Basic
assignment: Write a 3-5 page (typed, double-spaced) paper explaining and
supporting your position on some issue raised by Plato or Descartes in one of
the works we read or in our class discussion of thee writers.
Some
guidelines:
1. Your paper should contain
your thoughts and opinions, not just Plato’s or Descartes’ or someone
else’s. Tell me what you think,
not just what other people have said.
2. At the same time, I do want you to address the thoughts of one of these writers: your topic should be reasonably related to something Plato or Descartes said, and your paper should take some care to show that you have understood what he said. Give references to the text to support your interpretation of the writer’s view.
3. Be sure that the
question or issue your paper is addressing is clear and well focused.
4. Be sure that you have
provided a clear statement of your position on that issue (or your answer to
that question).
Some possible topics:
1.
Socrates’ argument (in the
Apology) that death is a blessing.
2.
Whether Socrates’ successfully refuted the charges against him or whether
he was guilty of corrupting the youth.
3.
Socrates’ argument in the Meno that knowledge must be recollection.
4. Can
virtue be taught?
5. What
is virtue?
6. One
or more of Socrates’ reasons for claiming that it would be wrong for him to
escape from prison.
7.
Socrates’ claim that he is obligated to obey the laws of Athens, because
he has stayed in that city.
8. Socrates’ view that we should care more
about the state of our souls than about our bodies or wealth or success.
9. Whether the unexamined life is worth living.
10.
Whether
Socrates provides a good model of a philosophical life or of philosophical
inquiry.
11.
Whether Descartes is right to think that he has
provided ‘valid and considered reasons’ to doubt all his former beliefs.
12.
Descartes proof of the existence of God in
Meditation 3
13.
Whether Descartes succeeds in escaping from the
‘Cartesian circle’.