Essay Assignment 5: Thesis Paper with limited research

Due date: Monday,  Monday, May 12  (3:00 p.m.) 

You have the option to bring a draft to class on Monday, May 12. If you will stay until 5:00 p.m. to critique a draft of another student, then you may have until Wednesday, May 14, to revise your essay. To take advantage of this option, you must submit the draft (with the other student's comments on it) when you submit the revised essay.

Length: About 5-6 pages, plus bibliography

All previous instructions about essay format apply to this essay.

This assignment involves formulating a thesis on a philosophical topic and supporting that thesis with appropriate arguments. The paper must discuss at least one outside source (a source that was not one of the assigned course readings). The outside source may be one that supports your argument, or it may be an objection to your thesis. As with your fourth paper assignment, a good paper is one that states and then deals with the most obvious objections to your thesis.

Choose from these topics:

1. What is time? 
(Augustine's Confessions vs. Isaac Newton's Principia)
2. What is truth?  
Correspondence, coherence, or pragmatics?
3. What sorts of things make up reality? 
Materialism, idealism, or dualism?
4. Why do people respond to fictional tragedy differently than real tragedy? 
(Aristotle's catharsis theory, David Hume on tragedy)

For full information about bibliographical citation, go to http://web.mnstate.edu/philosop/  and click on “Guide to Writing Research Papers”