Philosophy Essay

SCI-Arc  Spring 2019  Graham Harman & Daniel Tovar  Philosophy 1 Essay Topics    Instructions:  1200 words​, 12pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins  Choose one prompt below to address. You essay should begin with the following information:   

First & last names  Course & year  Essay prompt written out in full (including the number) 

  Due: April 3, hard copy, to be turned in at the start of class and soft copy, to be submitted online. I  will provide a link as the due date approaches.    Secondary sources:  Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy​ — See for general overviews  Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy​ — See for detailed, scholarly discussions     It is perfectly acceptable to write on the same philosopher that you presented on. Each prompt  should be answered by returning to and carefully re-reading the text. You are free to consult the  primary text from which a reading selection was taken, but you are ​highly discouraged ​from  consulting any other material. If you need clarification, feel free to search the Internet  Encyclopedia of Philosophy or the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ​Note that whatever you  look at, you ​must​ ​cite. Even if you don’t cite it in the essay itself, then at least include it on the  works cited page. ​Do not plagiarize. Writing a bad paper that nonetheless passes, or even one  that doesn’t pass, is never worth the risk of plagiarizing.      Note about style & citing primary sources: you are required to cite all of your sources, including  the primary text that your chosen prompt directs you to write on. Thus, if you are writing on Plato,  you must cite the Plato excerpt in ​Reality​ when necessary (or, if you’re relying on the primary  source excerpted in ​Reality, ​that primary source). If you use sources other than ​Reality​ (or the  respective primary text), you must also include a works cited page. The citations and works cited  page should follow an American English style guide. This can be MLA, APA, or Chicago. I don’t  care which. I just care that it follows ​some​ style guide.       

Essay Prompts    Ancient  1. ​What is the divided line analogy and what is the allegory of the cave? How do they relate  and/or differ from each other?     2.​ Aristotle gives an account of what (primary and secondary) substance is by distinguishing  between that which is “said of” (or “predicated of” as it is translated in the ​Reality ​text) a subject  and that which is “present in” a subject. Explain what a substance is for Aristotle using and  explaining this said of/present in distinction. Pay special attention to the implication that certain  predicates’ existence is dependent upon substance. (Note: an alternative and somewhat clearer  translation of this text can be found here:  https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/520/Cats1-5.pdf​. In particular, this translation uses the  customary “said of”/”present in” translations. The excerpt we have in ​Reality​ starts at Chapter 5  and goes until the end of the PDF.)     3. ​Compare and contrast Plato and Aristotle’s views on substance.    Ancient & Medieval   4. ​What is Plato’s account of the forms and what biblical content does Augustine add to Plato’s  theory in the reading that we did?  5. ​What is Aquinas’s criticism of Aristotle with respect to existence? What explains existence,  according to Aquinas?    Rationalists  6. ​Descartes: “I think, therefore I am” is the first piece of genuine knowledge that Descartes hits  upon. How does Descartes arrive here? In order to have knowledge beyond this, Descartes  thinks that we need God. What is his argument for the existence of God? Is it a good argument?  Why or why not?  7. ​Spinoza: At the beginning of the excerpt from the ​Short Treatise, ​Spinoza states that “. . . in  order to express our views more clearly, we shall premise the four following propositions.” He  then lists those four propositions and in the pages that follow gives arguments for each one.  Choose one proposition and explain in your own words how Spinoza argues for it.   8. ​In ​Monadology​ 2, Leibniz writes, “...there must be simple substances, since there are  composites; for the composite is nothing more than a collection, or ​aggregate​, of simples.” What,  according to Spinoza, is a substance? Explain why must this substance must be simple (don’t  forgot to to explain what it means for something to be simple).  9. ​In ​Monadology ​17, Leibniz argues that “perception . . . is inexplicable in terms of mechanical  reasons . . .” Discuss Leibniz argument here, putting it into your own words.     

Empiricists  10. ​Locke: What does Locke think substance is? How does he come to this conclusion?  11. ​Berkeley: What is the only kind of substance, according to Berkeley? Why does he think this?  What does he think primary qualities such as extension, rest, figure, motion, solidity, and number  are?  12. ​Hume: Give Hume’s skeptical argument. Explain how this relates to natural laws like Newton’s  law of gravity and/or one of his laws of motion (for example: force = mass * acceleration)    Kant  13. ​What, according to Kant, is substance?   14. ​What are phenomena and what are noumena? Why might the existence of phenomena force  one to posit the existence of noumena?  15. ​What is Hume’s skeptical challenge and how does Kant respond to that challenge?