Philosophy 4010: Senior Seminar Paper 1

Due: October 3, 2007: ½ page as to what your paper will be on.

Due: October 17, 2007

Instructions:

1. The paper should be 5-7 pages long, double spaced, with no more than 1" margins in a 12 point font.

2. The paper should be organized around an argument for a conclusion.

3. Topics may be of your choosing, though some suggestions are offered below. Consider clearing your topic with the instructor first. A good topic should engage issues and readings we have considered in the class.

4. We've covered a great deal of ground, but a well organized paper will focus on a single issue or argument and develop a sustained response to that.

Some sample strategies:

1. Find a conclusion that you disagree with and consider the evidence (for example, the experimental evidence) that has been offered on its behalf. Explain why the evidence does not support the conclusion.

2. Does cultural diversity of intuitions undermine philosophical practice? Choose one example of apparent diversity and explain why or why not.

3. Do framing and order effects in intuitions undermine an evidential role for intuitions? If so, why? Explain how we can address some issue (i.e. one we've considered in class) without appeal to intuitions.

If not, why not? Explain how intuitions continue to be valuable in the face of the experimental evidence we've considered in class.

4. Adjudicate an issue between a philosopher and his or her critics: e.g. between Jackson and Stich/Weinberg, for instance. Or between Sosa or Ludwig and the philosophers they discuss.

5. Consider an issue that can be experimentally explored, but has not yet been addressed adequately. If it has been addressed at all, explain why those attempts were unsuccessful, and consider a different experiment that would be more adequate.