the author's given name first, to be consistent with the other footnotes. I have also added the reference to section 6, in an effort to be more precise as to where in the article the material I used came from. Since web pages aren't numbered in the manner of hard copy works, it will help if you are able to refer to some other feature, such as paragraphs or sections, so as to pin-point your reference. In the absence of a site recommending a mode of citation to its own material, the basic information needed for adequate citation of internet-based material is (where identifiable) the author, the document title, the year the document was created, the website name, the uniform resource locator (URL) in <arrow-brackets>, date of retrieval, and a pin-point reference*

* I am here following the mode of citation of internet materials recommended in Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation , 2nd ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, 2002), pp. 70-73. I have, though, added the desirability of a pin-point reference.

Bibliography

At the end of your essay (after your endnotes, if used) you should list in a bibliography all of the works referred to in your notes, as well as any other works you consulted in researching and writing your essay. The list should be in alphabetical order, going by authors' surnames. The format should be the same as for your notes, except that you drop the page references and should put surnames first. So the bibliography of our mock-essay above would look like this:

Duff, Antony, "Legal Punishment", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2001 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2001/entries/legal-punishment/ at 15 June 2003
Foot, Philippa, "Moral Relativism", in Michael Krausz and Jack Meiland, eds., Relativism: Cognitive and Moral (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982)
Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan (London: Dent, 1973 [first pub.1651])
Kant, Immanuel, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals , trans. H.J. Paton (New York: Harper and Row, 1964 [first German ed. 1785])
Rachels, James, The Elements of Moral Philosophy , 2nd ed., (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993)
Winch, Peter, "The Universalizability of Moral Judgements", The Monist 49 (1965)

Presentation of essays and seeking advice

Generally, you should present an essay that is legible (hand-writing is OK, but typed or word-processed essays are preferable), in English, on one side of pieces of paper that are somewhere in the vicinity of A4 size and are fixed together . You should attach a completed Cover Sheet provided by the Philosophy program. Plastic document covers, spiral binding and other forms of presentational paraphernalia are not necessary (nor are they usually even desirable, as they mostly just get in the marker's way).

Late essays

Late essays are penalised . (For details of penalties consult the Philosophy program's notice board.)

Essays not handed in

Essays not handed in at all get zero marks. An essay that is handed in but gets a mark below 50 (and so is technically a "failed" essay) still gets some marks. (At least, it will so long as it's not so extremely late that the deducted marks wipe out all the marks it would have received if handed in on time.) All marks received for your essay (whether pass or fail) go toward your final score in the subject. Therefore, even if you think your essay is bound to fail (but please let your marker be the judge of that), or the due date has already passed, or both, it is still in your interests to hand your essay in .

Tutors and lecturers

Philosophy staff are not there just to be listened to by you; they are also there to listen to you. So don't hesitate to contact your tutor or lecturer to discuss questions or problems you have concerning your work.

If you have a legitimate excuse, you may be granted an extension on the due date for your essay by the lecturer in charge. Similarly, special consideration may also be granted when illness or other circumstances adversely affect your work. Applications for special consideration are made online via the Special Consideration web page.

Student counselling

Some personal or non-philosophical academic difficulties you might have you might want to discuss with someone other than your tutor or lecturer. Student Counselling and Psychological Services are there for you to discuss all sorts of problems you might encounter. Please consult your student diary for details on the counselling service.

English language assistance

As noted above, good philosophical writing requires a good grasp of the language in which it is written. If you are from a non-English speaking background and are having difficulties with your English expression in an academic context, you might like to make use of the services provided by Student Services Academic Skills . Many native English speakers, too, can benefit from short "refresher" courses and workshops run by the Centre. Please consult your student diary for details about this service.

A bit on Philosophy exams

Essays of the sort discussed so far in this guide are not the only form of assessment in the Philosophy program - examinations are also set. What is to be said about them?

First, not much that is different from what's been said above about philosophy essays. This is because what you write in a philosophy exam is none other than a philosophy essay . Have a look at past philosophy exam papers, in the Gibson and Baillieu libraries, to get a feel for them. The only basic difference between essays and exams is the matter of what constraints you're working under. Essays have word limits; exams have time limits . Again, stick to them. (Actually, you'll be made to stick to them by the exam invigilators.)

It's best, then, to think about how long to spend writing on an exam essay topic, rather than about how many words to write on it. Simple arithmetic will tell you how much time to spend on each exam question. (eg if you have a 2-hour exam and have to answer 3 questions, each worth one-third of the exam mark, then spend 40 minutes on each question.) Avoid the trap of "borrowing time" from a later question in order to perfect your answer to an earlier question, and then working faster on the later questions to catch up on lost time - this is likely to get you in a tangle. There are no word limits in philosophy exam essays, but don't think that the more you scrawl across the page, the more marks you'll get. Nonetheless, use the time you've got so as to maximise your display of your philosophical understanding and skills in answering the question.

Planning and structuring remain very important in exam essays. With regard to the niceties of footnotes, endnotes and bibliographies, etc., these are not necessary, so don't waste time on these. However, if you quote or refer to a specific passage from a text, do indicate clearly that it is a quotation or reference. (The principle of being clear as to who is saying what remains central.) If you have the reference handy, just put it briefly in the text of your exam essay. (eg "As Descartes says in Meditation I (p. 12), . . ." or "'[I]t is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once' (Descartes, Meditation I, p. 12)".) Generally speaking, you will show your familiarity with any relevant texts by how you handle them in your discussion. This is also true for your non-exam essays.

Your preparation for the exam should have been done well before entering the exam hall. Note that various subjects have restrictions on what texts and other items can be brought into the exam hall. (Consult the Philosophy program's notice board for details.) Many subjects will have "closed book" exams. Even if an exam is "open book", if you are properly prepared, you should not need to spend much time at all consulting texts or notes during the exam itself.

You won't have time for redrafting and revising your exam essay (which makes planning and structuring your answers before you start writing all the more important). If you do want to delete something, just cross it out clearly. Don't waste time with liquid paper or erasers. Write legibly . Don't wr. "point form" sav. time. Diff. kn. mean. use incomp. sent.

Finally, read the instructions at the beginning of the exam paper. They are important. (eg it's not a good strategy to answer two questions from Part A, when the Instructions tell you to answer two questions, one from Part A and one from Part B.) Note the (somewhat quaint) University practice of starting Reading Time some time before the stated time for the exam. Philosophy exams usually have 15 minutes of reading time. (Check for each of your exams.) So, if your exam timetable says the exam is at 2.15 pm, with reading time of 15 minutes, then the reading time starts at 2.00 pm and the writing time starts at 2.15pm - so get to the exam hall well before 2.00 pm. Reading time is very important. Use it to decide which questions you'll answer and to start planning your answers.

Checklist of questions

Do I understand the essay question ? Do I know when the essay is due ?
Do I know which texts to consult? Do I know where to find them?
Have I made useful notes from my reading of the relevant texts?
Have I made a plan of how I'll approach the question in my essay?
Have I given myself enough time to draft and redraft my essay?
Have I written a clearly structured essay? Is it clear what each stageis doing? Do I do what I say I'll do in my Introduction?
Have I clearly distinguished exposition and critical discussion ? Have I given a fair and accurate account of the author(s) in question?
Is my response to the topic relevant ? Do I answer the question? Have I kept my essay within the general bounds of the topic?
Have I displayed a good grasp of the vocabulary of logical argument ? Are my arguments logically valid and sound? Are my claims supported by reasons ? Am I consistent within my essay?
Is my English expression clear and precise ? Are my grammar, punctuation and spelling correct? Have I said what I meant to say? Is my writing legible?
Have I fully acknowledged all my sources in footnotes or endnotes? Are my quotations accurate? Have I included a bibliography ?
Do I need to revise any part of my essay again?
Have I made a copy or photocopy of my essay for myself?
Have I kept the receipt for my handed-in essay?

How to Write a Philosophy Essay: Ultimate Guide

What Is a Philosophy Essay: Definition

Philosophical writing isn't your typical assignment. Its aim isn't to provide an overview of professional philosophers' works and say whether you agree with them.

Philosophy demands becoming a philosopher for the time of writing, thinking analytically and critically of ideas, pondering the Big Questions, and asking 'Why?'. That's why it requires time and energy, as well as a lot of thinking on your part.

But what is philosophy essay, exactly? If you're tasked with writing one, you'll have to select a thesis in the philosophical domain and argue for or against it. Then, you can support your thesis with other professional philosophers' works. But it has to contain your own philosophical contribution, too. (This is only one definition of philosophy essay, of course.)

What's a Good Philosophy Paper Outline?

Before you start writing your first line, you should make a philosophy essay outline. Think of it as a plan for your philosophy paper that briefly describes each paragraph's point.

As for how to write a philosophy essay outline, here are a few tips for you:

Start with your thesis. What will you be arguing for or against?
Read what philosophical theory has to say and note sources for your possible arguments and counterarguments.
Decide on the definitions of core concepts to include precise philosophical meanings in your essay.
After careful and extended reflection, organize your ideas following the structure below.

How To Structure a Philosophy Paper?

Like any other essay, a philosophy paper consists of an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. Sticking to this traditional philosophy essay structure will help you avoid unnecessary stress.

Here's your mini-guide on how to structure a philosophy essay:

Introduction - Clarify the question you will be answering in your philosophy paper. State your thesis – i.e., the answer you'll be arguing for. Explain general philosophical terms if needed.
Main body - Start with providing arguments for your stance and refute all the objections for each of them. Then, describe other possible answers and their reasoning – and counter the main arguments in their support.
Conclusion - Sum up all possible answers to the questions and reiterate why yours is the most viable one.

What's an Appropriate Philosophy Essay Length?

In our experience, 2,000 to 2,500 words are enough to cover the topic in-depth without compromising the quality of the writing.

However, see whether you have an assigned word limit before getting started. If it's shorter or longer than we recommend, stick to that word limit in writing your essay on philosophy.

What Format Should You Use for a Philosophy Paper?

As a service we can attest that most students use the APA guidelines as their philosophy essay format. However, your school has the final say in what format you should stick to.

Sometimes, you can be asked to use a different college philosophy essay format, like MLA or Chicago. But if you're the one to choose the guidelines and don't know which one would be a good philosophy argumentative essay format, let's break down the most popular ones.

APA, MLA, and Chicago share some characteristics:

Font: Time New Roman, 12 pt
Line spacing: double
Margins: 1" (left and right)
Page number: in the header

But here's how they differ:

A title page required
Sources list: 'References' page
No title page required
Sources list: 'Works cited' page
Sources list: 'Bibliography' page
Footnotes and endnotes are required for citations

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Guideline on How to Write a Philosophy Essay

If you still don't feel that confident about writing a philosophy paper, don't worry. Philosophical questions, by definition, have more than one interpretation. That's what makes them so challenging to write about.

To help you out in your philosophical writing journey, we've prepared this list of seven tips on how to write a philosophy essay.

Read Your Sources Thoughtfully

Whether your recommended reading includes Dante's Divine Comedy or Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism Is a Humanism , approach your sources with curiosity and analytical thinking. Don't just mindlessly consume those texts. Instead, keep asking yourself questions while you're reading them, such as:

What concepts and questions does the author address?
What's the meaning behind key ideas and metaphors in the text?
What does the author use as a convincing argument?
Are there any strange or obscure distinctions?

As for which sources you should turn to, that all depends on your central question; philosophy topics for essay are diverse and sometimes opposed. So, you'll have to do your fair share of research.

Brainstorm & Organize Your Ideas

As you're reading those texts, jot down what comes to your mind. It can be a great quote you've stumbled upon, an idea for an argument, or your thoughtful, critical responses to certain opinions.

Then, sort through and organize all of those notes into an outline for your essay in philosophy. Make sure that it holds up in terms of logic. And ensure that your arguments and counterarguments are compelling, sensible, and convincing!

Now, you might be wondering how to write a philosophy essay introduction. Don't worry: there's an explanation right below!

Craft Your Introductory Paragraph

Think of your introduction as a road map preparing your reader for the journey your essay will take them on. This road map will describe the key 'stops' in your essay on philosophy: your topic, stance, and how you will argue for it – and refute other stances.

Don't hesitate to write it out as a step-by-step guide in the first or third person. For example: 'First, I will examine... Then, I will dispute... Finally, I will present….'

Need an example of an excellent introduction for a philosophy paper? You’ll be thrilled to know that we have one of our philosophy essay examples below!

Present Your Key Arguments & Reflections

Philosophy papers require a fair share of expository writing. This is where you demonstrate your understanding of the topic. So, make your exposition extensive and in-depth, and don't omit anything crucial.

As for the rest of the main body, we've covered how to structure a philosophy essay above. In short, you'll need to present supporting arguments, anticipate objections, and address them.

Use your own words when writing a philosophy paper; avoid pretentious or verbose language. Yes, some technical philosophical terms may be necessary. But the point of a philosophical paper is to present your stance – and develop your own philosophy – on the topic.

Don't Shy Away from Critical Ideas

Whenever you examine a philosophical theory or text, treat it with a fair share of criticism. This is what it means in practice – and how to structure a philosophy essay around your critical ideas:

Pinpoint what the theory's or idea's strengths are and every valid argument in its support;
See the scope of its application – perhaps, there are exceptions you can use as counterarguments;
Research someone else's criticism of the theory or idea. Develop your own criticism, as well;
Check if the philosopher already addressed those criticisms.
Ponder Possible Answers to Philosophical Questions

Writing an essay in philosophy is, in fact, easier for some students as the topic can always have multiple answers, and you can choose any of them. However, this can represent an even tougher challenge for other students. After all, you must consider those possible answers and address them in the paper.

How do you pinpoint those possible answers? Some of them can come to your mind when you brainstorm, especially if you'll be writing about one of the Big Questions. Others will reveal themselves when you start reading other philosophers' works.

Remember to have arguments for and against each possible answer and address objections.

Write a Powerful Conclusion

The conclusion is where you sum up your paper in just one paragraph. Reiterate your thesis and what arguments support it. But in philosophical writing, you can rarely have a clear, undebatable answer by the end of the paper. So, it's fine if your conclusion doesn't have a definitive verdict.

Here are a few tips on how to write a conclusion in a philosophy essay:

Don't introduce new arguments or evidence in conclusion – they belong in the main body;
Avoid overestimating or embellishing the level or value of your work;
Best conclusions are obvious and logical for those reading the paper – i.e.; a conclusion shouldn't be surprising at all;
Stay away from poorly explained claims in conclusion.

Philosophical Essay Example

Sometimes, it's better to see how it's done once than to read a thousand guides. We know that like no one else, so we have prepared this short philosophy essay example to show you what excellent philosophy papers look like:

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30 Philosophy Paper Topic Ideas

Philosophical writing concerns questions that don't have clear-cut yes or no answers. So, coming up with philosophy essay topics yourself can be tough.

Fret not: we've put together this list of 30 topics for philosophy papers on ethics and leadership for you. Feel free to use them as-is or tweak them!

15 Ethics Philosophy Essay Topics

Ethics deals with the question of right and wrong. So, if you're looking for philosophy essay topic ideas, ethics concerns some of the most interesting – and most mind-boggling – questions about human behavior.

Here are 15 compelling philosophy essay topics ethics has to offer you:

Is starting a war always morally wrong?
Would it be right to legalize euthanasia?
What is more important: the right to privacy or national security?
Is justice always fair?
Should nuclear weapons be banned?
Should teenagers be allowed to get plastic surgery?
Can cheating be justifiable?
Can AI algorithms behave ethically?
Should you abide by an unfair law?
Should voting become mandatory?
When can the right to freedom of speech be limited?
Is it the consumers' responsibility to fight climate by changing their buying decisions?
Is getting an abortion immoral?
Should we give animals their own rights?
Would human gene editing be immoral?

15 Leadership Philosophy Essay Topics

You're lucky if you're tasked with writing a leadership philosophy essay! We've compiled this list of 15 fresh, unconventional topics for you:

Is formal leadership necessary for ensuring the team's productivity?
Can authoritative leadership be ethical?
How do informal leaders take on this role?
Should there be affirmative action for formal leadership roles?
Is it possible to measure leadership?
What's the most important trait of a leader?
Is leadership an innate talent or an acquired skill?
Should leadership mean holding power over others?
Can a team function without a leader?
Should you follow a leader no matter what?
Is leader succession necessary? Why?
Are leadership and power the same?
Can we consider influencers contemporary leaders?
Why do people follow leaders?
What leadership style is the most ethical one?

