What does writing a philosophical essay mean? It means you have to present an argument and defend your argument supporting your claim with evidence and other referenced work. It should also include an objection to your argument and your response.
An example may be helpful here; this is not a topic relevant to the current course. If you decide to write about whether violence is a social invention or is innate your main thesis could look something like this:
” Humans are aggressive by nature, therefore to think that we can end violence by non-violence is unrealistic”
In any paper topic, you should always define the terms, concepts. In this case, you would need to define what you mean by ‘violence ‘, ‘non-violence’, ‘aggressive’. You would need to include what you understand by ‘nature.’ Put forward your position, give adequate reasons to justify your position. Give examples where appropriate. What could be a possible objection to your argument? What would be your response?
You should refer to at least three authors from reputable sources in your analysis. If using direct quotes please include page numbers, as well as complete citation details. Any referencing style is accepted, but it needs to be consistent.
Word length: 3,000 words.
An outline for your paper would look something like this:
Introduction
What is the topic of your paper, what position do you want to defend? What is your argument? What is the outlay of your paper? What do you intend to do?
Body of the paper
This forms the bulk of your paper and would consist of a series of paragraphs. In this section you would include any background information pertinent to your argument; define any terms which warrant it; provide good reasoning for the position you have taken. Provide an example or quotations from other sources to support your argument. Here too you would provide an objection to your argument and a response.
Conclusion
In this section you would sum up the main points from your argument.
