Philosophy Paper Instructions
• 1500 words
• Typed, double-spaced
• Citations in Chicago style
• Paper is to include1
o Introduction with a thesis statement
o Exposition
o Evaluation
o Conclusion
o Page numbers should be in upper right corner
o Title page with your name and title of the paper
o A bibliography
o Footnotes which include cited sources
• Introduction: This includes your thesis statement. A thesis statement
should explain what your paper will do. For example if I am writing a
paper based off a journal article stating that the death penalty is an
acceptable form of punishment I might have a thesis stating—Although
Gidget Smith in her article “Death Penalty is the only Answer” states that
the death penalty is justifiable, the death penalty is not a justified form of
punishment because it is not cost effective, it is not a proven deterrent
and it harms disadvantaged members of society.
While this is extremely simple it explains exactly what the reader will learn
in the paper.
• Exposition: Here you will explain the view or argument under
consideration. If we are discussing capital punishment in the exposition
we might explain what the death penalty is and why it is considered to be
such a controversial topic or we might have a specific article that we are
using and in the exposition we would explain the article.
• Evaluation: Here you will lay out the argument from your thesis:
o Ist few paragraphs address cost effectiveness
o Next few paragraphs address deterrence
o New few paragraphs address disadvantaged members of society
It is vital that your evaluation addresses any problems with the views
expressed. It is not just agreeing or disagreeing but determining if the
1 This is a sample of a footnote. This footnote comes after the information you have used from a source. It should
include the authors first and last name, Title, Date of publication, page number, web address if it is a web site. You
should use the Chicago quick guide to see the order of a footnote. Remember that not giving credit to others work
is considered plagiarism and you will receive a 0 on assignments that do not include correct citations. This also
means that you will need to include the article you use in the bibliography and footnote
argument is a valid argument and calling out issues you see and
addressing them.
Philosophy papers usually involve both exposition and evaluation. In the
expository part of the paper, your task is to explain the view or argument under
consideration. Make sure that your explanation is as explicit as possible. Some
questions you might consider: does her argument succeed in getting to the
desired conclusion? Which premises are the weakest points of the
argument? What objections might be raised to these premises? Are there any
ways that her argument could be bolstered to defend against such objections?
Approved Topics:
For ease of this assignment I am asking that you pick one of the following articles
to write your paper on.2
• Allegory of the Cave found here
https://www.indwes.edu/academics/jwhc/_files/Plato_s%20Allegory%20of%20th
e%20Cave.pdf
• Communist Manifesto found here
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-
manifesto/ch01.htm
• Socrates found here
https://theconversation.com/what-socrates-know-nothing-wisdom-can-teach-
a-polarized-america-202696
• AI found here
https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-killed-the-student-essay-philosophers-call-
bullshit-200195
• Descartes found here
https://philosophynow.org/issues/160/Cogito_Ergo_Sum
So your goal is to read an article that you want to write your paper on; do some
outside research so you have a way to Evaluate the paper; create a thesis
statement that explains how you are going to approach the paper; write your
exposition, write your evaluation, write your conclusion. Be sure that you include
2 This is another footnote. Again should follow the format listed in the Chicago quick guide which you do have a
link for above.a bibliography stating all sources used in your paper and footnotes each time
you use outside sources.
How to create a bibliography and footnotes can be found here
https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