7 Helpful Tips on Crafting a Philosophical Essay

Still, feeling stuck writing a philosophical essay? Here are seven more tips on crafting a good philosophy paper that can help you get unstuck:

Write the way you would talk about the subject. This will help you avoid overly convoluted, poor writing by using more straightforward prose with familiar words.
Don't focus on having a definitive answer by the end of your philosophical essay if your conclusion states that the question should be clarified further or that there are multiple answers.
You don't have to answer every question you raise in the paper. Even professional philosophers sometimes don't have all the answers.
Get straight to the point at the start of your paper. No need to warm up the reader – and inflate your word count.
Avoid using quotes. Instead, explain the author's point in your own words. But if you feel it's better to use a direct quote, explicitly state how it ties to your argument after it.
Write in the first person unless your assignment requires you to use the third person.
Start working on your philosophical essay well in advance. However much time you think you'll need, double it!

7 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Philosophy Writing

Sometimes, knowing what you shouldn't do in a philosophical essay is also helpful. Here are seven common mistakes that often bring down students' grades – but are easily avoidable:

Appealing to authority – in philosophy, strive to develop your own stance instead;
Using convoluted sentences to appear more intelligent – instead, use simpler ways to deliver the same meaning;
Including interesting or important material without tying it to your point – every piece of evidence and every idea should explicitly support your arguments or counterarguments;
Inflating your word count without delivering value – in the writing process, it's crucial to 'kill your darlings';
Making poorly explained claims – explicitly present reasons for or against every claim you include;
Leaving core concepts undefined – explain what you mean by the words like 'free will' or 'existentialism' in the introduction;
Worrying about being wrong – no one can be proven wrong in philosophy!

Realize that your draft contains those mistakes, and it's too late to fix them? Then, let us help you out! Whether you ask us, 'Fix my paper' or ' Write my paper from scratch,' our philosophy writers will deliver an excellent paper worth the top grade. And no, it won't cost you a fortune!

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How to Write a Philosophy Paper: Bridging Minds

Table of contents

1 What is a Philosophy Paper?
2.1 Philosophy Research Paper Introduction
2.2 Body Sections
2.3 Writing a Philosophy Paper Conclusion
3 Template for a Philosophy Essay Structure
4 How to Format a Philosophy Research Paper
5.1 Choose a Topic
5.2 Read the Material and Take Notes
5.3 Think about Your Thesis
5.4 Make an Outline
5.5 Make a First Draft
5.6 Work on the Sections
5.7 Engage with Counterarguments
5.8 Don’t Niglet Citations
5.9 Check Formatting Guidelines.
5.10 Revise and Proofread
6 How to Select the Best Philosophy Essay Topic?
7.1 Argumentative Philosophy Essay Topics
7.2 Plato Essay Topics
7.3 Worldview Essay Topics
7.4 Transcendentalism Essay Topics
7.5 Practical Philosophy Essay Topics
7.6 Enlightenment Essay Topics
8 Let Your Philosophy Paper Shine

As a college student who has decided to take a philosophy course, you may be new to this science. A philosophy assignment may seem hard, and this subject is indeed pretty difficult. You read some text, but what you read is just one level of the text, as you need to think critically and analyze what the author is trying to get across. It also involves a lot of analytical and deep thinking. Thus, it is difficult to do an assignment unless you fully understand the text. Don’t freak out if you have little experience with this subject, as we have prepared a comprehensive guide on how to write a philosophy paper, from which you will know:

The essence of philosophy paper, its structure and format
Why it is important not to omit the outline stage
Practical tips on writing a philosophy research paper.

What is a Philosophy Paper?

A philosophy research paper is an academic work that presents a comprehensive exploration of a specific philosophical question , topic, or thinker. It typically involves the analysis of arguments, the articulation of one’s own positions or perspectives, and the evaluation of philosophical texts and ideas. The primary objective of such a paper is to contribute to the understanding of philosophical issues by critically examining existing views, offering new interpretations, or developing novel arguments. The paper is characterized by rigorous logical reasoning, clear articulation of ideas, and grounding in relevant philosophical literature.

Drafting a philosophy essay begins with appreciating precisely what a philosophy research paper entails. It involves taking a definite position on a philosophical topic and defending that viewpoint with a logical, irrefutable claim. A good research essay generally uses rational arguments to lead readers down a path to a conclusive, hard-to-contradict resolution.

Philosophy Paper Outline Structure

Writing a quality philosophy paper means beginning with a first-rate outline. The best philosophy paper outline is straightforward in its intent, takes up a position, and is uncomplicated in its language. A proper outline makes drafting easier and less time-consuming. Moreover, philosophical writing with a clear-cut outline will lend assurance that your end result is condensed yet enlightening.

After determining a format, you are ready to begin writing out your philosophy paper outline. The first step in this process is to determine how to choose a topic for a paper. Great papers are those that the writer is most interested in. Once your topic has been chosen, your outline can be written with specific details and facts. Said specifics will take your introduction, body, and conclusion through an easy-to-follow guide.

Philosophy Research Paper Introduction

Your research essay should begin with a striking and attention-grabbing hook . It should identify your topic of focus in some way and ensure that readers have the desire to continue on. The hook is intended to smoothly transition to your thesis statement, which is the claim your thesis is venturing to prove. Your thesis statement should lead readers to the question of research – the distinct question that will be wholly explained in the body of writing. Finally, your introduction for the research paper will close with your stance on the question.

Body Sections

The body aspect of a philosophy thesis is considered the meat of any paper. It is hard unless you find someone to write my philosophy paper for me . This element is where most of the logic behind your stance is contained. Typically, bodies are made up of 3 sections, each explaining the explicit reasoning behind your position. For instance, the first chunk of the body will directly and logically answer the question posed.

In your second body section, use statements that argue why your position is correct. These statements should be informed, prudent, and concise in their reasoning, yet still presented without overly fancy lingo. The explanation of your argument should not be easily opposed. It should also be succinct and without fluff, insulating the explanatory material.

The third portion of the body section should defend your thesis against those that may have counterarguments. This will be the backbone of the essay – the portion that is too hard to refute. By ensuring that criticisms are properly and utterly denounced and the thesis is ratified, philosophical writing will begin to reach its end – the conclusion.

Writing a Philosophy Paper Conclusion

The conclusion is ultimately meant to tie the entire work together in a nice, coherent fashion. It should start with a brief rehash of the body section of your essay. Then, it will move into explaining the importance of the thesis and argument as a whole. Quality conclusions are ones that will offer a sense of closure.

Template for a Philosophy Essay Structure

A suggested template to help guide you when writing out a philosophy outline is as follows:

The use of the above outline template is sure to help with the overall drafting procedure of philosophical writing. Understanding the proper use of the outline is ideal for the best end product.

Putting an outline to use makes the process of writing a philosophy paper much more simple. By using an outline to navigate your thoughts as you write, your essay nearly composes itself. The addition of detail to an outline as it is written provides pronounced facts and a full outline. Take the outline chock full of thoughts and ideas, add words and transitions, and you have a complete paper.

How to Format a Philosophy Research Paper

Formatting a philosophy paper starts with choosing a citation style . The choice between APA, MLA, and Chicago styles simply lay out citations in contrasting manners for your philosophical writing. Each of these styles requires a differing method of citing sources and varying types of organization. Most commonly, philosophy research paper citations are done in MLA or Chicago. While both are accepted, it may be best to choose which your supervisor requires.

Luckily, you can APA research papers for sale and forget about this stress.

10 Steps to Write a Great Philosophy Paper Like a Pro

Learning how to write a philosophy research paper outline is a skill that can be carried over to numerous other subjects. While philosophical writing is a bit different than most other topics of discussion, the outline can be applied to others fairly easily. Proper utilization of outlines makes for a well-thought-out and structured thesis work that a writer can be proud of.

Choose a Topic

One of the primary steps is choosing a topic, and that is the first thing college students get stuck on. If you can not choose a topic you are interested in, talk to your university professor. You can also take a look at different lists of ideas on the Internet.

Read the Material and Take Notes

Read all materials carefully and take notes of important ideas. It is a good idea to read the material a couple of times as there will always be something you don’t notice at first. It is important to have a clear understanding of what you read to nail your assignment. If you feel like you don’t understand anything, then Google ‘ write my philosophy paper for me ’ and get help from real professionals.

Think about Your Thesis

Before you start writing, realize what you are going to show. Your work should have a strong thesis that states your position. The central component of the work is a clear thesis statement followed by supporting claims.

Make an Outline

An outline should include your ideas for the introduction, your thesis, main points, and conclusion. Having a philosophy paper outline before working on the assignment can help you stay focused and ensure you include all major points.

Make a First Draft

Don’t worry about perfection at this stage. Instead, focus on getting your ideas on paper. Following your outline, start building your arguments. Make sure to provide evidence or reasons for your claims.

Work on the Sections

Introduction: An introduction for a research paper is an essential part of any assignment because it gives your readers an overview of your work. It is your opportunity to grab their attention, so take this step seriously. Remember the thesis statement? You should present it here.

Main body: In this part, you need to present arguments and support your thesis. Start with providing a clear explanation of the philosopher’s ideas and move to the evaluation. Support your thesis by using examples.

Conclusion: A conclusion for any research paper is where you restate your central thesis. It should look like a mirror image of the introduction. Here you need to summarize the major points of your work.

Engage with Counterarguments

A good philosophy paper acknowledges opposing views. Make sure to address these counterarguments and provide reasons for why you believe your stance is more compelling.

Don’t Niglet Citations

Citations serve as a bridge. They link your ideas to the broader world of philosophical discourse, allowing readers to trace back your sources and delve deeper if they wish. Always remember, that citations are more than a mere formality. They correspond to specific ideas, arguments, or facts you present in your paper. This means every claim, idea, or quote you borrow from a philosopher needs to be clearly linked to its source. In this way, you will be sure that your work will be free of plagiarism .

Check Formatting Guidelines.

It’s also crucial to maintain consistency in your citation style. Whether you use APA, MLA, or Chicago, stick to one style throughout your paper.

Revise and Proofread

Once you finish your masterpiece, it is time to edit and proofread the research paper . We recommend you put your work aside for a few days to have a fresh perspective when start editing it.

How to Select the Best Philosophy Essay Topic?

First of all, we recommend deciding on a direction that interests you more. It can be a theoretical aspect, applicative use of philosophy or even the integration of this science with others – for example, ontology or metaphysics. After all, it is essential to reflect your thoughts correctly in writing for any direction. You will need to use writing tools for students to show your judgments accurately in the essay. Sometimes this can be a difficult task when the authors of the papers get into a so-called flow state.

Secondly, choosing a good topic that can be compared with the opinions of already-known thinkers is necessary for a deeper justification of your point of view. To do this, use the appropriate essay quotation format to make your paper easy to read. After all, while we are not recognized philosophers, proving our claims will be helpful to get the highest score.

If you still need to get philosophy essay ideas, continue reading this article. Here you will find 70 interesting topics that you can use as a topic for your essay or get inspired to create your own.

Easy Philosophy Paper Topics

Often we want to avoid reinventing the wheel. We are interested in writing an exciting but easy essay. So, if you were looking for simple philosophical essay topics, here is the list of the top 10 topics in philosophy for your paper:

Human Responsibilities in Different World Religions: Why are They Distinct?
Good and Evil: Do They Have Anything in Common? Will They Be Able to Insulate One without the Other?
Advantages and Disadvantages of a Hedonistic Approach to Life
Life after Death: Should We Endure the Circumstances of the X-axis for a Better Future on the Y-axis?
Why Ancient People Asked Themselves the Same Questions as We Do: Isn’t Humanity Progressing?
Do We Fulfill Our Moral Obligation to Parents by Helping Children?
Three Features: Each from an Animal and an Angel. What is the Nature of Man?
Is Genetic Engineering Ethical with Respect to the Laws of Nature?
How Society Can Influence the Personal Choice of the Sense of Life for Each of Us
Self-Determination of a Person & the Formation of our Microuniverse

Argumentative Philosophy Essay Topics

If you think more analytically, use it to your advantage. The argumentative type of philosophy essay is an unusual and exciting option for such papers since it requires strong thesis statement points. If you want to write exactly this sort of essay, these essay topics ideas will come in handy to decide on the topic of your work:

Peaceful Protests/Desperate Battle: a Critical Analysis of the Philosophy of Resistance
The Borderland Situation and Absurdity: Analytical Review.
Explanation of the Path of any Subject to the Point of No Return. A Critical Analysis of “The Myth of Sisyphus” 1942.
The Paradox of Absurdity and How to Find a Way Out of It: Follow the Rules or Set Yours
Comparative Analysis of Forms of Globalization from the Point of View of Philosophy
E. Leroy, P. Teilhard de Shader and Volodymyr Vernandskyi: Together About the Noosphere, Separately About its Functioning.
Analysis of the Origins of the First Thinkers from the Point of View of Metaphysics.
The Legal Aspect of Organ Cloning and Entire Human Cloning. Does it Make a Difference?
Are People Obliged to Always Tell the Truth and Nothing But the Truth?
Is Experience Acquired through Lived Years or Situations? Explanation of Each of the Parties.

Plato Essay Topics

Plato and Aristotle were the founders of philosophy in their classical sense. That is why writing an essay that will outline or refute Plato’s reasoning is a surefire option to impress your teacher and stand out from the rest of the group. If you still don’t know what to write about, below are the topics in the philosophy type of paper:

Understanding a Being as a Multiplicity of Organic Elements According to Plato’s Postulates.
Reflection of the Philosophy of Truth As an Idea: Plato’s Teaching
Plato’s way of Familiarizing themself with the Truth through Memories
Is It Possible to Trace the Influence of Socrates on Plato’s Philosophy: a Detailed Analysis
Truth Exists, but It does not Exist until Being Developed – the Main Contradiction of Plato’s System of Philosophy Understanding
“Phaedo”: Philosophy is the Science of Death.
Plato’s Dialectic: Philosophy is the Cornice that Crowns All Our Knowledge
Platonic Vision of Four Types of Dialectics as Four Modes of the Soul Activity
A Move Against Democracy from the Platonic Postulates of Understanding the State and Society According to Personal Philosophy
Plato and the “Ladder of Love” in the “Banquet”: Beautiful Bodies, Souls, Tempers and Sciences.

Worldview Essay Topics

Worldview and philosophy are similar concepts; they are rooted in the history of the human race. That is why this type of essay is interesting for both writing and reading. Choose your worldview essay topic from the options below to create your perfect piece of writing:

Three-Aspect Structure of Worldview: Elements, Levels, Main Subsystems
Mythological and Religious Types of Worldview: What do They Have in Common?
Worldview as an Individual Prism of Multilevel Interaction Between Man and the World
The Influence of Previous Generations on Modern Prejudices of our Outlook
Ideological Form of Globalization. How does Social Media Affect It?
The Noosphere as a Part of Countering Global Warming
Modern Beauty Standards and the Bodily Phenomenon of Existence: What is the Connection between Them?
Human Rights. Philosophy and Ethics
Religious Beliefs as a Form of Philosophy Existence
A Complex and Fragmented Approach to Studying the Worldview of Different Nations

Transcendentalism Essay Topics

Transcendentalism, as a new stage in the formation of philosophy, played a key role in its modern appearance. If you are more inclined towards more modernist lines of philosophy, these topics will suit you perfectly:

Classical German Philosophy. Rational and Intelligent Thinking
Subjectively Realistic Description of the Environment According to Categories of Philosophy
The Influence of Transcendentalism on the Ongoing Development of Philosophy Accordingly to the Categories of Multiplicity and Necessity
10 Categories Denoting Deep Connections in being Relative to Transcendentalism: What Unites and Distinguishes Them
Scientific Contemplation as a Mental Category through the Prism of the 20s Years of the 20th Century
Life at the Intersection of the Past and the Future: Influence on Currents of American Transcendentalism Philosophy
Modes of Perception of Time & Time as Duration: New ideas of Transcendentalists or Paraphrasing of Hegel’s Postulates?
Ontological Doctrines and their Essential Characteristics: Henry David Thoreau
Concepts of Understanding Space and their Qualitative Changes Relative to New Views on Philosophy
Nature for Self-Sufficiency as the Main Myth of Philosophy Currents at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Practical Philosophy Essay Topics

The theory is great. However, any science’s practical and applied meaning is interesting for each of us. If you are interested in delving into the use of philosophy in modern society, these topics will not leave you indifferent:

Everyday/Life Level of Philosophy
Philosophy of Principles. What does It Mean to be Guided by a Certain Life Principle?
Approach of Philosophy to the Life of Tibetan Monks – does It Correlate with Reality?
Prejudice against Residents of Third World Countries: Reasons for Contempt for Their Mentality and Lifestyle
Unpreparedness of College Teachers for Changes in the Education System: What are They Afraid of?
Truth as the Last Instance of Communication with People. Is It Always Necessary?
The Philosophy of Excessive Consumption in the USA. What Basis does it Have?
Does the Concept of One’s Opinion Exist in the Era of Oversaturation of Information?
The use of Ancient Greek Postulates in Philosophy Today – is the Appeal to Classical Canons Still Relevant?
The Concept of Ethical and Moral Principles in the Era of Excessive Permissiveness.

