Philosophy – Tips from Professors

Tips from Philosophy Professors

What is one thing that students must never forget about writing papers for a philosophy class?

One thing that I think is really important is that no matter how clearly you’re putting something, you should always try and put it more clearly. – Tyler Doggett

Pay attention to what people are saying is very important. The thought is, it is extremely easy to write without paying close attention to what you’re saying, and thereby it is easy to be careless and accidentally say something you didn’t quite mean to say. Similarly, if you’re writing about other people’s ideas, you might mischaracterize what they’re saying. Paying attention is also important because you often, maybe always, find out things by being very attuned to exactly what it is you’re saying and exactly what it is people are saying. – Louis Derosset

The one thing I always emphasize is how to connect paragraphs to make your point. Every time you’re writing a paragraph, you should be writing a paragraph that makes a point, and it should make clear what the point is, and it should make clear how it fits in to the overall argument of the paper. So when I’m starting a paragraph, and certainly when I’m ending a paragraph I should know what you’ve just said in this paragraph and why you’ve said it. The best way to do that is to make sure that you’ve got something where you state the point you’re making and you’ve got some transition that hooks it in to what’s gone before. – Matt Weiner

What makes you go “Wow” when reading papers? -In a good way?

If a student can put things as clearly as possible. I think students often underestimate how difficult it is to actually be as clear as possible. Think about it this way: if you gave your friend that is also a philosophy major your paper and asking them if your paper makes sense, since your friends has a lot of philosophical background knowledge and sophistication, things will make sense to them. However, if you give that paper to your mom without any philosophical background knowledge, your mom will have a very different reaction. Students are often super confused about what the standards of clarity are. Another important thing to remember about writing in philosophy is anyone can do it. It may be very difficult to get to that standard of clarity, but anyone can do it. – Tyler Doggett

The thing that I like to see best, is when I’m reading along and something just pops out of the discussion, that has two features. Feature number one: it seems like it’s obviously right. Feature number two: only in retrospect. For something thats shooting less for the stars, I like to see texture. What is texture? Considering the angles on something, having a bunch of illustrations, and being able to tease out points that are pretty clearly right from points that are controversial, and being able to work with interesting objections. It’s the kind of paper you see when you’ve really clearly thought through something, and myself as a reader can see that. – Louis Derosset

If I don’t notice if I’m going “Wow”- which happens when I really understand what’s going on, and I understand exactly what you’re saying and how you’re making your argument. Having something that I can read through smoothly, and follow everything that’s been said, and the argument sort of “pops” in a way – that’s something that will impress me in the end. – Matt Weiner

In a bad way?

I’m driven crazy by typos, spelling mistakes, grammatical errors –people misusing apostrophes drives me totally bonkers. That, above any peculiarly philosophical thing, drives me crazy. – Tyler Doggett

I am not the biggest fan of people simply declaiming what they’re positions are. If you pose a hard question -it’s a hard question- so the answer isn’t obvious! Here’s a thing that people do: they’ll pose a question, and then they’ll say (and they always find some sly way to say it) “my answer to __ is YES.” This is not a good way to proceed. – Louis Derosset

One thing is if I’m reading and I can’t follow the paragraph, that makes it really hard for me to understand. – Matt Weiner

What can turn a good paper into a great paper?

Effort. It’s very rare that a student gives me an A paper without having written multiple drafts. – Tyler Doggett

Work…work work work work. You’ve got to work, but you’ve got to work in a particular way. You can get by for a little by merely adding stuff. However, after a little of that, you don’t want to just take some easy-to-understand structure and lard it up with a bunch of crud. So, at a certain point you have to stop and think “Okay so how am I going to organize this in a way that’s comprehensible.” Doing that a few times over will make a good paper great. – Louis Derosset

That extra zing. A really nicely chosen example, an original example, or a really concise explanation of how the example works, or a smooth nice lay-out of how the points go together. – Matt Weiner

What advice would you give to someone who is doing research for the first time?

One, do not be ambitious with your topic. Two, you do not need to read very much stuff. – Tyler Doggett

I would say its hard work, but it’s important that you recognize and appreciate the fun that you’re having while you’re thinking through these things. Here’s something that I think people don’t understand well enough: if you’re researching something you shouldn’t be afraid or defensive if the thing you thought at first turns out to be wrong. You’ve got to be ready to learn and be able to have fun from learning as you go. A certain kind of fair mindedness or open mindedness is important. You’ve got to be open to the joy of the thing. On that note, my second bit of advice would be to have fun. Then after a bit, pay attention, and make it good. – Louis Derosset

One thing is to say, don’t be shy about asking a professor who knows about the stuff you want to work on. Or, if you don’t understand a point that’s being made, don’t be shy to ask for more reading. A lot the times the people you are reading will be assuming some kind of familiarity with some problem that you may not have, and the way you get familiarity is to ask someone. If you don’t have someone, look up the references. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy can be really helpful. Also, make an effort to read more women philosophers. – Matt Weiner

Any last advice for writing papers in philosophy, whether for the intro courses or upper levels?

Start early. – Tyler Doggett

The two most under-used words in Philosophy are “For example.” So, you should use lots and lots of examples. It makes it easy for people to understand what you’re talking about if you’re constantly stopping and illustrating with examples and cases. Its very easy to get lost if you’re just connecting abstract premises. – Louis Derosset

Try and start things soon enough so you have time to write down what you think you might have to say, try and shape it, and try and see if when you try and organize it, to see if there is something you don’t understand. – Matt Weiner