Write an argumentative/evaluative essay addressing Stephen Law’s “The evil-god challenge” (2010) and Keith Ward’s reply “The Evil God Challenge — A Response” (2015). (Both documents will be attached) Is Ward’s reply to Law a good one? If so, why; if not, why not?
It will be essential that your paper demonstrate a knowledgeable familiarity with both of these sources. You will have to spend at least some of your paper showing that you understand what the evil god challenge is. Papers will need to show evidence of familiarity with both Law (2010) and Ward (2015)
IMPORTANT !!!
no outside resources are required or allowed for this paper. I will attach a document with relevant course material that can/should be used to write this essay.
no bibliography required
Text Format
Regarding spacing, font, font size, etc., I’m really not too picky about these things anymore: now that essays are submitted electronically, their length (word count) can be checked rather easily, and this removes the primary motivation for standardized formatting. My personal preference is for 12 point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, 1 inch (2.54 cm) margins, left justification of main body. But if you prefer different formatting settings (e.g., 11 point font, 1.5 spacing, full justification), that’s probably not going to be a problem (I say “probably” because there are certain things you could do that would significantly detract from the readability of your essay: for example, a ridiculously large font, using block caps, underlining everything, making your text red or some other unpleasant-to-read colour, etc.).
Mandatory Quotations
Each essay must contain at least four quotations: at least two from Law (2010), and at least two from Ward (2015). These quotations must be quotations, not paraphrases, and identified as quotations by either quotation marks or, in the case of a long quotation, block quotation formatting. Your will be judged for the aptness of the quotations you choose (for example, does your quotation actually serve to reinforce something you are arguing, or does it just look like you’re unenthusiastically checking a box to satisfy a requirement?) Your page references for these quotations will be double-checked. Any of failing to provide the minimum number of quotations, or failing to provide page numbers for all of your quotations, or failing to provide the correct page numbers for all of your quotations, will be grounds for a grade penalty up to and including a mark of zero on the essay. I must emphasize that I am extremely serious about the necessity of the page numbers: in an earlier semester an essay which failed to provide a single page reference for any of its quotations was given a zero.
LENGTH
1500-2000 words
CANNOT be over 2000 words
Quotes and In-text Citations
Your only sources of quoted material should be Law’s 2010 ‘The evil-god challenge’ (mandatory), Keith Ward’s ‘The Evil God Challenge — A Reply’, and possibly other course materials (these latter are not required, but nor are they forbidden). Since these will be your only sources, you only need to provide accurate page references for your in-text citations: for Law, use page numbers 353 – 373; for Ward, use page numbers 43 – 49; for everything else, use the page numbers from the original course package, which are the page numbers used by the Course Notes.
In-text citations need just provide the author’s last name and the page number. For example: “(Law, 360)”, “(Ward, 46)”. Follow the same rule for the authors from the Course Package. Papers which include additional information in the in-text citations (e.g., titles, publication details) will make me think they are “padding”.
Despite the mandatory quotations, make sure not to overdo the quotations: I am much more interested in seeing your words and ideas than a stitch-up of other people’s words. At the threshold of 30% quoted material I will begin taking substantial marks off, with the penalty being even more substantial for even greater proportions of quoted material. At the bottom end of things, a 1500 word essay should have less than 450 words of quoted material; at the other extreme, a 2000 word essay should have less than 600 words of quoted material.