Enlightenment Essay Topics

Enlightenment played a huge role in all sciences and spheres of human life. It’s a mind-blowing theme to write about. So, if you were looking for some ideas for your Enlightenment essay topic, we’ve prepared the best ones for you:

Does the Urge to Study and Develop the Beautiful in Man Still Influence Modern Philosophy?
Empiricism and Rationalism: Julien Aufre de Lametre’s Attempt to Unite Them
The Concept of Atheistic Speech of Enlightenment: Religious Dogmatics Debunktion by Voltaire
Voltaire: Ignorance, Fanaticism, Delusion and Lies Are Cultivated by Christianity
The State as a Level of Inequality between the Rich and the Poor, According to Rousseau’s Views.
The Immense Book of Nature as an Object of Knowledge According to Denis Diderot
The Structure of Existence through Its Concepts: Elements, Substratum, Substance, Objective Reality beyond Human Consciousness and the Condition of Multiplicity.
Concepts of Understanding Space and Time in Enlightenment Philosophy
“Molecular Motion” by Paul Holbach: What is It?
Social Life Based on the Principles of Reason and Justice – “About Reason” Andrian Helvetius

Let Your Philosophy Paper Shine

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450 Philosophy Topics & Questions for Your Essay

When you start studying philosophy, you may think it’s boring and has nothing to do with the real world. It couldn’t be further from the truth! The study of philosophy deals with the most exciting and mysterious aspects of reality. It is closely connected with science, psychology, art, and politics. Philosophy is an integral part of universal knowledge, as well as our everyday lives. Everyone who had ever asked the question “who am I?” engaged in philosophy.

🔝 Top 10 Topics

💭 What Is Philosophy?

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What is metaphilosophy?
Compare 2 schools of thought
Ancient vs. modern philosophy
Philosophical concepts of space
Applied aesthetics in fashion design
The concepts of the philosophy of self
Ancient traditions of political philosophy
How philosophical traditions vary by region
Modern problems of the philosophy of religion
Contemporary issues of environmental philosophy

As you can see, philosophy studies a lot of things, and can be divided into the following branches:

Metaphysics studies reality: what it is, what its properties are, where does it come from, and so on. It is also concerned with the problems of personal identity, free will, and religion.
Epistemology, which is the study of knowledge and thinking. For example, it asks such philosophical questions as “what is knowledge?” “can knowledge ever be sufficient?” “how can a certain belief be justified?” “how does perception work?” and so on.
Logic , which studies arguments and reasoning. It includes such types of thinking as induction, abduction, and deduction.
Ethics , which is concerned with the concepts of right and wrong behavior. It studies ethical principles, their origin, and ways by which they can be improved. Ethics also covers controversial subjects, such as abortion, animal rights, and capital punishment.
Aesthetics , which is the study of beauty. It includes the study of artworks, perception of beauty, aesthetic experience, and other related concepts.

All these different types of philosophies are equally valid and exciting! Choose any of them and have a philosophical discussion about life, justice, happiness, time, or beauty.

What is action theory?
Definition of anarchism
Philosophy of business ethics
What is the soul made of?
Why you should study logic
Are beauty standards objective?
Is religion relevant in the modern world?
Can happiness be scientifically measured?
Does higher intelligence make you less happy?
Does personality consist of memories?

✍️ Philosophy Topics

Here you will find a list of philosophy topics for essays, discussions, or presentations. It can be used by high school as well as university students.

Ancient Greece can be regarded as a cradle of Western philosophy. Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and many others were the first who started questioning the world around us. Initially, Ancient Greek philosophy was interested in the essence of the universe, but then it also became oriented at the problems of consciousness, politics, and existence.

Materialism and naturalism of the pre-Socratic period. Pre-Socratic philosophers believed that only matter was real, rejecting the ideas of spirituality. You can compare and contrast it with Platonic idealism .
Democritus and pre-Socratic atomism. The concept that all matter is made of small particles dates back to ancient times. You can compare the idea of atomism with what we know today.
Pre-Socratic view on knowledge and perception . This topic refers to the idea that we get all information by perceiving images of everything that surrounds us.
Diogenes and the Sophists. Sophists believed that the universe is ruled by intelligence. They also popularized ethics and politics as philosophical aspects.
What are the key elements of Socrates’ philosophy? Socrates was an enigmatic figure with a unique philosophical outlook. His ideas influenced everything from politics to pop culture.
Heraclitus of Ephesus and his school. Philosophers of the Ephesian school believed that everything in the world is connected by a logical structure called Logos. This idea parallels several other concepts, such as the Tao.
Plato’s Republic: what is democracy? In the Republic, Plato describes his views on an ideal society . It includes the concepts of what later became communism and totalitarianism.
The Eleatic school’s doctrines. It’s a fascinating philosophy paper topic that includes the concept of one omnipotent God as opposed to many gods, as well as new standards of logical reasoning .
Philosophy of Empedocles. Empedocles was a pre-Socratic philosopher who introduced the idea of cosmogony and fundamental forces. You can write an excellent essay about how Empedocles’ views are reflected in science.
Plato’s ethics. Here you can discuss Plato’s ideas about virtues, happiness, harmony, and other concepts.
Plato and idealism. Plato’s central doctrine included the notion of perfect “ideas,” which manifest itself in our material world as all objects. You can write an excellent paper on this subject!
Plato: allegory of the cave. In this essay, you may talk about Plato’s concept of reality, definitions of microcosm and microcosm, and the “unifying idea.”
Aristotle: logic and dialectic. Aristotle was the first philosopher who formulated the rules of logical reasoning. They were crucial in the development of exact sciences.
Aristotle’s Metaphysics and its legacy . You can write an essay about Aristotle’s major work and how it influenced philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas.

Aristotle was the teacher of Alexander the Great.

Hellenistic philosophy and Stoicism. The ideas of Stoics originated in Greece but were especially popular in Rome. One of the most prominent stoics, Marcus Aurelius, was also a Roman emperor.
Stoicism and Buddhism: a comparison. This exciting philosophy essay topic allows you to compare the common concepts in these very similar philosophies : from self-discipline to eternal recurrence.
What are the key characteristics of Skepticism? Ancient skepticism was rooted in the desire to find truth by continually questioning it. See what other ideas made the Skeptics so influential.
The concepts of the soul in Ancient Greece. You can include Plato’s Aristotle’s , and the Stoic theory of the soul into this essay.
Psychology in Aristotle’s De Anima. Aristotle’s writings often include ideas concerning psychology. In De Anima, he attempts to describe the human mind in connection to psychology, as well as biology.
What were Plato’s ideas about aesthetics ? This stunning philosophy paper topic covers Plato’s concept of beauty, art, and inspiration in his dialogues Hippias Major, Republic, and Phaedrus.
How did other philosophers influence Plato’s ideas?
The Lyceum: Aristotle’s school and its impact.
Mathematics and philosophy of Pythagoreanism.
What were the concepts of principal substances in Greek philosophy?
Heraclitus: universal flux and the unity of opposites.
Cosmological ideas in Ancient Greece: Plato, Aristotle , Heraclitus, Empedocles.
Seneca’s views on anger arguments by Aristotle .
Explanation of natural phenomena: mythology vs. philosophy.

Xenophanes and monotheism .
Melissus of Samos: the concept of “what-is.”
Zeno of Elea: the impact of paradoxes on philosophy and science.
The philosophy of Democritus: anthropology.
Diogenes: the founder of cynicism.
Plato’s and Aristotle’s thoughts on knowledge: a comparison .
Philosophy of Protagoras: ethics, language, argument.
Plato’s concept of reality.
Ancient Greek types of love: eros, agape, and philia .
Moral Philosophical Views: From Plato to Nussbaum.
Theophrastus: ideas on psychology, logic, and metaphysics .
What is “the Socratic method?”
What is Plato’s theory of recollection?
What was Plutarch’s idea of God and daemons?
Anaximander’s philosophy: substantial opposites and the origins of things.
What was the concept of “logos” in different philosophies?
Diairesis: the Platonic method.
Aristotle’s concept of catharsis.
The ever-changing nature of reality in ancient philosophy .
The concept of pneuma in works of Aristotle and Stoics.
What was Homer’s influence on Greek philosophy?
The study of ontology in Plato, Aristotle, and Avicenna.
Natural philosophy as the prototype of natural science.
Moral intention concept in philosophy.
Apeiron and other concepts in Anaximander’s cosmological theory.
What were Hesiod’s theogony and cosmogony?
What is the concept of “becoming” in atomism?
What are the definitions of monad and dyad in Pythagoreanism?
Eudemonia in works of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Stoics.

What is the definition of arete in Plato ?
What are the forms of the good in Plato’s Republic?
Aristotle’s virtue ethics .
Aristotle’s idea of hyle vs. Plato’s eidos.
Hylozoism in pre-Socratic philosophies.
What is tabula rasa ?
Metempsychosis as the concept of reincarnation.
Ousia: the feminine principle in Ancient Greek philosophies .
What are physis and nomos in pre-Socratic philosophies?
What are Aristotle’s “four causes”?
The concept of predication in Ancient Greek philosophy.
What is the Euthyphro dilemma ?
What Plato meant by “philosopher-king”?
The lost city of Atlantis .
What was the problem of universals in Ancient Greek philosophy?
Golden mean as a virtue and an attribute of beauty.
Pyrrhonism and its philosophy.
The concepts of episteme and doxa.
The problem of the criterion in Pyrrhonism.
Acatalepsy vs. katalepsis in Stoicism.
What are the main features of Homeric worldview?
Aporia in rhetorics.
What is Platonic realism ?
Ionian school and its philosophies.
Trivium: the three arts of discourse .
Pathos in Aristotle and other philosophers.
Aristotle’s views on euthanasia .
Isocrates: rhetoric and influence.
What is the place of hedone in Aristotle’s ethics ?
Tetrapharmakos and other Ancient Greek views on happiness.
Epicureanism vs. Stoicism.
The philosophy of Epicureanism.
Logic and ethics in works of Antisthenes.

Medieval philosophy was mostly focused on studying nature and religion. The most popular school of thought at that time was Scholasticism. It refers to a particular way of teaching and education. The Classical ideas mostly lost their influence, though some philosophers tried to incorporate the ideas of Ancient Greeks into their doctrines.

Roger Bacon’s re-interpretation of Aristotle . In this philosophy essay, you can write about Bacon’s views on soul-body dualism , matter, universals, and knowledge

Roger Bacons re-interpretation of Aristotle.

Robert Grosseteste as the founder of the modern scientific tradition. This philosopher was one of the most remarkable figures in Medieval England. His ideas in theology and natural sciences helped to make Oxford the center of intellectual life.
Aquinas’ five proofs of God’s existence vs. Aristotle’s four causes: a comparison. Aquinas’ Five Ways are exciting from a logical point of view. You can discuss each of them and find parallels with Aristotle’s causes of being.
Augustine of Hippo’s idea of illumination vs. Plato’s conception of recollection: a comparison. Similarly, you can compare the theory of illumination with Plato’s “prior knowledge.”
Aquinas: logic and debate. Aquinas famously came up with a very effective model of debate. It is based on Ancient Greek ideas and is based on including both thesis and antithesis.
Avicenna: metaphysics. Avicenna’s study of metaphysics was aimed at understanding the connections between all things in the world. It includes his “cause chains” and the concept of intelligence .
Augustine’s philosophy of language. Write an essay about the connections between Augustine’s thoughts and Stoic theories of grammar. Mention his original ideas, too.
John Duns Scotus’ natural theology. Here you can discuss Scotus’ elaborate arguments for the existence of God as the first cause of everything.
Rucelinus as the founder of nominalism. Nominalism is based on the rejection of everything abstract, as well as the absence of universals.
What makes the Ockham’s razor principle so widely applicable? William of Ockham was a nominalist, too, and preferred simple explanations to miracles. His “razor” method is still considered very effective.
What did Averroes contribute to philosophy and law?
Aquinas: knowledge and perception.

The medieval conception of motion: Aristotle vs. Avicenna.
Avicenna’s views on natural science and atomism.
Cosmological argument as a philosophical concept.
Augustine’s ethics: eudaimonism in the context of Christianity.
Augustine’s understanding of memory .
What was St. Anselm’s conception of divine attributes?
What were the ways of integrating sacred doctrine with secular learning in medieval philosophy?
In what ways does faith relate to reason in medieval philosophies?
Medieval theology as philosophy of religion.
Scholasticism: principal characteristics.
How did Averroes re-interpret Aristotle’s idea of time?
The Scholastics attitude towards Aristotle.
Religious concepts in Eastern philosophy.
What characterized the problem of universals in medieval philosophy?
Peter Abelard: dialectics and conceptualism.
Guillaume de Champeaux: the founder of moderate realism.
What was Peter Lombard’s concept of marriage?
What was Albert the Great’s interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics?
Christian teaching of St Augustine.
The discourse of the Apologetics : Islam, Hinduism, Judaism.
Philosophical apologetics : main categories of arguments.
What characterized the idea of a human soul in Aquinas and Augustine?
The doctrines of John Wycliffe.
Plato’s role in medieval concept of soul-body dualism.
Theological approaches comparison: Thomas of Aquinas and Saint Augustine .
What was the philosophy of the Dominican order?
The problem of free will: theological point of view.
What are the concepts of sin and divine providence?
What was Bonaventure’s conception of creation?
John Duns Scotus’ contribution to Aristotelian study of matter.
East and West teachings’ concepts differences.
What characterized Albert of Saxony’s logic and metaphysics ?
Nicholas of Autrecourt’s concepts of experience and perception.
Insolubilia, or the “liar paradox”, in medieval philosophy.
Richard Kilvington’s theology: influences and legacy.
What was the problem of theodicy in medieval philosophy?
William of Ockham: the notion of mental language.

The concept and discourse of the divine freedom .

The fundamental concept of the Renaissance philosophy is humanism. It appeared as an alternative to strict religious doctrines of the Medieval period. The main inspiration for the Renaissance philosophy came from Ancient Greek and Roman sources, that’s why it is called Renaissance: a “rebirth” of classical philosophy.

The concept of “renaissance man”. “Renaissance man” is defined as someone who embraced all available knowledge and used their full potential. See what outstanding Renaissance personalities fit this description!
Roger Bacon’s contribution to philosophy and sciences. This philosophy paper topic includes Bacon’s ideas about logic, semiotics , optics, and other subjects. Bacon is a prime example of a “renaissance man” who excelled in many areas.
Why is Petrarch called the “father of humanism”? Discuss Petrarch’s attitude towards ancient authors, and how his writings gave rise to a humanist philosophy that defined Renaissance.
Tommaso Campanella’s The City of the Sun as a utopia . This book was inspired by Plato’s Republic and Atlantis, and it describes a perfect world united by a theocratic monarchy.
Plato’s influence in the Renaissance era vs. Aristotelianism in the Middle Age. It’s an interesting philosophical topic that can show you why during the Renaissance humanism became so popular.
Humanists vs. Calvinists: a comparison. Here you can write about the Calvinist concept of predestination and Humanist idea of freedom.
François Rabelais as a humanist. Discuss Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel books and point out humanist ideas in them!
The Renaissance critique of scholasticism. With the rise of humanism , scholasticism lost its popularity. It was now considered formalistic and too rigid. Find out why!
In what ways does Calvinism parallel capitalism? The way Calvinist influenced capitalism and the American Dream can be an excellent topic for an essay or a research paper.
How did Machiavelli bring humanism into politics? Niccolo Machiavelli revolutionized the concept of politics. He promoted the idea of ambition and innovation as opposed to virtue.

