Philosophy

Personal Research and Reflection Project Step 4

Part of being a scholar is seeking out, understanding, and comparing the views of other scholars. Your job for the fourth step of your personal research project is to find a journal article or book chapter about your topic written by another philosopher that you think will help you develop your own view.

Academic publishing is distinguished from the wider publishing industry by its purpose (the transmission of knowledge), emphasis on argumentation and evidence, use of peer-review, it’s intended audience, and somewhat weaker profit motive. (The academic publishing world is not without its problems of course. There is too much pressure to publish in general).

Please find a journal article or a book chapter about your dilemma from one of the publishers on the next page and summarize it. Your summary should do the following:

First

Identify and explain the thesis of the paper and attribute it to the author. The thesis is the claim that the author is attempting to persuade her audience is true, and which serves as the organizing principle of the entire paper. What is it, and what does it mean? There is probably just one thesis, but sometimes there are a couple, related thesis.

(About 1 paragraph)

Then

Summarize any background information the author provides that you think is important for understanding or appreciating the significance of the thesis. If the author does not provide any such background information, what background knowledge do you have that makes the thesis interesting to you and worth reading about?

(About 1-3 paragraphs)

Then

Identify and explain the author’s argument. What are the most important concepts/vocabulary words a reader would need to know to understand the paper and what do they mean? What are the reasons/evidence the author is providing in support of their thesis, and how do they support the thesis?

(About 3-4 paragraphs)

Finally

Provide the citation information for the paper you have summarized at the end of your paper. Use MLA format. Here’s a good guide:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html

A printed, double spaced, paper with the time and date of your class and an appropriate underlined title is due in class on Wednesday 11/28. Also, staple the rubric to your paper.

Good Ethics Journals

Ethics

Utilitas

Analysis

Philosophy and Public Affairs Social Philosophy and Policy

Journal of Ethics

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

Journal of Social Philosophy

Ergo, an Open Access Journal of Philosophy

Hypatia

Good Publishing Houses

Oxford University Press

Harvard University Press

Routledge

Palgrave-Macmillan

Springer

MIT University Press

Cambridge University Press

Yale University Press

Wiley-Blackwell

Taylor and Francis

Blackwell

Norton

University of Chicago Press

University of California Press

Rubric

/5

/5

/10

/3

/3

/26

Identifies and Explains the thesis.

Provides background information.

Identifies and explains the argument.

Provides citation information in MLA format.

Correct editing (and stapled)