To find a topic, I suggest you review the chapters or segments we are covering i

To find a topic, I suggest you review the chapters or segments we are covering in the text. Select an
area that interests you and study it. Focus on a particular question or debate in this area. Do some
outside research—books, journal articles, Internet, philosophy encyclopedias. Investigate the question
(what are the major positions you are exploring and what are the reasons offered as support) and then
give your supported view. The possibility also exists to explore in depth an area that we’ve studied, but
obviously going well beyond what we covered. Discuss this with me if interested. You might find a topic
by exploring one of the reputable philosophy web sites, usually associated with major universities.
Don’t give me a report on the life of a philosopher or a paper that is merely descriptive. You need to
explore conflicting positions and the arguments that support them. You need to weigh the relative
merits of each and take a position yourself. The easiest format is to explore two philosophers on a key
question, their positions and their support, and then to offer your view with support, assessing the
reasons the philosophers have offered, and anticipate and answer an objection or challenge to it.
To summarize:
Choose a sufficiently narrow issue or topic of interest in an area of philosophy.
Research that area/issue and explore two major positions and their supporting reasons.
State your view and why in relation to the philosophers or positions examined.
State a credible challenge to your position and respond to it.
Essentially you are entering the great discussion and engaging philosophers and their arguments. You
are clarifying and defending your own view in relationship to them.