The critique of Pelagianism by Jerome and Augustine.
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam’s “Christian humanism.”
Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples’s role in Protestant reformation.
Thomas More’s Utopia.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s “manifesto of the Renaissance”.
How did Martin Luther’s theology change Europe?
John Calvin and his philosophy.
Mona Lisa and Renaissance humanism.
Who were the heretics?
Nominalism: impact on doubting faith.
What philosophical, intellectual, and political conditions led to the Reformation?
Skepticism during the Renaissance period.
How did Paul of Venice expand on Averroes’ ideas?
The question of the immortality of the soul in Renaissance-era philosophy.
What characterized Nicoletto Vernia’s gnoseology and logic?
Pietro Pomponazzi’s discussion of the supernatural .
Jacopo Zabarella’s new method of scientific inquiry.
What was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Pyrrhonic skepticism?
What were Lorenzo Valla’s methods of textual analysis and criticism?
How did Rudolph Agricola revolutionize rhetorical studies?
Why is Juan Luis Vives considered “the father of modern psychology?”
Political influence of William Shakespeare .
The evolution of psychology during the Renaissance period : spiritual and biological aspects.
What characterized Platonism and Neoplatonism in the Renaissance era?
How did Marsilio Ficino merge ideas of both Plato and Aristotle?
The history of European alchemy .
John Dee’s philosophy, alchemy, and divination.
Magic and science in Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Marsilio Ficino.
What were Nicholas of Cusa’s political and philosophical contributions?
What was the influence of Kabbalah in Renaissance-era Italy?
What were the key differences between medieval and Renaissance notions of probability?
What characterized Bessarion’s Neoplatonic views on science?
The concept of Platonic love in Ficino, Bembo, and Leone Ebreo.
Michel de Montaigne’s skepticism and its legacy.
René Descartes’ philosophy and influence.

Francisco Sanches: empirical skepticism.
Pierre Gassendi and atomism of the Renaissance era.
Bernardino Telesio’s critique of metaphysics and the importance of empiricism .
The legacy of Giordano Bruno.
Franciscus Patricius’ theory of the universe .

Classical German philosophy is synonymous with Idealism. The most influential philosopher of that period, Immanuel Kant, paved the way for the exploration of human will, consciousness, and ego. Later the ideas of idealists inspired psychoanalysis.

How did Johann Gottlieb Fichte transform Kant’s critical idealism into absolute idealism? It includes the elimination of the “thing-in-itself” concept and proclaiming the self as the ultimate reality .
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling’s absolute idealism . According to von Schelling, everything we see are the works of imagination, and nature itself is spiritual. These ideas influenced German Romanticism.
How did Kant differentiate modes of thinking? In this essay, you can discuss analytic and synthetic propositions, their definitions, and applicability.
Kant’s ethical ideas . See how they’re connected to his belief in everyone’s fundamental freedom.
How did Immanuel Kant influence other philosophers? Kant was hugely influential: in particular, he provided the basis for what later became Marxism.
Leibniz’s concept of knowledge. You can include Leibniz’s idea that it’s possible to understand everything in the world with the help of logic and analysis.
How did Indian philosophy influence Schopenhauer? For example, you can study the influence of Buddhism in Schopenhauer’s idea that the world is full of suffering , which can be overcome by way of renunciation.
What did Nietzsche mean by saying that “God is dead”? This quote is often misunderstood. In fact, it is hinting at the fact that traditional values have lost their power.
What were Immanuel Kant’s antinomies? Antinomies are contradictions that can both be justified. They create logical paradoxes.
What are the main points of Kant’s transcendentalism ? In short, transcendental idealism focuses on the self as the center of reality. People get information about the outer world, but it will never be able to know the world as it is.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and his philosophy.

The problem of subjectivity and consciousness in German Idealism .
What are paralogisms?
Ends-in-themselves and means-to-ends: definition and comparison.
What is Hegel’s absolute spirit?
Schopenhauer’s philosophy of pessimism.
How did Nietzsche influence the ideas of the National Socialists?
Kierkegaard’s angst and “fear and trembling.”
What are Leibniz’s contributions to metaphysics and epistemology?
Benedict de Spinoza and his doctrines.
F.W.J. Schelling’s understanding of nature.
Ethics and moral philosophy in Kant, Nietzsche, and others.
Schelling’s identity philosophy.
Ludwig Feuerbach anthropological materialism .
Kierkegaard’s conception of irony.
What were Christian Thomasius’ views on reason and prejudice?
What was Christian Wolff’s role in German philosophical thought?
What are the main features of Pietism?
Who were the Thomasians?
How did Sturm und Drang movement influence philosophy?
Baumgarten’s Aesthetica and the concept of art.
What characterized Elisabeth of the Palatinate’s critique of Descartes?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s impact on German philosophy.
What did Johann Gottfried Herder mean by “the great chain of being”?
What was Richard Warner’s influence on Nietzsche’s philosophy?
What was Johanna Charlotte Unzer’s contribution to feminism?
Friedrich Hölderlin as an Idealist.
Epistemology and metaphysics: philosophers views.
What are Karl Marx’s concepts of labor, class, and capital ?
What were Schleiermacher’s thoughts on psychology and knowledge?
What was Schleiermacher’s influence on Gadamer and Heidegger?
What were Nietzsche’s main “positive values?”
What was Nietzsche’s interpretation of nihilism?
Nietzsche’s doctrine of “will to power.”
What impact had Eastern philosophy on Nietzsche’s work?
Nietzsche’s concept of Apollonian vs. Dionysian and its impact on culture.
What was the role of Plato and Aristotle in classical German philosophy?
Leibniz’s vs. Pythagorean theory of monads: a comparison.
What is Leibniz’s “fundamental question of metaphysics ?”
Gottfried Leibniz’s contribution to logic.

In the 20th century, philosophy was developing just as rapidly as technology. New standards of living, change of values, wars, and conflicts led to increased disappointment and alienation among people. Philosophers of that era tried to reflect on these changes and come up with new outlooks on life and the world around us.

Karl Popper’s concept of three worlds. This philosophy topic includes the analysis of three categories of reality (physical objects, mental works, and objective knowledge) and their interactions.
How did the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics influence idealism in the 20th century? It’s a terrific philosophy question that shows the complexity of our reality.
The philosophy of modernism as a reflection of societal changes. It includes the massive influence of art on modernism. See what led to the rejection of realism and increased focus on personal experience.
Lyotard’s Postmodern Condition: technology, communication, and mass media. Lyotard’s book offers a surprisingly accurate glimpse into the 21st century’s spread of communication technologies. It can be an exciting paper topic.
Marxism-Leninism : key concepts and legacy. In this essay, you can discuss world revolutions, vanguardism, and other concepts that led to the popularity and eventual demise of Marxist-Leninist philosophy.
Marxism vs. Freudism differences. Freudism was based on psychoanalysis; later, Freud’s ideas about the human psyche were expanded into a philosophy concerned with society as a whole.
Slavoj Zizek’s concept of The Real. Inspired by Lacan’s psychoanalysis, Zizek formulated a classification of different types of The Real. He provided examples from pop culture, such as The Matrix .
Feminist philosophers: Rosa Luxemburg, Sandra Bartky, Julia Kristeva. While the philosophy of the 20th century was dominated by men, there were also many outstanding women. You can choose to write about them!
Foucault’s theories of power, knowledge, and subjectivity. Foucault’s philosophy was very influential in society, as well as in the arts. In many ways, he shaped postmodernism as we know it.
Deconstruction as a critique of Platonism. Deconstructivism concerned everything from architecture to queer studies. It was influenced by Nietzsche and critiqued Plato’s idea of forms .
Walter Benjamin ‘s “angel of history.” This is a wonderful topic that covers Benjamin’s concept of history and the importance of remembering the past exactly as it was.

Jacque Derrida’s key concepts: an overview. Here you can discuss the ideas Derrida introduced to philosophy as well as literature studies and politics.
Karl Marx views on history. Karl Marx’s historical materialism was tremendously influential in early socialist societies. Explore it in your essay!
Theodore Herzl and Zionism . This philosophy topic is closely connected with 20th-century history. You can also discuss arguments for and against Zionism.
Jacques Lacan’s impact on philosophy, linguistics, and film theory . Discuss Lacan’s concepts such as the “mirror stage” and” the Other” in your philosophy essay!
International development, colonialism, social inequality and class stratification. This topic is centered on the influence of the colonial past on today’s politics. You’d be surprised to see how much colonial worldview affected almost every facet of life in all countries.
Behaviorism and philosophy of mind. It’s a very interesting branch of philosophy that has elements of natural science, linguistics, and psychology. See what different approaches to behavior were proposed by philosophers, and describe them in an argumentative essay!
Being-in-itself in Heidegger and Sartre . This topic is closely connected with several other concepts, such as Dasein and bad faith, and it can be an excellent theme for an extended research paper.
John Searle’s “Chinese room.” It is an exciting topic about the philosophical aspects of artificial intelligence. “Chinese room” is a thought experiment that led to many curious replies.
Existentialism in Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea: an analysis . Here you can study one of the most brilliant books of the 20th century from the philosophical point of view! Discuss what made Sartre’s Nausea so famous and influential.
Anarchism in the 20th century: the classical era.
Communism: theory and reality .
The fundamental concepts of existentialism: angst, despair, the absurd.

Existentialism in France after WWII: key figures.
Karl Popper’s critique of historicism.
Determinism: mathematical models and the quantum realm.
Post-modernism vs. modernism: a comparison.
Foucault’s conceptions of biopower and biopolitics.
Structuralism concept in philosophy.
What was Karl Marx’s idea of a higher-stage communist society?
Friedrich Engels’ socialism vs. the Soviet economic model.
How Aristotle and other Greeks influenced Heidegger?
Heidegger’s concepts of “present-at-hand” and “ready-to-hand.”
Bertrand Russell and analytical philosophy.
What was Frankfurt school’s dialectical method of investigation?
Freudian perspective on dreams .
Jaques Maritain and neo-Thomism.
What were the breakthroughs of 20th-century feminism?
What was the influence of war and globalization on the late 20th-century anarchism ?
Queer theory and philosophy of gender.
The concept of the Other in philosophy, psychology, and film.
The power of ideas: from ancient to modern philosophies.
Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics.
What are the key ideas of Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophy ?
Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialist philosophy.
What is the concept of Dasein in Heidegger’s Being and Time?
The Decline of the West: what caused Oswald Spengler’s bleak outlook on the future?
Philosophical views of Albert Camus: absurdism, existentialism, anarcho-syndicalism.
Absurdism: parallels with nihilism and existentialism.
Nihilism in the 20th century: Deleuze, Derrida, Heidegger, Lyotard.
Jean Baudrillard: the concept of simulacra .
Camus’s The Stranger and Rousseau’s Natural Man .
How do Derrida’s concepts of différance and trace correspond to ideas of Plato and Aristotle?
What was Edmund Husserl’s contribution to phenomenology?
Roland Barthes’ semiotics and structuralism .
“Death of the Author”: Bartes vs. Foucault.
Hannah Arendt: the origins of Nazism and Stalinism.
Julius Evola’s critique of fascism and national-socialism.
Iris Murdoch’s philosophy and influences.
Feminist philosophers: Rosa Luxemburg, Sandra Bartky, Julia Kristeva.
How did Russian cosmism influence space exploration?
What was Heidegger’s influence on Sartre’s Being and Nothingness?
Of Grammatology: Derrida’s critique of structuralism.
Henry Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience.
Berlin and Vienna circles of logical positivism and their characteristics.
Marxist feminism as opposed to the exploitation of women in capitalism.
The Communist Manifesto and its legacy.

The concept of social privilege from Du Bois to the late 20th century.
Richard Taylor’s view of cruelty and compassion .
The development of the “collective conscious” concept.
Emile Zola’s positivism.
Activity theory and its field of usage.
The philosophy of Maoism.
What is “Moore’s paradox,” and how can it be used?
Philosophy of artificial intelligence .
Umberto Eco’s philosophical works.
What are the characteristics of empiricism?
The “cultural turn” of the ’70s.
Claude Lévi-Strauss: philosophical and anthropological ideas.
Social character and social psychology .
Georg Simmel’s philosophy of money .
What is the role of classical pragmatism in the development of feminist theories?
Jane Addams and her ethical principles.
Holism in philosophy: an overview.
Can the concept of noosphere be considered real?
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: controversies and influence on the New Age movement.
Bertrand Russell’s Problems of Philosophy.
Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology of temporality.
Intentism: authorial intent vs. death of the author.
The concept of aboutness in philosophy of mind.

The basic definition of ethics is “moral philosophy.” It is concerned with the problems of good and evil, right and wrong, and everything in-between. The first ethical teachings appeared in ancient times, but they’ve always been changing throughout history, and they vary among different nations.

What are the three main theories of ethics? In this essay, you can talk about utilitarian, deontological , and virtue ethics as the basis for ethical reasoning.
What are the main principles of utilitarian ethics? The main appeal of utilitarianism is its promise to produce greater good for a greater number of people. However, it also has a number of dubious aspects.
What is Internet ethics? Write about the ethical problems of the information age and discuss their role in globalization.

Virtue ethics and its main concepts. This topic includes the definitions of virtues and vices given from different points of view. You can also trace these concepts throughout the history of philosophy and show how they have changed.
What are the main challenges of deontological ethics ? Here you can discuss problems that arise out of the principle “people should be treated with respect according to their rights.”
The problem of free will. The discussion of moral responsibility and control can serve as an excellent basis for a research paper!
What are the peculiarities of Chinese ethics? Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and globalization – see what influenced the ethics of Chinese people over the course of history.
The ethics of religious belief: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism. Different religions have their ethical peculiarities. Some people argue that without religious belief, a person can’t be moral. Discuss it in your paper!
Personal information, privacy, and other ethical issues of Internet search engines. You can mention both the positive and negative aspects of private data collection via search engines.
The ethics of cultural appropriation . It is a controversial topic that should include the definition of what can and can’t be qualified as offensive. Discuss past events, such as colonialism, that contributed to the problem of cultural appropriation.
What are the specifics of feminist ethics?
Gender binarism as an ethical issue.
Emotions: definition of love .
The ethics of the US voting system.
What are the distinctive features of morality ?
The concepts of freedom and responsibility in relation to metaethics.
The benefits of “human-values approach” to computer ethics .
Ethics of working environment .
What are the main views on public health ethics?
What are the ethical problems of human tests in clinical research?
The milestones of animal rights activism.
What is beneficence and benevolence in ethical theory?
The ethical problems of social justice.
Business ethics: from Ancient Greece to modern era.
Confronting physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Environmental ethics and deep ecology.
What are the ethical issues of Manifest Destiny?
Bioethics and its main disciplines.
Axiology: the relations between ethics and aesthetics.

What are the issues of organ donation ?
Neutrality vs. moral agency in ethics of technology.
What are the central moral issues of human enhancement?
The “is-ought problem” of evolutionary ethics.
The issues of human/non-human chimera creation.
Should animals have the same rights as humans?
What is the definition and issues of informed consent?
The moral challenges of parent-child relationships.
The ethics of war: the “just war” theory.
What’s the difference between utilitarianism and hedonism?
Ethics in psychotherapy: principles and issues.
Conscience and its main characteristics.
What are the moral issues of stem cell research?
Disability ethics: promotion and optimization.
What is the role of ethics in education?
The principles of global justice.
Gender issues in public ethics.
What is the difference between ethical and unethical marketing?
Abolition of capital punishment .
What are the possible ethical questions of postmortem autopsies?
Should abortions be legal?

