You are to write an essay explaining and evaluating one of the major positions discussed in Lessons 2-4. The purpose of this assignment is for you to demonstrate your understanding of one of the central debates in epistemology or the philosophy of mind and to support your position on this issue.
Your essay must be 3-4 pages, double-spaced, in 12-point font.
I will be evaluating your essay based on the following criteria.
Regarding your content development, you will be graded based on the quality of your writing. I expect you to start with an introduction that motivates the project and plainly states your thesis and finish with a conclusion that both summarizes your evaluation of the position clearly and explores implications or limitations of your assessment. In addition, your essay must have a clear and logical organizational plan as well, with ideas, sentences, and paragraphs building naturally in support of your thesis. To accomplish this, you must make sure your organizational plan would be obvious to the reader, and you must use transitional words, phrases, and sentences to show how your sentences and paragraphs relate to each other and to your thesis.
To demonstrate your mastery of the relevant conventions of philosophical writing, you will need to provide a clear and complete explanation of the position you are discussing. In addition, you will also need to provide a clear and complete explanation of the relevant alternative views discussed in the lesson and draw a clear contrast between all of these views.
To demonstrate your understanding of the context and purpose of this assignment, you should provide a clear example that illustrates to the reader the relevance of this debate to our lives. Your example needs to be realistic, and you need to come up with it on your own. You will also need to explain how the example illustrates the position under discussion.
Concerning the appropriate use of sources and evidence, I expect you to explain and evaluate the relevant arguments or considerations from the lessons both for and against the position under discussion, in detail and with clarity. In your evaluation of each argument, you will need to explain whether the premises are true, whether the reasoning is valid, and why you think so. Further, you will need to consider and assess at least one possible objection to each argument and then provide a sufficiently compelling overall evaluation of the argument in light of this objection.
Finally, to demonstrate your control of syntax and mechanics, I expect you to skillfully communicate your meaning to the reader with clarity and virtually no grammatical mistakes. Overall, your essay must be clear, with well-developed paragraphs, complete and grammatical sentences, and words chosen for their precise meanings.