Essay on a Philosophy
From this pool of questions, one will be chosen for you to answer. Preparing for this exam should include developing an outline for each question. You may use that outline when you write your exam.
Important reminders for your essay:
Think of your reader as someone who needs your help. Your essay will serve as a tutorial:
Organize your thoughts so they are expressed on paper as a coherent whole. Given the constraints of the exam format, you’ll probably write a minimum of four, and a maximum of six paragraphs. These should ‘hang together’ in a way that’s easy to follow; there should be a clear progression of ideas.
Write intelligibly: sentences must be grammatical and cohesive.
Choose your words carefully. Remember, you’re constructing ideas for your reader.
Orient your essay around a single point you want to make, using your thinker(s) as evidence.
Be sure to present, describe, and explain significant concepts and their relations.
Be sure to reproduce a line of reasoning — your thinker’s argument — relevant to the topic question.
Do not quote the text. I want to read you, not the thinker in question. Reference any textual evidence you use in your essay in your own words, e.g., ‘Socrates says that he doesn’t know anything…,’ rather than, “I know that I have no wisdom, small or great.”
Question Pool (ONLY SELECT ONE TO ANSWER)
What, if anything, do Ryle and Nagel’s arguments have in common?
The following joke is told to a robot:
Salesperson: This vacuum cleaner is so effective, it’ll cut your housecleaning work in half!
Shopper: Excellent! Give me two of them.
Would Searle think the robot “gets” the joke?
Links to useful videos provided throughout course
(Ryle)
(Nagel)
(Searle)