🧐 Top 50 Philosophical Questions

Is there such a thing as free will?
What are the constituents of a good life?
Can mathematical concepts be considered real?
Does chaos always triumph over order?
What is the role of religion in modern society?
Can a lie be justified?
Should we strive for immortality ?
What makes us human?
Is evil a necessary part of life?
Is it possible to find answers to all questions about the Universe?
What’s the point of art?
Is there such a thing as destiny?
Does knowledge make up happier?
Can we separate art from the artist?
Do our small actions affect the world?
Is it possible to know a person completely?
Does power corrupt?
Is religion necessary for morality?
Is hedonism a right way of life?
What does it mean to be conscious ?
What makes a genius ?
Can thoughts exist without language?
Why do people need poetry and fiction?
Can a murder be justified?
Is there inherent order in nature?
What are the limits of free speech?

Is media censorship necessary?
Why is beauty associated with morality?
How can we eliminate prejudice ?
How will the spread of AI change the world ?
Should genetic engineering be allowed?
Is it possible to bridge the gap between the wealthy and the poor?
Is democracy an effective way of government?
Why have women been oppressed throughout history?
Can perfect laws ever be created?
Why do many people like conspiracy theories?
Is a formal education important ?
Will there be an end to technological progress ?
Is it possible to be completely free?
How much do genetics influence human personality?
Is there such a thing as synchronicity?
Should animals be used in medical experiments?
Why is it important to preserve cultural heritage?
Should coma patients be kept on life support?
What is the true nature of time?
Is it possible to free ourselves from all material thoughts?
Why is success so important to people?
Why are people afraid of death?
Is there such a thing as soulmates?
How much freedom should children have?

Throughout history, philosophers have developed many schools of thought. Their ideas vary, but they’re also interconnected. Here is the list of philosophies from Philosophy 101 book that will help you prepare for exam or test:

Aristotelianism is a school of thought inspired by Aristotle and his followers. Aristotle rejected Plato’s concept of “ideas” and placed more emphasis on practical wisdom. He also developed what we know as the deductive method of reasoning, as well as a highly influential idea that everything has a purpose. Aristotelianism served as a basis for Scholasticism.
Atomism is an ancient idea that everything in the world is made out of tiny “atoms.” It proved to be very accurate in the Modern era. The conception of atoms was used not only in natural sciences but also as a way to answer philosophical questions, such as “ why does everything change? “
Cynicism can be considered a way of life. The Cynics opposed conventions and lived in harmony with nature. They were also famously straightforward and advocated free speech. The most prominent Cynic was Diogenes.

Stoicism was partially inspired by cynics. Stoics such as Seneca and Epictetus thought that a true sage should be impassionate and calm. They taught people not to worry about things beyond one’s control and that “virtue is sufficient for happiness.”
Platonism was founded by Plato. According to him, there exists another realm beyond our material world. It is filled with abstract objects (“ideas” or “forms”) which manifest themselves in our world as concrete objects of different kinds. Platonism was popular during the Renaissance, and it served as a basis for Idealism and Humanism.
Zen Buddhist philosophy originates from Japan. It aims at attaining perfection by way of achieving enlightenment. According to Zen Buddhists, all things in life are equally important. A person should always live “here and now,” and free themselves from all unnecessary thoughts and feelings.
Scholasticism can be characterized as a method of learning. Initially, it was meant to combine the ideas of Christianity with Aristotelian philosophy. Later it encompassed logic, science, psychology, linguistics, and many other elements. Scholasticism introduced many essential aspects of logical reasoning, such as thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. It was especially popular during the Middle Ages.
Humanism was the leading philosophical school during the Renaissance. It was influenced by the Italian poet Petrarch, who popularized classical Greek writings. It lead to the re-discovery of Ancient Greek philosophers, such as Plato, as well as classical arts and literature. Humanism was characterized by the increased importance of human life as opposed to God, striving for perfection, and reliance on scientific methods.
Existentialism is a significant philosophical school of the 19th-20th centuries. In the center of existentialism was a person with their unique subjective experience. Some of the leading Existentialists, such as Sartre, were novelists and influenced literature with their writings. It also influenced psychology by introducing concepts of anxiety and dread.
Absurdism is closely related to Existentialism. Its main idea is that searching for the meaning of life is meaningless, as it does more harm than good. We must come to terms with the absurdity of the universe and learn to accept it as it is, without resorting to religion.
Idealism is another influential school of philosophy which is based on Platonism. It emphasizes the mind and human perception. Some Idealists postulate that the world is an illusion, and only what’s inside our minds is real. Immanuel Kant is considered the most influential Idealist. He argued that the brain perceives reality in a distorted way, and we can never see things as they really are.
Postmodernism is one of the most prominent philosophical schools of the 20th century. It re-contextualized the notions of identity, reality, difference, and meaning while introducing new concepts. Postmodernism can be described as playful, skeptical, and ambiguous.
Marxism is a philosophical school that played a massive role in the history of the 20th century. It is mostly concerned with economics and sociology. It introduced the ideas of the proletariat, class struggle, and socialism. These concepts became crucial in the development of Socialist and Communist societies, such as the USSR and China. The most prominent Marxist thinkers are Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Feminist philosophy is focused on justice for women, as well as marginalized groups. It fights prejudice and tackles many controversial topics, such as racism and disability. Besides, feminists rethink existing philosophical ideas and make their original contributions to philosophy and science.

Writing a philosophy essay can be a great experience! It teaches you to see the problem from different angles, analyze it, and improve your critical thinking. Besides, studying a philosophy topic allows you to learn new things about the world and even about yourself!

First of all, you need to choose a good paper topic . It can be a classic philosophy topic concerning different schools of thought, or it can be a more abstract existential question. If the problem is too broad, try to narrow it down as much as possible. Also, if you’re only starting to study philosophy, find an easy topic that you can work with. Choose something that will be interesting for you to research!

When you come up with a theme, think of something you can discuss from different sides . Philosophy is all about questioning, debating, and a deeper understanding of things, both real and hypothetical. If you choose to write about the works of a famous philosopher, go ahead and add your own thoughts on the topic!

e.g., Plato’s Republic has many outstanding ideas, but I disagree with his concept of selecting the wisest people to be rulers.

The second step is the thesis statement . Express the main point of your essay or paper in one sentence. It is possible to write it at a later stage. However, if you start with a thesis statement, it would help you stay on topic. It should present the aim of your paper and convince the readers that your work is important. It will also be beneficial if you write an outline!

e.g., Socratic dialogue helped to advance the way of thinking.

Then you come up with arguments for and against your thesis statement . This way, you’ll see the subject from multiple points of view, and you’ll be able to discuss it more fully.

You can present your arguments in different ways:

The arguments can be positive or negative – that is, they can either support or refute the thesis statement. You can use evidence from life or quote the ideas of other philosophers. If you’ve chosen a big philosophical question, e.g., “what is the meaning of life?” you can select arguments for related problems, such as “should everything always have meaning?” or “why is meaning important?” Don’t forget to show how all these questions are related to your main topic!

e.g., the Socratic method can be very beneficial in education and psychotherapy; at the same time, it may be used for manipulating people.

When coming up with arguments, choose only the strongest ones . The same thing goes for examples. They can be empirical or hypothetical, but most important of all, credible. As philosophy is interconnected with all kinds of arts and sciences, you can find your evidence everywhere: in fiction, physics, or psychology. The choice is yours!

We are sure that these tips will help you to write a perfect philosophy paper. Now it’s time to choose your topic and get started! Good luck!

The most interesting topics in philosophy are usually concerned with politics, the human mind, and ethics. They can also be inspired by modern-day problems. E.g. how does philosophy apply to an AI, or can AI become better than humans.

Philosophy covers a vast number of topics. They can be related to everything from politics to quantum physics. There are classical questions, such as the purpose of life, but also new topics about the modern world, like computer ethics.

The Greek philosopher Socrates is often called the father of western philosophy. He taught his disciples the importance of asking questions, showing that philosophy is the art of searching for the truth.

There are five major areas of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, and aesthetics. They study reality, knowledge, debate, morality, and beauty.

🔎 References

Scholasticism: Philosophy Basics
Renaissance Philosophy: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
History of Philosophy | Ancient Philosophy: Illinois State University
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Main Page
Ethics: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Virtue Ethics: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Ethical Theories: The Arthur W. Page Center
Atomism: Encyclopedia Britannica
A Brief Guide to Writing a Philosophy Paper: Harvard University
Feminist Philosophy: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
What is Marxism: All About Philosophy
Idealism: CUNY
Postmodernism Philosophy: Encyclopedia Britannica
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy: Encyclopedia Britannica
What is Philosophy?: Florida State University
Karl Marx | Biography, Philosophy and Facts: Famous Philosophers
Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy: Academia
Immanuel Kant: International Bureau of Education
Friedrich Nietzsche Philosophy: The Quintessential Mind
German Idealism: New World Encyclopedia
Greek Philosophy: Ancient History Encyclopedia
Medieval Philosophy: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Medieval Philosophy: The University of Tennessee Martin
Renaissance Philosophy Review: Birkbeck University of London
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Introduction to Philosophy

Gaura Rader

Sample Essays

Here is a good example a what an “A” paper should look like. The paper’s strengths are its focus, clarity, and organization. This paper could have been a bit more ambitious as it doesn’t do much more than explain the difference between act and rule utilitarianism and Smart’s argument against rule utilitarianism. But what it does it does really well and this is sufficient at this level for an A, as these are the basic skills that you are supposed to be developing at this level. What it does do, beyond merely summarizing Smart, is offer a supporting example and considering a possible objection, which together make the paper an A paper. If it didn’t do those things it would only be a high B paper. One very nice thing about this paper is how well everything is referenced.

A Defense of Smart’s Critique of Rule Utilitarianism

I intend to argue that J.J.C. Smart’s criticism of rule utilitarianism is correct because, as he argues, there are clearly some cases where it is optimific to break a generally optimific rule. I will show this by first explaining rule utilitarianism. Then, I will explain J.J.C. Smart’s critique of rule utilitarianism, including the hypothetical example of “the dying promise,” and provide explanations as to why his criticisms are correct. Finally, I will provide another hypothetical example, one that Smart did not use, in support of Smart’s argument.

I will begin by explaining rule utilitarianism and how it differs from act utilitarianism. Act utilitarianism is the process by which one judges the morality of a given action based on the net positive utility gained by that particular action’s consequences. This is a troubling ethical theory due in part to the daunting nature of attempting to ascertain all the consequences of any given action, something which can not realistically be done. Because of this, the act utilitarian must make estimations to the best of his/her ability, never truly knowing how far off he/she is from having acted on the most optimific choice. As an answer to this problem, a related theory called rule utilitarianism was put forth. Rule utilitarianism is the process by which one judges the morality of a given action based on whether or not it follows a generally optimific rule. In “The Fundamentals Of Ethics,” Russ Shafer-Landau describes rule consequentialism as “the view that an action is morally right just because it is required by an optimific social rule. An optimific social rule is a rule that meets the following condition: if (nearly) everyone in a society where to accept it, then the results would be optimific.” (Shafer-Landau, Page 149). In rule utilitarianism, moral agents are obligated to follow these generally optimific rules.

I will now explain J.J.C. Smart’s objection to rule utilitariansim. Smart believes that generally optimific rules are useful “rules of thumb” for act utilitarians, as they will often allow us to act in optimific ways when there is not time available to carefully weigh out the consequences of a particular action (Smart,94). Smart believes that rule utilitarianism simply takes these common sense guidelines too far, and that doing so can have disastrous results (Shafer-Landau, The Ethical Life , 96). Smart provides an example of a hypothetic rule entitled “R” (Smart, 96). 99% of the time, following R will produce optimific results, while 1% of the time it will not; Rule utilitarianism states that all moral agents are required to follow R, even if they know with complete certainty that doing so will not produce optimific results (Smart, 96). Smart said of such a scenario that it would be “monstrous to suppose that if we have worked out the consequences and if we have perfect faith in the impartiality of our calculations, and if we know that in this instance to break R will have better results than to keep it, we should nevertheless obey the rule” (Smart, 96). As Smart suggested, it is completely irrational to believe in an ethical theory meant to promote overall net happiness, and then to choose to follow through on an action that you know will decrease said happiness, simply for the sake of following a rule that will usually promote happiness. It is a clear sign of a flawed ethical theory when following its guidelines of morality actually contradicts its intended results.

Smart provides another hypothetical example commonly referred to as “the dying promise.” I will now present Smart’s dying promise example from my perspective. Imagine that I am on a desert island, and the only other person on this island is my dying friend, to whom I promise that, should he die, I will donate his entire fortune (which I control) to a jockey club if I am rescued (Smart, 98). When I am rescued, though, I decide that more good can be done by giving his fortune to a hospital instead of to a jockey club (Smart, 98). The idea of giving this money to a hospital, though it will most likely produce the greatest amount of net happiness over unhappiness, will most likely conflict with one or more generally optimific rules. For example, there could be a generally optimific rule that it is never morally permissible to tell a lie; or that it is never morally permissible to deny a dying man his last request, so long as no one will be harmed in following through with it; or that it is never morally permissible to spend the wealth of others in a way that contrasts with their wishes. All of these potentially generally optimific rules would prevent a rule utilitarian from donating the money to the hospital. They would be morally obligated to donate it to the jockey club, despite the fact that this would certainly be the less optimific of the two options. Once again, rule utilitarianism is proven to be flawed, as its generally optimific rules prevent moral agents from acting to produce the intended consequences of the theory itself, maximum utility.

Another example that supports Smart’s argument against rule utilitarianism, but that he did not use himself, is the hypothetical situation known as “the inquiring murderer.” This hypothetical is often used to discredit Kantian ethics and other ethical systems that employ absolute moral laws. I will present this example from my perspective. Imagine that a murderer knocks on my door and asks if I know the location of a man that he is bent on murdering; further imagine that I do know the location of the intended victim and that I must decide whether to lie in order to save the life of an innocent man or tell the truth and aid in an innocent man being murdered (Shafer-Landau, 166). One could easily imagine that a rule which stated that it is never morally permissible to tell a lie would be generally optimific; or an even more extreme rule which stated that it is never morally permissible to withhold the truth, which would also be optimific in a majority of cases. In the case of the inquiring murderer, however, such rules would oblige the rule utilitarian to divulge the location of the murderer’s intended victim, aiding in his demise.

I will now point out a reasonable argument against my use of the inquiring murderer and will go on to prove the validity of the example. There is certainly an argument against this example in that a generally optimific rule which stated the following could exist: It is never morally permissible to aid in the murder of an innocent man. If such a rule did exist, it would lead to a conflict of two rules, in which case the rule utilitarian would be expected to judge his action based solely on its consequences. While it is true that this specific example can be accounted for within the guidelines of rule utilitarianism, we can not assume that a rule will be in place to conflict with every rule that ends up requiring a moral agent to act in a way which produces less than optimific results. It is likely that a majority of moral rules, if thought through to conclusion, would end up having exceptions that would require a conflicting rule to be made. Additionally, every instance that presents a conflict of two moral rules and requires the rule utilitarian to essentially be an act utilitarian further discredits rule utilitarianism. These instances discredit rule utilitarianism because its entire purpose is to not have to judge each action on its own consequences, and so each instance in which a rule utilitarian must act as an act utilitarian discredits rule utilitarianism.

I have argued that J.J.C. Smart’s criticisms of rule utilitarianism are correct. There are certainly many cases where, as Smart argues, it is optimific to not follow a generally optimific rule. This simple truth makes rule utilitarianism self-defeating as its guidelines do not consistently produce, and will sometimes even specifically hinder, its intended results.

Works Cited

Shafer-Landau, Russ. The Fundamentals of Ethics . 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print

Smart, J.J.C., “Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism” The Ethical Life . 2nd ed. Ed. Russ Shaffer-Landau. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012.

2.6 Writing Philosophy Papers

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Identify and characterize the format of a philosophy paper.
Create thesis statements that are manageable and sufficiently specific.
Collect evidence and formulate arguments.
Organize ideas into a coherent written presentation.

This section will provide some practical advice on how to write philosophy papers. The format presented here focuses on the use of an argumentative structure in writing. Different philosophy professors may have different approaches to writing. The sections below are only intended to give some general guidelines that apply to most philosophy classes.

