Third Paper Assignment
Select one of the following topics on which to write a paper approximately five pages long. Papers must be submitted via turnitin.com by 12 noon, Tuesday, Dec. 18th. Each of the teaching assistants will have a specific policy about whether and if so how to turn in a hard copy, or some alternative form of electronic submission, if any, beyond turnitin.com (which is mandatory). Your TA will announce this policy in section during the last week of classes and by email to your GU Mail email address. It is your responsiblity to make sure that you know what this policy is and to conform to it.
Because we must grade the papers and submit final course grades very quickly, we will not be able to put much commentary on these final papers.
Bear in mind that you are responsible for the announced methodology for writing papers in this course. Be sure to take into consideration your teaching assistant's response to your first two papers, as well as the following documents:
Tips on Writing Philosophy Papers
Guidelines for Submitting Papers for Philosophy 20
Grading and Academic Integrity Policies
- Does James's argument against Hume's soft determinism conflate determinism and fatalism?
- Evaluate the following objection to Nietzsche's conception of human freedom: "Even a prisoner in an internment camp or a kidnapping hostage could embrace him- or herself and impose style on his or her life. Therefore, Nietzsche's vision of human freedom cannot be right." [Note: the thesis of a paper addressing this question must be a statement of agreement or disagreement with the objection. The argument must support the thesis, and the paper must consider and rebut an objection to the argument for the thesis.]
- Does James make a convincing case in "The Dilemma of Determinism" that, assuming that he has refuted soft determinism, it is rational for us to believe that we possess counter-causal freedom?