Your first essay should be a minimum of 1400 words and a maximum of 1700 words. Double-spaced. Typed. And Titled! Come up with a good title. Not, for example, “Essay 1.” Edit your writing. A big part of your grade will be determined by how clearly it is written. it should be well-organized and your thesis (main point) should be clearly stated and supported by quotations from whatever texts you use.!IMPORTANT: Write your essay as though you are writing for an intelligent college freshman who has not read the text you are writing about. This will force you to explain yourself clearly.
Also, limit yourself to answering the question. Don’t waste time giving historical background information. You should base your answer on the pages I assigned. Do not tell me what Wikipedia or some other secondary source says. Your essay should have at least SIX short quotations. These quotations should be integrated into your own sentences. NO BLOCK QUOTATIONS. Also, cite the source of your quotations, so I can look them up if I want to. When you write your essay write only about something I have assigned; do NOT base your essay on secondary sources. Double-space your essay. If you do not double-space you will lose 10 points. At the top of your essay put your name, the date, Philosophy 1. Title your essay.
Whatever text or texts you choose to write about make sure you base everything you have to say on those texts; not on what other writers say about those texts.
Choose ONE of the following questions to write about.
1. Compare and contrast the views of Sigmund Freud. and G.K. Chesterton on religion, reason, and fairy tales. To answer this question you need to discuss Freud’s book The Future of an Illusion and Chesterton’s essay “The Ethics of Elfland.”
2. Explain how Chesterton’s “fairytale philosophy” (the part that can be summed up in the words of the frog “Lord how you made me jump!”) is very similar to Hume’s Fork.
3. Explain how Plato’s discussion (in Phaedo) of knowledge (or learning) as recollection contributes to his attempt to show that the soul is immortal. Does it succeed in showing that the soul is immortal? If not, what does it show?
4. Compare and contrast the views of William James (as expressed in his essay “The Will to Believe”) and Sigmund Freud (as expressed in his book The Future of an Illusion) on whether we are rationally justified to believe in God.
5. Explain Descartes argument in the First and Second Meditation. Put your major emphasis, though, on the First Meditation. Explain what the major stages of Descartes’ argument are in the First Meditation. Also, explain how the Second Meditation offers an answer to the question raised in the First Meditation.
6. Explain David Hume’s argument that we have no reason to believe in induction. Base your essay on the selections from Hume that I assigned.
7. Explain Locke’s view of substance (both material and spiritual substances). Base your essay on the selections I assigned from Locke.