Identify Claims

The key element in any argumentative paper is the claim you wish to make or the position you want to defend. Therefore, take your time identifying claims , which is also called the thesis statement. What do you want to say about the topic? What do you want the reader to understand or know after reading your piece? Remember that narrow, modest claims work best. Grand claims are difficult to defend, even for philosophy professors. A good thesis statement should go beyond the mere description of another person’s argument. It should say something about the topic, connect the topic to other issues, or develop an application of some theory or position advocated by someone else. Here are some ideas for creating claims that are perfectly acceptable and easy to develop:

Compare two philosophical positions. What makes them similar? How are they different? What general lessons can you draw from these positions?
Identify a piece of evidence or argument that you think is weak or may be subject to criticism. Why is it weak? How is your criticism a problem for the philosopher’s perspective?
Apply a philosophical perspective to a contemporary case or issue. What makes this philosophical position applicable? How would it help us understand the case?
Identify another argument or piece of evidence that might strengthen a philosophical position put forward by a philosopher. Why is this a good argument or piece of evidence? How does it fit with the philosopher’s other claims and arguments?
Consider an implication (either positive or negative) that follows from a philosopher’s argument. How does this implication follow? Is it necessary or contingent? What lessons can you draw from this implication (if positive, it may provide additional reasons for the argument; if negative, it may provide reasons against the argument)?

Think Like a Philosopher

The following multiple-choice exercises will help you identify and write modest, clear philosophical thesis statements. A thesis statement is a declarative statement that puts forward a position or makes a claim about some topic.

How does Aristotle think virtue is necessary for happiness?
Is happiness the ultimate goal of human action?
Whether or not virtue is necessary for happiness.
Aristotle argues that happiness is the ultimate good of human action and virtue is necessary for happiness.
René Descartes argues that the soul or mind is the essence of the human person.
Descartes shows that all beliefs and memories about the external world could be false.
Some people think that Descartes is a skeptic, but I will show that he goes beyond skepticism.
In the meditations, Descartes claims that the mind and body are two different substances.
Descartes says that the mind is a substance that is distinct from the body, but I disagree.
Contemporary psychology has shown that Descartes is incorrect to think that human beings have free will and that the mind is something different from the brain.
Thomas Hobbes’s view of the soul is materialistic, whereas Descartes’s view of the soul is nonphysical. In this paper, I will examine the differences between these two views.
John Stuart Mill reasons that utilitarian judgments can be based on qualitative differences as well as the quantity of pleasure, but ultimately any qualitative difference must result in a difference in the quantity of pleasure.
Mill’s approach to utilitarianism differs from Bentham’s by introducing qualitative distinctions among pleasures, where Bentham only considers the quantitative aspects of pleasure.
J. S. Mill’s approach to utilitarianism aligns moral theory with the history of ethics because he allows qualitative differences in moral judgments.
Rawls’s liberty principle ensures that all people have a basic set of freedoms that are important for living a full life.
The US Bill of Rights is an example of Rawls’s liberty principle because it lists a set of basic freedoms that are guaranteed for all people.
While many people may agree that Rawls’s liberty principle applies to all citizens of a particular country, it is much more controversial to extend those same basic freedoms to immigrants, including those classified by the government as permanent residents, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, and refugees.

[ANS: 1.d 2.c 3.c 4.a 5.c]

Write Like a Philosopher

Use the following templates to write your own thesis statement by inserting a philosopher, claim, or contemporary issue:

[Name of philosopher] holds that [claim], but [name of another philosopher] holds that [another claim]. In this paper, I will identify reasons for thinking [name of philosopher]’s position is more likely to be true.
[Name of philosopher] argues that [claim]. In this paper, I will show how this claim provides a helpful addition to [contemporary issue].
When [name of philosopher] argues in favor of [claim], they rely on [another claim] that is undercut by contemporary science. I will show that if we modify this claim in light of contemporary science, we will strengthen or weaken [name of philosopher]’s argument.

Collect Evidence and Build Your Case

Once you have identified your thesis statement or primary claim, collect evidence (by returning to your readings) to compose the best possible argument. As you assemble the evidence, you can think like a detective or prosecutor building a case. However, you want a case that is true, not just one that supports your position. So you should stay open to modifying your claim if it does not fit the evidence . If you need to do additional research, follow the guidelines presented earlier to locate authoritative information.

If you cannot find evidence to support your claim but still feel strongly about it, you can try to do your own philosophical thinking using any of the methods discussed in this chapter or in Chapter 1. Imagine counterexamples and thought experiments that support your claim. Use your intuitions and common sense, but remember that these can sometimes lead you astray. In general, common sense, intuitions, thought experiments, and counterexamples should support one another and support the sources you have identified from other philosophers. Think of your case as a structure: you do not want too much of the weight to rest on a single intuition or thought experiment.

Consider Counterarguments

Philosophy papers differ from typical argumentative papers in that philosophy students must spend more time and effort anticipating and responding to counterarguments when constructing their own arguments. This has two important effects: first, by developing counterarguments, you demonstrate that you have sufficiently thought through your position to identify possible weaknesses; second, you make your case stronger by taking away a potential line of attack that an opponent might use. By including counterarguments in your paper, you engage in the kind of dialectical process that philosophers use to arrive at the truth.

Accurately Represent Source Material

It is important to represent primary and secondary source material as accurately as possible. This means that you should consider the context and read the arguments using the principle of charity. Make sure that you are not strawmanning an argument you disagree with or misrepresenting a quote or paraphrase just because you need some evidence to support your argument. As always, your goal should be to find the most rationally compelling argument, which is the one most likely to be true.

Organize Your Paper

Academic philosophy papers use the same simple structure as any other paper and one you likely learned in high school or your first-year composition class.

Introduce Your Thesis

The purpose of your introduction is to provide context for your thesis. Simply tell the reader what to expect in the paper. Describe your topic, why it is important, and how it arises within the works you have been reading. You may have to provide some historical context, but avoid both broad generalizations and long-winded historical retellings. Your context or background information should not be overly long and simply needs to provide the reader with the context and motivation for your thesis. Your thesis should appear at the end of the introduction, and the reader should clearly see how the thesis follows from the introductory material you have provided. If you are writing a long paper, you may need several sentences to express your thesis, in which you delineate in broad terms the parts of your argument.

Make a Logical and Compelling Case Using the Evidence

The paragraphs that follow the introduction lay out your argument. One strategy you can use to successfully build paragraphs is to think in terms of good argument structure. You should provide adequate evidence to support the claims you want to make. Your paragraphs will consist of quotations and paraphrases from primary and secondary sources, context and interpretation, novel thoughts and ideas, examples and analogies, counterarguments, and replies to the counterarguments. The evidence should both support the thesis and build toward the conclusion. It may help to think architecturally: lay down the foundation, insert the beams of your strongest support, and then put up the walls to complete the structure. Or you might think in terms of a narrative: tell a story in which the evidence leads to an inevitable conclusion.

Connections

See the chapter on logic and reasoning for a developed account of different types of philosophical arguments.

Summarize Your Argument in the Conclusion

Conclude your paper with a short summary that recapitulates the argument. Remind the reader of your thesis and revisit the evidence that supports your argument. You may feel that the argument as written should stand on its own. But it is helpful to the reader to reinforce the argument in your conclusion with a short summary. Do not introduce any new information in the conclusion; simply summarize what you have already said.

The purpose of this chapter has been to provide you with basic tools to become a successful philosophy student. We started by developing a sophisticated picture of how the brain works, using contemporary neuroscience. The brain represents and projects a picture of the world, full of emotional significance, but this image may contain distortions that amount to a kind of illusion. Cognitive illusions produce errors in reasoning, called cognitive biases. To guard against error, we need to engage in effortful, reflective thinking, where we become aware of our biases and use logical strategies to overcome them. You will do well in your philosophy class if you apply the good habits of mind discussed in this chapter and apply the practical advice that has been provided about how to read and write about philosophy.

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1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology

Philosophy, One Thousand Words at a Time

How to Write a Philosophical Essay

Authors: The Editors of 1000-Word Philosophy [1] Category: Student Resources Word Count: 998

If you want to convince someone of a philosophical thesis, such as that God exists , that abortion is morally acceptable , or that we have free will , you can write a philosophy essay. [2]

Philosophy essays are different from essays in many other fields, but with planning and practice, anyone can write a good one. This essay provides some basic instructions. [3]

An image of an open, blank notebook with a black pen lying on the right-side page.

1. Planning

Typically, your purpose in writing an essay will be to argue for a certain thesis, i.e., to support a conclusion about a philosophical claim, argument, or theory. [4] You may also be asked to carefully explain someone else’s essay or argument. [5]

To begin, select a topic. Most instructors will be happy to discuss your topic with you before you start writing. Sometimes instructors give specific prompts with topics to choose from.

It’s generally best to select a topic that you’re interested in; you’ll put more energy into writing it. Your topic will determine what kind of research or preparation you need to do before writing, although in undergraduate philosophy courses, you usually don’t need to do outside research. [6]

Essays that defend or attack entire theories tend to be longer, and are more difficult to write convincingly, than essays that defend or attack particular arguments or objections: narrower is usually better than broader.

After selecting a topic, complete these steps:

Ensure that you understand the relevant issues and arguments. Usually, it’s enough to carefully read and take notes on the assigned readings on your essay’s topic.
Choose an initial thesis. Generally, you should choose a thesis that’s interesting, but not extremely controversial. [7] You don’t have to choose a thesis that you agree with, but it can help. (As you plan and write, you may decide to revise your thesis. This may require revising the rest of your essay, but sometimes that’s necessary, if you realize you want to defend a different thesis than the one you initially chose.)
Ensure that your thesis is a philosophical thesis. Natural-scientific or social-scientific claims, such as that global warming is occurring or that people like to hang out with their friends , are not philosophical theses. [8] Philosophical theses are typically defended using careful reasoning, and not primarily by citing scientific observations.

Instructors will usually not ask you to come up with some argument that no philosopher has discovered before. But if your essay ignores what the assigned readings say, that suggests that you haven’t learned from those readings.

2. Structure

Develop an outline, rather than immediately launching into writing the whole essay; this helps with organizing the sections of your essay.

Your structure will probably look something like the following, but follow your assignment’s directions carefully. [9]

2.1. Introduction and Thesis

Write a short introductory paragraph that includes your thesis statement (e.g., “I will argue that eating meat is morally wrong”). The thesis statement is not a preview nor a plan; it’s not “I will consider whether eating meat is morally wrong.”

If your thesis statement is difficult to condense into one sentence, then it’s likely that you’re trying to argue for more than one thesis. [10]

2.2. Arguments

Include at least one paragraph that presents and explains an argument. It should be totally clear what reasons or evidence you’re offering to support your thesis.

In most essays for philosophy courses, you only need one central argument for your thesis. It’s better to present one argument and defend it well than present many arguments in superficial and incomplete ways.

2.3. Objection

Unless the essay must be extremely short, raise an objection to your argument. [11] Be clear exactly which part of the other argument (a premise, or the form) is being questioned or denied and why. [12]

It’s usually best to choose either one of the most common or one of the best objections. Imagine what a smart person who disagreed with you would say in response to your arguments, and respond to them.

Offer your own reply to any objections you considered. If you don’t have a convincing reply to the objection, you might want to go back and change your thesis to something more defensible.

2.5. Additional Objections and Replies

If you have space, you might consider and respond to the second-best or second-most-common objection to your argument, and so on.

2.6. Conclusion

To conclude, offer a paragraph summarizing what you did. Don’t include any new or controversial claims here, and don’t claim that you did more than you actually accomplished. There should be no surprises at the end of a philosophy essay.

Make your writing extremely clear and straightforward. Use simple sentences and don’t worry if they seem boring: this improves readability. [13] Every sentence should contribute in an obvious way towards supporting your thesis. If a claim might be confusing, state it in more than one way and then choose the best version.

To check for readability, you might read the essay aloud to an audience. Don’t try to make your writing entertaining: in philosophy, clear arguments are fun in themselves.

Concerning objections, treat those who disagree with you charitably. Make it seem as if you think they’re smart, careful, and nice, which is why you are responding to them.

Your readers, if they’re typical philosophers, will be looking for any possible way to object to what you say. Try to make your arguments “airtight.”

4. Citations

If your instructor tells you to use a certain citation style, use it. No citation style is universally accepted in philosophy. [14]

You usually don’t need to directly quote anyone. [15] You can paraphrase other authors; where you do, cite them.

Don’t plagiarize . [16] Most institutions impose severe penalties for academic dishonesty.

5. Conclusion

A well-written philosophy essay can help people gain a new perspective on some important issue; it might even change their minds. [17] And engaging in the process of writing a philosophical essay is one of the best ways to develop, understand, test, and sometimes change, your own philosophical views. They are well worth the time and effort.

[1] Primary author: Thomas Metcalf. Contributing authors: Chelsea Haramia, Dan Lowe, Nathan Nobis, Kristin Seemuth Whaley.

[2] You can also do some kind of oral presentation, either “live” in person or recorded on video. An effective presentation, however, requires the type of planning and preparation that’s needed to develop an effective philosophy paper: indeed, you may have to first write a paper and then use it as something like a script for your presentation. Some parts of the paper, e.g., section headings, statements of arguments, key quotes, and so on, you may want to use as visual aids in your presentation to help your audience better follow along and understand.

[3] Many of these recommendations are, however, based on the material in Horban (1993), Huemer (n.d.), Pryor (n.d.), and Rippon (2008). There is very little published research to cite about the claims in this essay, because these claims are typically justified by instructors’ experience, not, say, controlled experiments on different approaches to teaching philosophical writing. Therefore, the guidance offered here has been vetted by many professional philosophers with a collective hundreds of hours of undergraduate teaching experience and further collective hundreds of hours of taking philosophy courses. The editors of 1000-Word Philosophy also collectively have thousands of hours of experience in writing philosophy essays.

[4] For more about the areas of philosophy, see What is Philosophy? by Thomas Metcalf.

[5] For an explanation of what is meant by an “argument” in philosophy, see Arguments: Why Do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf.

[6] Outside research is sometimes discouraged, and even prohibited, for philosophy papers in introductory courses because a common goal of a philosophy paper is not to report on a number of views on a philosophical issue—so philosophy papers usually are not “research reports”—but to rather engage a specific argument or claim or theory, in a more narrow and focused way, and show that you understand the issue and have engaged in critically. If a paper engages in too much reporting of outside research, that can get in the way of this critical evaluation task.

[7] There are two reasons to avoid extremely controversial theses. First, such theses are usually more difficult to defend adequately. Second, you might offend your instructor, who might (fairly or not) give you a worse grade. So, for example, you might argue that abortion is usually permissible, or usually wrong, but you probably shouldn’t argue that anyone who has ever said the word ‘abortion’ should be tortured to death, and you probably shouldn’t argue that anyone who’s ever pregnant should immediately be forced to abort the pregnancy, because both of these claims are extremely implausible and so it’s very unlikely that good arguments could be developed for them. But theses that are controversial without being implausible can be interesting for both you and the instructor, depending on how you develop and defend your argument or arguments for that thesis.

[8] Whether a thesis is philosophical mostly depends on whether it is a lot like theses that have been defended in important works of philosophy. That means it would be a thesis about metaphysics, epistemology, value theory, logic, history of philosophy, or something therein. For more information, see Philosophy and Its Contrast with Science and What is Philosophy? both by Thomas Metcalf.

[9] Also, read the grading rubric, if it’s available. If your course uses an online learning environment, such as Canvas, Moodle, or Schoology, then the rubric will often be visible as attached to the assignment itself. The rubric is a breakdown of the different requirements of the essay and how each is weighted and evaluated by the instructor. So, for example, if some requirement has a relatively high weight, you should put more effort into doing a good job. Similarly, some requirement might explicitly mention some step for the assignment that you need to complete in order to get full credit.

[10] In some academic fields, a “thesis” or “thesis statement” is considered both your conclusion and a statement of the basic support you will give for that conclusion. In philosophy, your thesis is usually just that conclusion: e..g, “Eating meat is wrong,” “God exists,” “Nobody has free will,” and so on: the support given for that conclusion is the support for your thesis.

[11] To be especially clear, this should be an objection to the argument given for your thesis or conclusion, not an objection to your thesis or conclusion itself. This is because you don’t want to give an argument and then have an objection that does not engage that argument, but instead engages something else, since that won’t help your reader or audience better understand and evaluate that argument.

[12] For more information about premises, forms, and objections, see Arguments: Why do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf.

[13] For a philosophical argument in favor of clear philosophical writing, and guidance on producing such writing, see Fischer and Nobis (2019).

[14] The most common styles in philosophy are APA (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.a) and Chicago (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.b.).

