Assignments

The following assignments comprise 80% of the final course grade.

The student examples appear courtesy of an MIT student and are used with permission. Student examples appear anonymously unless otherwise requested.

Short Writing Assignments

  1. Necessary and Sufficient Conditions (PDF)
  2. Analyzing Arguments (PDF)
  3. The Closure Principle (PDF)
  4. Sensitivity and Safety (PDF)

Papers

Midterm

Your midterm paper should address the following question:

Do we have justification to form beliefs on the basis of perception only if we have independent justification to believe that perception is reliable?

Midterm paper guidelines and instructions (PDF)

Student example: "Wright, skepticism and entitlement" (PDF)

Final

Your final paper should address the following question:

Does the lottery paradox show that we don't know much about the external world?

Final paper guidelines and instructions(PDF)

Student example: "The Contexualist Solution to the Lottery Paradox" (PDF)

Writing References

Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper, jimpryor.net.

A Sample Philosophy Paper, prezi.com.