Overview
1. Double space your essay.
2. Essay should be 6 to 8 pages.
3. Follow the rules of composition for formatting and writing.
4. Document your work properly citing Chaffee and other sources.
5. Apply the critical thinking skills you learned in chapter 1.
6. Essay must follow the rules for writing a research paper. If you do not know how to do that, you may look it up. A few of those rules are given above. A link for style guides is given under information.
7. Essays will be submitted through TurnItIn and scanned for plagiarism so do not buy one from the internet.
8. See Rubric at Grades>Term Essay then look in upper right hand corner.
9. Acceptable sources: Our Textbook, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Essays found in Library Databases (See Library Website), original sources (Book by one of the philosophers, The Constitution of the United States of America, "The Declaration of Independence".
1. The subject of any of the sections of any of the chapters except the discussion of World Religions in Chapter 7, but such an essay needs to be quite specific and reflect a thoughtful viewpoint. The reason for the exception is that Chaffee was not interested in their philosophies of religion but to show there are a variety of theistic and non-theistic religions.2. Any of the philosophers mentioned, but may not be biographical. It needs to be about the philosopher’s philosophy. E.g. if you write on John Locke’s political philosophy, you must demonstrate the distinction between his and one or the other of political philosophers or traditions.
3. An example of a good essay is a discussion of how John Locke’s political philosophy is manifested in The Constitution of the United States of America.
4. Another example would be to compare the views of one pre 20th century and one 20th century philosopher on the nature of the self.