[15] You might choose to directly quote someone when it’s very important that the reader know that the quoted author actually said what you claim they said. For example, if you’re discussing some author who made some startling claim, you can directly quote them to show that they really said that. You might also directly quote someone when they presented some information or argument in a very concise, well-stated way, such that paraphrasing it would take up more space than simply quoting them would.

[16] Plagiarism, in general, occurs when someone submits written or spoken work that is largely copied, in style, substance, or both, from some other author’s work, and does not attribute it to that author. However, your institution or instructor may define “plagiarism” somewhat differently, so you should check with their definitions. When in doubt, check with your instructor first.

[17] These are instructions for relatively short, introductory-level philosophy essays. For more guidance, there are many useful philosophy-writing guides online to consult, e.g.: Horban (1993); Huemer (n.d.); Pryor (n.d.); Rippon (2008); Weinberg (2019).

Fischer, Bob and Nobis, Nathan. (2019, June 4). Why writing better will make you a better person. The Chronicle of Higher Education .

Horban, Peter. (1993). Writing a philosophy paper. Simon Fraser University Department of Philosophy .

Huemer, Michael. (N.d.). A guide to writing. Owl232.net .

Pryor, Jim. (N.d.). Guidelines on writing a philosophy paper. Jimpryor.net .

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (N.d.a.). General format. Purdue Online Writing Lab .

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (N.d.b.). General format. Purdue Online Writing Lab .

Rippon, Simon. (2008). A brief guide to writing the philosophy paper. Harvard College Writing Center .

Weinberg, Justin. (2019, January 15). How to write a philosophy paper: Online guides. Daily Nous .

Related Essays

Arguments: Why do You Believe What You Believe? by Thomas Metcalf

Philosophy and its Contrast with Science by Thomas Metcalf

What is Philosophy? By Thomas Metcalf

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An Introduction to Philosophy

(7 reviews)

Russ W. Payne

Publisher: BCcampus

Language: English

Formats Available

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Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Glenn Tiller, Professor of Philosophy, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on 4/22/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The text is suitably comprehensive and has chapters on the main branches of philosophy: logic, epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. The author does a good job of discussing some of the main philosophical issues in these areas, such as logical arguments, the nature of scientific inquiry, free will, and how we should live our lives. It does not have an index, but terms are easily searchable with an e-text, and the text has a mini glossary at the end of each chapter with key terms for review. The text also does a decent job of providing historical context and a sense of the development of Western philosophy. Some significant topics are omitted, such as personal identity. On the other hand, some topics that are often not discussed (e.g., metaethics) are discussed at length.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The text engages with most of the standard philosophical issues and questions that students encounter in a typical Introduction to Philosophy course. The author seems to have no major biases or philosophical axes to grind. The author’s tone is teacherly, though not overly formal, and similar (at times, very similar) to many other introductions to philosophy in the analytic tradition. Broad in scope and short on detail, the text is meant to be supplemented, so it may be a useful basis for many teachers of first-year philosophy. The historical overview of philosophy is welcome, and the supplementary readings (e.g., Aristotle, Russell, and Chalmers) are well chosen. Some of the objections to traditional problems, such as Descartes’s Cogito argument, are somewhat narrow and do not plumb the depths of skepticism and the difficulties with Descartes's program of methodological doubt.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The author states in the introduction that "Philosophy has progressed dramatically as the sciences over the last century" (p.3). He also states that he aims to "remedy" the situation of a general lack of introductory texts that pay heed to recent developments in philosophy. However, the text is very much grounded in philosophy's history- in the Classic, Medieval, and Modern eras - and comparatively little attention to 20th and 21st C authors. This is not a fault of the text, but it is much more of a standard introduction to philosophy text than one that emphasizes current trends and philosophers. I believe this is a good pedagogical practice for a general introduction to philosophy.

Clarity rating: 5

Philosophy is often daunting to the newcomer, and it has its share of technical jargon, much of which must be explained so that issues can be inquired into. The text is written in a lucid, accessible manner that should appeal to newcomers to philosophy. Major terms (e.g., "Metaphysics") are put in bold and always defined (or at least given a working definition). Each chapter has a vocabulary section at the end, along with review and discussion questions and (in some chapters) "exercises." All of this is helpful. If supplementary definitions, instructors can easily link the text to, say, the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy or the (more challenging) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Consistency rating: 4

The book is internally consistent in its use of terminology and its organization of thematic chapters. The sequencing of the chapters is helpful, with a nice introduction to the nature of philosophy given first, followed by a primer on logical reasoning, a quick tour through some major eras in philosophy, and later chapters building on the preceding ideas and articulation of historical trends. I think it would have been helpful to have a more detailed section on the so-called "linguistic turn" in philosophy and note other 20th-century trends in philosophy, such as Existentialism. The latter would have been particularly helpful for the sections on, say, "Love and Happiness." Of course, the topics and themes can be easily added with an open-source text like this.

Modularity rating: 4

The text's "modularity" is fine. Major thematic chapters are divided into smaller sections, each with a subheading. At the start of each chapter, a summary of what's to follow is briefly outlined, sometimes using bullet points for concision. Overall, the reader is guided through the thicket of philosophy in a nicely organized manner. Chapters could, I think, be read individually, but the sequencing of the books is purposeful, and later chapters build on earlier chapters, so readers are rewarded if they follow the book from start to finish.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The text is well organized, and the topics covered are given lucid overviews. The opening chapters are especially strong. It might have been more helpful to fully integrate the historical sections into the topics sections. As it is, the text is something of a hybrid. Again, the historical sections are welcome and will benefit students who often need a timeline of ideas to grasp the ongoing philosophical conversations and philosophy's perennial issues.

Interface rating: 5

The interface is excellent. There were no problems with external links, and the external readings and resources provided are top-notch (such as Early Modern Texts). Some chapters do not have links or as many as one might like, but again, these can be easily supplemented.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no significant grammar or prose problems, and the book appears to be generally well-edited.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Like most texts, it pays little attention to the philosophizing of women, minorities, and others who have generally been excluded from Western philosophy. The author rightly notes that "women in Descartes’ time were rarely given a thorough education or allowed to participate fully in intellectual life." To help correct persistent biases, it would have been beneficial to include more women philosophers, be they historically well-known figures such as Mary Wollstonecraft or contemporary philosophers such as Martha Nussbaum. The text also mentioned Hindus and Buddhists, but a few more words on the nature of Eastern philosophy - even if to point the reader in the right direction - would enhance the text (esp., say if there was a section on Personal Identity). In addition, sometimes a phrase here or there is a bit unnecessarily jarring. Spinoza is referred to as the “God intoxicated Jew,” for example, and there is a line stating that "Such was the influence of the outcast Jew of Amsterdam." I am not sure about the weight of emphasizing Spinoza being Jewish. Of course, it's a historical fact, but how does the last line, particularly, call for racial and/or cultural identification? Last, there is little to nothing discussing (or mentioning) current issues in philosophy and gender and sexuality.

Again, given that the book is open source and easily modifiable, all of the above criticisms can be remedied. The author has done many a philosophy professor a service by providing a free text that can at least be used as a helpful point of departure for teaching an introduction to philosophy course.

Reviewed by Sean Gould, Adjunct Professor, College of Western Idaho on 4/28/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

An Introduction to Philosophy provides a survey of central themes within the western, analytic tradition of philosophy. The book presents the fundamentals of logic and critical thinking, the Socratic method, and approaches to knowledge based in the Rationalist an Empiricist movements. Through following a historical approach, topics including Plato’s Forms, Cartesian Dualism, Pantheism, and Idealism are introduced in the context of their development. The chapter of Philosophy of Mind further discusses the Mind/Body, while the Philosophy of Science section rounds out the epistemological theme of the initial chapters. The final four chapters focus on Ethics, Metaethics, and Social Philosophy. Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Virtue Ethics, Relativism, Social Contract Theory, and Divine Command Theory are all discussed, either in these final chapters or at points fitting a historical appearance in the early chronologically based chapters. Payne provides a comprehensive introduction to the boarder topics of Epistemology, Metaphysics, Logic, and Ethics as they are studied in the western, analytic tradition.

The survey of western philosophy provided by An Introduction to Philosophy is quite brief. Even within the adopted bounds of this tradition, large jumps over time periods and movements are made for the sake of compactness. For example, discussion of Descartes follows quickly upon Aristotle after a brief 2-page transition glossing over the Roman and Medieval contributions to the story. Kant does not appear until his ethical theory is picked up in the chapters on Metaethics and Right Action. There is little or no discussion of Existentialism, Feminism, movements within a broadly Continental Eurocentric tradition, or of any non-western philosophical traditions.

There is no glossary to the text; however, when viewed electronically the “find” function serves as a proxy tool for locating key words.

In general, the text remains safely within the bounds of established scholarship in its presentation of material. There are a few points where the author interjects some personal commentary into the material, but these are generally presented in a transparent way and can be isolated and treated as one would wish. However, an exception to the safe presentation of ideas occurs in the Meta Ethics chapter. Here, the chapter takes a thinly veiled argumentative approach promoting metaethical realism against anti-realism and relativism. As an introductory text, this approach risks portraying the subject in an overly simplistic and decisive manner to introductory students.

The safe and roughly historical approach of the text ensures that the content will not be dated for some time. The material of the text is highly relevant within the field of philosophy it the perennial issues it addresses, although there is little explicit reference to contemporary and topical issues.

Clarity rating: 4

An Introduction to Philosophy proceeds with a clear and approachable tone. The ideas are presented in a language that does not require prior familiarity with philosophical study and should be appropriate to most first-year college students.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is consistent throughout in its style, difficulty, and presentation of content.

Modularity rating: 3

The text can easily be divided into modular units to be adopted or passed over at an instructor’s discretion without harming the value of any given section’s use. However, the first five chapters do flow together into a historical narrative of ideas that some might find beneficial insofar as it helps provide some added structure to the introduction to the concepts. This beneficial structure would be lost were these early chapters to be taken in isolation. The Philosophy of Mind chapter also utilizes some reference to the prior section on Descartes.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

The individual chapters of the text flow from chapter to chapter in a reasonable way. The presentation of material and tone of the text remains structurally consistent throughout. However, the text has detectable sections to its content.

An Introduction to Philosophy begins by providing a subject overview, while the second chapter on critical thinking supplies some methodological sideboards for the student. After this, the text moves through three phases. First, chapters 3-5 present a historical approach of Ancient Philosophy, Rationalism, and Empiricism. Concepts are organized by their association with a particular philosopher and that philosopher’s broad historical context. Chapters 6 and 7 roughly fit into the chronology established by presenting 20th C discussions of the Philosophy of Science and Mind.

Chapters 8-11 break this pattern and focus on ethics. Here, the ideas are presented thematically. Both in the focus ethic and the topical organization, the structure of the book changes. If one wanted to use the entire text for a course but did not want isolate discussion of ethics into one single block, then attempting to reintegrate these following, topic-centered chapters into a sequence parallel to the first would be challenging.

Interface rating: 4

An Introduction to Philosophy is all text. There are no images, figures, or other learning aids. The format of the text functions like a book. The table of contents does not contain internal links. There are some hyperlinks to further readings and materials, but these are often broken. When viewed through a web-browser, the browser’s page selection and “find” features can assist in navigating the material.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

There are a few typos or grammatical errors in the text, but generally the text is clean and presented to professional standards.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

With some exceptions, the text primarily presents the views of dead, white, male Europeans, and its cultural relevance suffers from faults of omission. As an introduction to philosophy, greater transparency regarding its limited content would have helped the text inform readers that this narrowness reflects a decision for the text rather than speaking to the scope of philosophy itself. There are no explicitly insensitive or offensive remarks in the text. When mentioned explicitly, the few acknowledgements of diversity from the narrow scope of the text are done appropriately, with one minor exception that warrants flagging. Elizabeth Simmern van Pallandt is given due attention for her critical correspondence with Descartes regarding the Mind/Body problem. At this point, Payne provides a well-intentioned interjection to identify and condemn the patronizing nature of some of Descartes’s communications with Pallandt. Payne also suggests that Pallandt, “provides a brilliant illustration of how to deal most effectively with patronizing behavior whether it is of sexist variety or some other kind: just be competent and this will show that you deserve to be taken seriously” (p 72). Rather than place full responsibility and condemnation for patronizing behavior on the perpetrator, some might worry that Payne’s interjection places some responsibility for patronizing behavior upon those who have yet to prove they deserve being taken seriously. This is an issue with the text that people might want to be aware of. I have had to interject on this passage for my students and have repeatedly received thankful comments from students for doing so. However, besides this gaffe and the narrowness of scope, An Introduction to Philosophy remains appropriate in what it does present.

Reviewed by Shalon van Tine, Adjunct Instructor, Thomas Nelson Community College on 4/9/21

Payne has written a solid introduction to philosophy for students with little to no background in the subject matter. His text covers the core ancient philosophers, basic logical reasoning, explorations in the philosophy of science and mind, and the main branches of ethics. It is a short text, so therefore Payne has left out some key branches of thought, such as aesthetics, structuralism, or critical theory. Additionally, there is no index or glossary with this text. Still, he does a good job introducing the basics within his limited space.

As far as accuracy is concerned, there were no glaring mistakes, although sometimes the author’s personal views are embedded within the text.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

There are some instances within the book that are dated, such as examples that point to public figures at the time the book was written. Additionally, Payne’s lack of Marxist or sociological analysis in his section on social justice is a stark oversight. This omission leaves him struggling to explain atrocities like racism or genocide in individualistic ethical terms, as if these social problems are the cause of individuals with personal bad ethics rather than products of larger-scale structural realities. In light of recent world events and uprisings, this text would be more relevant if it took societal analyses into consideration.

A benefit of Payne’s book is its conversational tone. Too often students new to philosophy can get lost in the jargon. Payne does a good job using natural, easy-to-understand language.

The text is consistent with its organization. Payne keeps most chapters to a reasonable and readable length.

At times, the author refers to his own life as examples. While this tactic works well in a classroom setting, it does not work as well in a textbook that other professors will use. Shifting the textbook to a third-person narrative would solve this issue.

Regardless, Payne has organized his text well, and readers can easily navigate it.

Interface rating: 2

One major problem with this book, however, is its lack of images, charts, etc. Rather than revise charts to fit his text, Payne has included hyperlinks to outside web sources for information. Unfortunately, about half of all links included were either non-secure websites or dead links. The information he linked to could have been easily rewritten into his own book rather than linking outside the text to questionable sites.

While there are some minor grammatical errors, they do not interfere with the overall readability of the text.

Payne makes some references outside of Western philosophy, such as a brief exploration into Confucianism, but mainly this book sticks to the classics of the Western canon. As stated earlier, a main problem is his lack of philosophers who deal with social and cultural problems. Students interested in real-life issues, especially those that deal with race, gender, or class, will not find many solutions in this textbook.

Overall, Payne has written a useable introduction to the basic ideas in philosophy for 100-level students. The book is not organized like a traditional textbook and is lacking some core ideas that should be explored in an introductory philosophy class. Including more real-life examples and illustrations would help students grasp the concepts presented better.

