INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT
The goal of this project is to produce a term paper that exhibits:
i) that you have independently read and made appropriate steps to understand academic sources pertaining to your topic,
ii) that you are able to communicate your work in a scholarly manner, and
iii) that you have chosen a topic that is relevant to the course material.
Specifications of the term paper:
Length:
Recommended Length: 5 pages, double spaced with 12pt font (~1250 words), not including title page or bibliography
Page Limits: 4-6 pages, double spaced with 12pt font (~1000-1500 words), not including title page or bibliography
Note: good scholarly writing is usually concise but readable, so focus on clearly-written, information-rich writing, do not needlessly or casually bloat your word count
Style:
The paper must follow consistent rules for style that allow you to include scholarly citations
There are a number of style guides that different fields use for this purpose (e.g., CMS, APA, MLA), any of which may be used provided you are consistent
You should include source and page citations in the text, in footnotes, or in endnotes for any piece of information you are referring to or any quote you give
You should include bibliographic references for any source you cite, either in footnotes or endnotes or in a separate references section at the end of the paper
You should include a separate title page with the title of your paper, your name and student number, along with the course code and professor’s name
Topic requirements:
A topic from ancient, medieval, and/or renaissance philosophy must be a major part of the topic of your paper (in general, texts written in the 1600s or later are too modern).
Although the course focuses on “western” philosophy and its elaboration in the Latin Christian medieval tradition, you may pick a topic from a suitable period of non-western philosophy (e.g. Chinese or Indian philosophy) or from other medieval traditions (i.e., Jewish, Greek Christian, and/or Muslim).
Provided a relevant topic from ancient, medieval, and/or renaissance philosophy forms a major part of the topic of your paper, you may compare this topic or otherwise bring in other topics from outside the ancient, medieval, and renaissance periods. For example, you may relate a topic from philosophy in these periods to issues in modern philosophy, or you may relate a topic from philosophy in these periods to a topic from an academic field other than philosophy (e.g., a topic in science, art, religion, etc.), or you may relate a topic from philosophy in these periods to some other appropriate topic (e.g., to a book, film, political phenomenon, personal experience, etc.).
Note: you are free to choose how exactly you are approach your topic. For example, your paper may be informative, in the sense of simply informing me in a scholarly way about the topic. It may be argumentative, in the sense of adopting a certain stance or interpretation concerning a given issue and arguing for that stance or interpretation. It pay present a debate on the topic without arguing in favor of either side of the debate. However, it is not adequate to simply give me your opinion about some topic. The tools you should use for scholarly writing are (i) research, in other words you should share information which is the result of studying academic sources pertaining to yout topic; and, (ii) argument, in other words you should provide reason or evidence in favor of any position or claims you adopt beyond those established by your research.
Research requirements:
You should show me evidence that you have independently read and taken appropriate steps to understand at least two academic sources.
These can be journal articles, encyclopedia articles, book chapters, video or audio lectures or presentations, etc.
However, they should be academic sources: that is, they should be sources written by someone with an academic background in the field and presented for an academic audience.
You may make use of more popular sources as well, but if you are using popular sources, you should also make an effort to go further and look up additional academic sources on your topic, per the above.
Your sources should inform you about the major part of the topic of your paper, i.e. the part of your topic that relates to ancient, medieval, and/or renaissance philosophy.
You may also use sources pertaining to other aspects of your topic (i.e. if you’re also discussing themes outside of ancient, medieval, and/or renaissance philosophy) and you should use sources to inform yourself about any aspect of your topic, however you should not only use sources pertaining to themes outside of ancient, medieval, and/or renaissance philosophy.
Your sources should be clearly indicated in the relevant footnotes, endnotes, or bibliography section, and you should cite them in the text of your paper where appropriate.
Picking a Topic
If you need help picking a topic, consider these questions:
i) What topics pertaining to the history of philosophy have you heard of before, which interest you?
ii) Would you be interested in pursuing a topic that connects the history of philosophy to one of the other fields you are studying?
iii) What sorts of topics do you find interesting more generally?
Aside from these sorts of questions related to your own interests, a good guide for a research topic is that you should pick one that is feasible to research. Remember that you are expected to independently read at least two sources, which will serve as the basis of your term paper. So you should ask yourself, what topic will you be able to look up and inform yourself about in this way? If you’re not sure what topic to pick, a good idea is to start doing some research just be reading broadly about relevant topics, to learn about what sorts of things other people have researched, and see if any of them might interest you. Consult the page on research tips for some resources to help with this.
Sample topics, which you can use or which might encourage some of your own thoughts:
What philosophical analysis can be made of other writings of ancient Greek literature, e.g. those of the Greek epics (Homer), tragedy (Aeschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides), comedy (Aristophanes), or history (Herodotus, Thucydides)?
Summarize the thought of one of the other Presocratic philosophers (e.g. Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, Melissus of Samos, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, Diogenes of Apollonia, the Pythagoreans, or the Stoics).
Discuss a famous theme from Plato (e.g. the allegory of the cave, the theory of love in Plato’s Symposium, or the death of Socrates).
Summarize or discuss a position from ancient philosophy of nature which we didn’t cover (e.g., Stoic physics or Epicurean physics).
