Thinking and Writing about Philosophy

by Bedau, Hugo

• ISBN13: 9780312396534
• ISBN10: 0312396538
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-03-08
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

With 16 readings by prominent philosophers and 8 examples of student writing, this concise and inexpensive guide discusses every stage of reading, analyzing, and responding to philosophical texts and arguments and offers thorough coverage of research and documentation.

Author Biography

HUGO A. BEDAU, professor of philosophy at Tufts University, served as chair of the Philosophy Department and chair of the university's committee on college writing. He is coeditor, with Sylvan Barnet, of two highly successful text/readers for college composition: Current Issues and Enduring Questions, Sixth Edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002) and Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing, Fourth Edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002). An internationally respected expert on moral, legal, and political theory, he has published among other books, The Death Penalty in America, Justice and Equality, Victimless Crimes, and Making Mortal Choices.

Table of Contents

    To the Instructor: Helping Your Students Improve Their Writing
    To the Student: Why Improving Your Writing Matters--to You
    
    * New to this edition
    
  1. FIRST YOU WRITE
    A Socratic Exercise
    Some Important Features of Writing Philosophy
   * The Fields of Philosophy
    
  2. WRITING TO UNDERSTAND READING
    Reading vs. Skimming
   * Taking Notes
    Rewriting What You Have Read: Four Assignments
       Writing a Summary
          Some Guidelines for Writing an Effective Summary
          Summarizing an Extract from David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
          The Summary, by Noah Kriegel (Student)
       Writing an Abstract
          Some Guidelines for Writing an Effective Abstract
         * Writing an Abstract of Garrett Hardin's "On Not Feeding the Starving"
         * The Abstract, by Ashley de Marchera (Student)
       Extracting an Author's Thesis
          Some Guidelines for Extracting an Author's Thesis
          Extracting the Thesis from Bertrand Russell's "Three Essentials for a Stable World"
          Extracting a Thesis from Friedrich Nietzsche's The Genealogy of Morals
          Extracting the Thesis from Edmund Gettier's "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?"
       Outlining an Essay
       A Sample Outline
       Some Guidelines for Writing an Effective Outline
      * Writing an Outline of C. S. Peirce's "How to Make Our Ideas Clear"
      * The Outline, by Dan Rosenberg (Student)
    
  3. EVALUATING ARGUMENTATIVE PROSE
    Argument vs. Disputation and Persuasion
    Argument in Detail
    Formulating and Evaluating a Definition
       Constructing a Definition Based on Ernest Nagel's "A Defense of Atheism"
       A Student's Definition
   * Explanation by Exclusion and Contrast
      * Explaining the Definition of Law in "The Treatise on Law" by St. Thomas Aquinas
    Evaluating an Argument by Analogy
       Some Guidelines for Evaluating an Analogy
       Evaluating an Argument by Analogy in Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion"
       The Essay: Thomson's Plugged-In Violinist and the Problem of Abortion, by Steven Calcote (Student)
    Evaluating a Formal Argument
       Some Guidelines for Evaluating a Formal Argument
       A Checklist for Evaluating Arguments
       Evaluating an Argument in Morton G. White's What Is and What Ought to Be Done
       The Essay: An Antiabortion Argument Evaluated, by David Hoberman (Student)
    
  4. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: THE PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAY
    Getting Started
    The Eight-Step Sequence
    Writing an Essay on a Definition and a Counterexample in Plato's Republic
    Guidelines for Preliminary Notes
    The Essay: Cephalus's Self-Contradiction, by Stacey Schmidt (Student)
    Writing an Essay on Divergent Views of Criteria and Evidence
    The First Text: René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason
    The Second Text: Alan M. Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence
    The Essay: Can Machines Think? Turing vs. Descartes, by Ellen Wheeler (Student)
    
  5. DRAFTING AND REVISING THE PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAY
    Drafting
       Using an Outline to Help Construct Your Paper
       The Opening Paragraph
          Introducing the Topic
          Stating Your Thesis
          Sketching Your Argument
          Putting First Things Last
       Paragraph Structure
         * "The Internal Logic of a Paragraph," by Mary Anne Warren
         * "The External Logic of Paragraphs," by Sisela Bok
       The Closing Paragraph
       Choosing a Title
    Revising and Editing
       Writing is Rewriting
       Reviewing Your Paper for Word Choice
          Avoiding Sexist Language
          Using Latin Terms Correctly
          Commonly Confused Words
       Reviewing Your Paper for Structure, Grammar, and Punctuation
         * Structure
          Grammar
          Punctuation
       Revising Papers in Response to Others' Comments
          Peer Review
          Instructor Comments
          A Student's First Draft with Instructor Comments: Jennifer Trusted's Concept of Freedom and Its Bearing on the Dispute between Determinists and Libertarians, by Peter L. Miller, III (Student)
          Miller's Revised Essay
       Manuscript Preparation and Format
       A Final Checklist
    
  6. INTEGRATING QUOTATIONS AND CITING SOURCES
    Integrating Quotations
       Why Quote in the First Place?
       Pitfalls to Avoid in Quoting
       Lead-ins
       Insertions
       Deletions
       Alterations
       Emphasis
       Long Quotations
    Avoiding Plagiarism
    Citing and Documenting Sources
       Numbered Footnotes of Endnotes
       In-text Citation
          Multiple Sources
       Preparing Your Bibliography
          A Sample Bibliography
          A Student's Bibliography: "A Bibliography on the Nature of Human Consciousness," by Eugene Leach
    
  7. USING LIBRARY AND ONLINE RESOURCES
    Philosophical Dictionaries
    Encyclopedias, Book Series, and Specialized References
    Journals
   * Web Sites
    
  GLOSSARY OF PHILOSOPHICAL TERMS
    
  INDEX