Reviewed by Sally Parker-Ryan, Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington on 12/13/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Every introduction to philosophy is a reflection of the author’s opinionated view about what the most important topics are that should serve as a student’s first taste of college level philosophy. As this is often a student’s first taste of philosophy simpliciter, it is an important decision to make. W. Russ Payne’s choices are at once careful to appeal to the interests of students, and comprehensive enough to cover a wide swathe of philosophical landscape. It should be said that the approach is definitely historical; and indeed the progression through philosophical topics follows a roughly chronological order (and often referring back to the ancients for the locus classicus of a particular philosophical view or problem). For some, like me, this works well. I like to give philosophical problems an historical context, and I like to introduce students to the writing of past thinkers. Other teachers, however, might find the historical bent a bit tedious and frustrating, perhaps preferring to introduce problems through more contemporary writers and treatments. At any rate, Payne’s text covers all of the major branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind and ethics (normative and meta), and socio-political philosophy, and the main philosophical problems that each branch treats of. The classic problems are presented through the classic texts (but you will not find, for example, much on contemporary epistemology such as the Gettier issues, nor more modern philosophical questions in mereology or personal identity etc.) However, I think that as an introduction to the discipline, the topics covered offer the right level and the right emphasis to furnish the student new to it with a range of philosophical concepts, views and questions that they may move on to more advanced, contemporary topics well prepared. As with any Introduction, it curates topics according to the author's editorial and pedagogical decisions, so it doesn't cover every topic one might be interested in teaching. Nor does it have an index or glossary (but I find these are available everywhere on the web, and can be added to one's class materials separately). I should also mention that the book approaches philosophy from within the analytic tradition, and thus has limited reference to the more 'continental' texts, authors and issues. Many will find this disappointing (but not surprising, as this distinction is unfortunately fairly standard within the discipline itself). Everything I say below about supplementing this basic textbook with the instructors' own choice of topics and materials applies here, of course.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

As far as I can see, the content is quite accurate; at least I did not notice any glaring errors. The content is also unbiased; there appears to be nothing in the language or ideas that takes anything but a neutral, inclusive line.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This book will be relevant for some time, as it does take an historical approach and does not pretend to be offering the latest, most cutting-edge views on things. As a solid historical introduction, it has a fairly long shelf-life. As with all textbooks, one should regularly ensure that the material reflects current thought, where it does mention contemporary authors, approaches or views. It is especially important to update with breakthrough work, when it happens. This text is pretty well up to date on the latter, and I would imagine it to stay so for at least 5 - 10 years, at the current pace of philosophical development.

Written very clearly, with a conversational style that is sensitive to the requirement to explain jargon and technical terms, when they arise. The tone is direct and simple, and aimed at the curious and intelligent freshman (so, not overly difficult and not unchallenging or condescending).

The book is consistent, and maintains a sense of flow and direction, and all the parts hang together as a whole.

Modularity rating: 5

The chapters, and certain subsections, of the book are easily used as separate modules. There is some self-reference - to a certain degree, this book is written as a course to follow in order. But it is possible to treat each section separately, to mix and match with other topics and materials, and to rearrange the order of presentation of the chapters if one wanted. Some editing or re-writing may be need for this, but not a lot.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

I find the topic organization quite logical. Again, the order of topics and philosophical problems and text is ordered along roughly historical lines, and I personally find this arrangement a good one, for introductory purposes. For example, the course begins with a general introduction to to the discipline; then turns to some issues in argumentation and logic, followed by the ancients, rationalism and empiricism, philosophy of science (which connects back to the earlier topics), philosophy of mind; and then it turns to the more normative philosophical topics: philosophy of love and happiness, meta-ethics and normative ethical theories, and finally, to some social and political issues. Of interest here is the inclusion of the chapter on the philosophy of science, and the breadth of normative topics included in the last chapters. Firstly, I have found it rare to find an introduction to philosophy that includes topics in the philosophy of science. This part of philosophy might be passed over in introduction because it is thought too difficult for freshman, or those new to philosophy, or at least that it presupposes a lot of other philosophy before it can be approached. This can be true, but it is also true that this topic is foundational, and it can be introduced in a way as not to confuse students or to have them lose interest. Particularly if it is introduced in the context, as Payne does, of historical empiricism. It is also an area that gestures to more contemporary philosophical issues, and provides a good basis for moving on to those for future students. Secondly, the wide choice of topics in the normative branches of philosophy is a positive, in my view. There are students who are more attracted to these topics, but they are often treated in a very perfunctory fashion i.e. often just he meta-ethics part, or just some quick treatment of normative ethical theories. The four chapters here go together quite well, and give a more complete exploration of the issue that can arise in these parts of philosophy.

Interface rating: 3

The pdf version is not 'clickable' throughout, meaning that one has to scroll through to find parts of the text. Of course, it could be printed and used simply as a traditional book. There are links in the text to other open-source materials and texts, which is very helpful (although the links should always be checked regularly). It might have helped to make at least the table of contents clickable, to navigate directly to chapters.

No grammatical errors that I detected, although there are a few typos throughout.

The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way that I could detect. I found the examples used were culturally diverse, as well as gender-neutral and appropriate. Here is probably the place to mention that this textbook fails to include many examples of female or other minority philosophers or texts. As a discipline, we all need to do more to undermine this view of the philosophical canon as white, western, male and privileged. I would be supplementing this textbook with readings from female philosophers, and I would consider introducing a topic from a non-traditional perspective such as asian or african philosophy. No textbook can include everything, but introductions to a discipline need to be at the forefront in making sure students don't think the subject is only for white, male people and interests.

This textbook takes an interesting introductory route through philosophy. It is both fairly traditional in terms of its topic range, and yet also a bit fresher in its inclusion of the philosophy of science, and a more extensive than usual treatment of the normative areas of philosophy. In my view, this is a solid, reliable introductory text for freshman philosophy. As a CC license, one can use this as one prefers, which might mean editing in or out certain topics and rearranging the order etc. I would definitely supplement it with topics I think need to be included. Dealing as it does with historical texts might require the teacher to create more readable excerpts of the longer, difficult texts. It might also be supplemented with a choice of further readings, or even other kinds of media like podcasts ( at least one is mentioned, and linked, by Payne), discussions, interviews, videos, blogs etc. But overall, this textbook is terrific and if it means a student can have access to the materials need for a class without being sent broke, then it is a great choice.

Reviewed by Kyle Hirsch, Adjunct Instructor, Community College of Aurora on 6/28/20

Please see overall review below. read more

Please see overall review below.

Cultural Relevance rating: 2

This is a highly usable and economical introduction to philosophy textbook. It covers the definition, branches and application of philosophy as well as the major theories and issues of epistemology, metaphysics and ethics in the history of Western philosophy from the Ancient Greeks to Rawlsian theories of justice and Chalmers’ contributions to the philosophy of mind. Such a textbook always requires making difficult decisions regarding topical inclusion, and the author does an excellent job tracing the evolution of major philosophical thought to help students see the connections and influences between prominent thinkers as well as the relevant differences and departures. The chapters are succinct, clear, while rigorously dense which both novice and intermediate students will appreciate. While the author employs college-level vocabulary and subject-specific terminology throughout, he often will present numerous relevant examples to help contextualize the more abstract concepts. A great example of this is in the section on critical thinking and logical argumentation. The author provides ample homework exercises as well as an external link to a great resource on learning logical fallacies replete with everyday examples. Indeed, each chapter contains external links to primary readings and supplemental resources for students to access and dig deeper into content. Instructors would be wise to preview all of the externally linked resources and determine which they would like to feature in their course. For example, there are links to entire Socratic dialogues and essays when assigning only a particular section might be sufficient for the needs of the course. Additionally, there are links to encyclopedic biographies of particular thinkers that may have particular sections worth reading; one suggestion for the author is to be more consistent in linking thinkers’ biographies as there doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason why some are included and others aren’t. Overall, the inclusion of external links provides flexibility that is a tremendous asset of this textbook since it allows for instructors to curate content to fit their syllabus. Furthermore, a few of these links are currently broken, and the author has asked readers to let him know which ones need repair so that he can fix them (which I will do) The discussion questions and possible quiz questions found at the end of each chapter are excellent tools for both instructor and student. . Moreover, I would recommend that instructors who wish to supplement these chapters with additional resources do so to enrich the experience for their students and add their personality and particular areas of expertise and interest to the curriculum.

Some other feedback for the author is that the text lacks significant inclusion of minoritized and culturally relevant thinkers. There are several female philosophers, including an excellent section on Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia are her devastating critiques of Descartes’ substance dualism. However, the text would benefit from an inclusion of more female philosophers, thinkers of color and from the eastern hemisphere. Also, the text lacked visual aids aside from those included in the external links. Including more pictures

It is an excellent foundational source that when combined with other OER material is sufficient for an introductory philosophy course.

Reviewed by Ivan Guajardo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Virginia Western Community College on 4/1/19

There are different ways of introducing philosophy to newcomers, one is to present it as a living discipline defined by problems made more intelligible and relevant by tracing their historical roots. W. Russ Payne’s An Introduction to Philosophy takes this approach and does a good job at it. The first two chapters describe the nature of philosophy and the place of logic and concepts like ‘truth’, while subsequent chapters focus on two key periods in the history of philosophy (Ancient Greece and Early Modernity), and core themes in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, love, happiness, metaethics, and the question of social justice in political philosophy. Although exclusively from an Analytic perspective, the textbook does provide a fairly comprehensive and sound overview of what it does covers. It does not have a glossary or an index. The first chapter lists some undefined key terms, but this convention is abandoned thereafter. The book does provide review and discussion questions at the end of each chapter, which can be used in a variety of different ways.

The textbook is fairly accurate in its presentation and definition of key issues, concepts, and themes, but again, it strictly follows an analytic approach to the discipline, which means that Continental thinkers, feminist perspectives, and non-European traditions are excluded. Unless it is complemented with material from these non-Analytic traditions, this textbook by itself will be of little use to someone planning to teach philosophy in a more global or pluralistic manner.

The textbook presents classic theories, arguments, and examples that should stand the test of time. Its content shouldn't require much updating. The book’s format and organization allows for easy incorporation of revisions and updates.

Explanations are clear and concise. The author uses technical jargon sparingly and defines technical terms well. Adding a glossary would help, however.

The textbook's narrative flows consistently. It moves from historical roots to the present in ways that helps readers see the historical and contemporary relevance of the issues being covered.

The textbook is divided into chapters and sections that stand on their own, and thus lend themselves to easy revision, reorganization, remixing, and so on. It can be used as a whole or only in part. Chapters can be read in different orders and still be understood.

The textbook is well organized. Key concepts are explained and material is appropriately divided into easily digestible units. The examples given in each chapter illustrate well their concepts. Transitions are easy to follow and allow the reader to make important connections within and between chapters.

Students have access to PDF copies. Printed copies of the whole or parts can be made easily. The textbook is published under a CC By license, which permits the greatest freedom to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute its contents. Most chapters contain links to readings, but they must be checked to avoid broken hyperlinks.

No recognizable grammatical errors, but typographical errors were found throughout the text. For example, page 6 says, “the reality” rather than “reality”.

The author does not use offensive or culturally insensitive language. However, the exclusion of continental, feminist, and non-European approaches can arguably be construed as insensitive to these traditions.

Overall this is a good textbook and may be combined with other sources to deal with its limitations.

Reviewed by Bassam Romaya, Philosophy Instructor , Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania on 3/7/19

As with most disciplines, philosophy comes with its own vast array of key terms, concepts, and vocabulary, which introductory students must learn in order to make sense of the discipline’s contributions and key debates (both past and present). The text does not contain an index or glossary. The reader must sort through the chapter/s in order to find the relevant definitions or explanations. In Chapter 1, four vocabulary words are listed at the end of the chapter (which is helpful), but that convention is not repeated in other chapters, which introduce additional vocabulary.

The content that is covered is represented accurately. However, it should be noted that the text does not contain the entire breadth or history of the discipline. For instance, one will not find coverage of global or world traditions in philosophy, feminist philosophy (apart from very brief mention of care ethics in Chapter 10), or contributions of the continental tradition in philosophy. The treatment of the text (and themes) is predominately representative of the analytic tradition in philosophy. Of course, this does not mean that an introductory text must cover everything, but merely that the reader should be aware of its approach.

The text is up-to-date, and may easily be updated as needed.

The text is written in a clear and accessible style geared toward introductory students; the use of any relevant jargon (when present) is commonly followed by a definition and/or explanation of the key term, movement, or theory.

The text is internally consistent, in its terminology/ies and framework/s.

The book’s individual chapters may easily be assigned individually and out of order, without reliance on referential material that might come before or after any specific chapter. It is thus possible to both build on knowledge base acquired within a specific chapter (by covering supplementary chapters from this text or another), as well as covering one or more standalone chapters without assigning the entire text.

To some readers, it might seem confusing that the text features four chapters devoted to ethical issues (Chapters 8-11), while one chapter might more clearly and succinctly address the leading range of problems and questions in moral philosophy. There is also the concern that since they come at the end of the book, a beginning student might get the impression that the content in those chapters is less significant or less central to the study of philosophy, which would certainly not be the case. Additionally, Chapter 11 might be better titled “Political Philosophy” or “Social and Political Philosophy,” as the range of issues covered there are not exclusively social justice topics.

No interface issues recognized; although it might be a good idea to check the hyperlinks that refer the reader to live websites (to avoid sending the reader to a broken/outdated link).

No recognizable grammatical errors; however, typographical errors may be found in the text. For example, in Chapter 9, the spelling of “Divine” shifts to “Devine” throughout the chapter, and on page 104, one finds both spellings in that section. Another example, see page 93 for “mght” and “constrasting.” Also, in the book’s description, there’s an extra “first” (“Students are first invited first”).

The text is not culturally insensitive. The text does make use of examples that are inclusive to gender (this may be observed by reviewing examples and exercises used in Chapter 2).

Terrific text! Its versatility allows for coverage of standalone chapters as well as building on knowledge acquired in previous chapters. The embedded links to online primary source texts provide the reader with a valuable opportunity to explore the original texts that frame the discussion and background material to the topics and themes of the book.

Introduction
Chapter 1: What Philosophy Is
Chapter 2: Critical Thinking I, Being Reasonable
Chapter 3: Critical Thinking II: Logic
Chapter 4: Ancient Philosophy
Chapter 5: Rationalism
Chapter 6: Empiricism
Chapter 7: Philosophy of Science
Chapter 8: Philosophy of Mind
Chapter 9: Love and Happiness
Chapter 10: Meta Ethics
Chapter 11: Right Action
Chapter 12: Social Justice

Ancillary Material

About the book.

The goal of this text is to present philosophy to newcomers as a living discipline with historical roots. While a few early chapters are historically organized, the goal in the historical chapters is to trace a developmental progression of thought that introduces basic philosophical methods and frames issues that remain relevant today. Later chapters are topically organized. These include philosophy of science and philosophy of mind, areas where philosophy has shown dramatic recent progress. This text concludes with four chapters on ethics, broadly construed. Traditional theories of right action is covered in a third of these. Students are first invited first to think about what is good for themselves and their relationships in a chapter of love and happiness. Next a few meta-ethical issues are considered; namely, whether they are moral truths and if so what makes them so. The end of the ethics sequence addresses social justice, what it is for one's community to be good. Our sphere of concern expands progressively through these chapters. Our inquiry recapitulates the course of development into moral maturity. Over the course of the text, the author has tried to outline the continuity of thought that leads from the historical roots of philosophy to a few of the diverse areas of inquiry that continue to make significant contributions to our understanding of ourselves and the world we live in.

About the Contributors

W. Russ Payne, Bellevue College

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PDF A Brief Guide to Writing the Philosophy Paper
n philosophical writing:Avoid direct quotes. If you need to quote, quote sparingly, and follow your quotes by expla. ning what the author means in your own words. (There are times when brief direct quotes can be helpful, for example when you want to present and interpret a potential amb.
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Among the ancient Greeks, it is common to identify seven sages. The best-known account is provided by Diogenes Laërtius, whose text Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is a canonical resource on early Greek philosophy. The first and most important sage is Thales of Miletus.Thales traveled to Egypt to study with the Egyptian priests, where he became one of the first Greeks to learn ...
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RCES303234CONTACT THE AUTHORS35From the AuthorsThis guide began as a collection of supplementary mater. al for a one-off workshop on essay-writing in philosophy. It is now presented to you as a han. book for students on the basics of philosophical writing. As supervisors ourselves, the four of us began the project out of a desire to offer extra ...
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This essay structure includes an introduction with a strong thesis statement, which might include a direct quote from a well-known philosopher. ... 160 Philosophy Essay Topics. Choosing the right topic for your philosophy essay can be challenging. There are many different schools of thought spanning thousands of years and historical eras. The ...
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R. Solomon, "Writing Philosophy", Appendix to his The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy, 6th ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2001) ... There are, very roughly, two basic kinds of philosophy essay topics: "text-focused" topics and "problem-focused" topics. Text-focused topics ask you to consider some particular philosopher's ...
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There will be one exam for each section, each consisting of multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions. You will be allowed to use a single-sided, handwritten page of notes for each exam. Also, about a week before each exam, I will distribute a list of essay questions from which I will select the ones that appear on the exam.
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Exams will be closed book, short essay format. A list of potential exam questions will be made available before both the midterm and the final. The papers will be 5 pages. Some suggestions for paper topics will be posted roughly 2 weeks before they are due. Papers not turned in by the end of class the day they are due are LATE.
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