Introduction to Philosophy: First Paper Topics

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

PHIL 201, Sec. 01: MWF 9am-9:50am in 221 Blair Hall
PHIL 201, Sec. 02: MWF 10am-10:50am in 201 Blair Hall
The College of William and Mary
Fall 2001

Instructor: James Woodbridge
email address: jawoo2@wm.edu
Course Webpage: http://faculty.wm.edu/jawoo2/wm/wmintro.htm
Office Hours: M 1:30pm-2:30pm, W 2:30pm-3:30pm and by appointment
Office: 126 Blair Hall
Office Phone: 221-2713
Dept. Phone: 221-2735

FIRST PAPER ASSIGNMENT

Pick one of following topics and write a 3-4 page paper fulfilling the tasks assigned.

Your paper is due at the beginning of class on Friday, October 5th.

Topics:

1. In "Meditation Five" from Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes gives a version of the Ontological Argument for the existence of God (pp. 131-132). Your task in this assignment is to reconstruct and explain this argument. This is not to offer the argument as if you are making it yourself. Your job is to talk about the argument, to describe how it works in your own words. Do not simply paraphrase Descartes. Be as clear as possible. Make sure you discuss all of the premises the argument requires and show how they are supposed to work together to lead to the conclusion. (Note: I skipped a lot of the details in what I wrote on the board in class. Pay attention to what he says before he even mentions God.) Explain what kind of argument this is, i.e., give the technical classifications that apply to it, and explain what they mean. Finally, briefly explain the objections to the argument that Descartes explicitly considers, and what he says in reply to them (this should be at most one third of your paper).

2. In "Part V" of David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, the character Philo presents a critique of the Argument from Design. Begin with a brief presentation of the Argument from Design in your own words. Explain what kind of argument this is, and what the classifications that apply to it mean. (This should be at most one quarter of your paper.) Next, being as clear as possible, discuss Philo's critique. Make sure you discuss the general principles behind the argument that Philo uses in his critique. Explain concisely and in your own words how Philo combines these principles with other points to derive his alternative conclusions from the argument's premises (pp. 70-71). What do these alternative conclusions add up to, and how does this function as an objection to the Argument from Design?