Leibniz Argument on Lockes Empiricism Essay

Leibniz Argument on Lockes Empiricism Essay

In the New Essays on Human Understanding, Leibniz argues that Locke’s empiricism cannot account for necessary truths. Who do you think is right?

Guidelines for writing a paper in philosophy

1. Your paper must contain four distinct pieces 

(a) A Thesis. The thesis reflects the main claim of your paper. It should be a declarative sentence

that you believe to be true. You are going to argue in your paper that your thesis is true. (b) An explanation of your subject. In this part of the paper, you give the background for your thesis.

What issue are you addressing? What context is necessary for understanding your argument? (c) An argument for your thesis. Here you give reasons why your thesis is true. Your thesis should be the conclusion of this argument. You will want to present the best possible reasons you have for your thesis. Don’t forget that not all reasons are good reasons – remember you’re trying to develop a persuasive case for your thesis. (d) A presentation of one objection and your response to it. An argument for a thesis is only as good as the defense you can make of it. There are always potential objections to your claim. In this part of the paper you must formulate and respond to an objection to your argument. This part of the paper can be tricky. You want to consider a legitimate objection to your argument, so it is important to avoid trivial or all too facile objections. You must also be careful to actually respond to the objection – it is typically insufficient to respond to an objection by restating your commitment to your thesis.  Leibniz Argument on Lockes Empiricism Essay

2. Grammar and spelling issues 

(a) Grammar and spelling count. Proofread your paper. Go to the writing center if you need extra

help. Your writing needs to be clear and understandable. (b) Do not use rhetorical questions. Each rhetorical question used results in a 5 point deduction off of the overall grade. Rhetorical questions are a dodge in philosophical writing, because using them typically hides an answer that the author does not want to explicitly state. Every rhetorical question can be turned into a positive statement. (c) Do not use the passive voice. Each use of the passive voice results in 5 a point off of the overall grade. There’s an easy way to tell if a verb is in the passive voice – if your sentence makes sense by putting “by zombies” in after the verb, it’s a passive verb. For example, “The argument was discussed.” uses the passive voice – “The argument was discussed by zombies.” is a sentence that makes sense. To write this sentence in the active voice, you would say, “Zombies discussed the argument.” (d) Do not write that a philosopher “feels” that such and such is the case. When philosophers argue,

they are arguing about what they believe, not about how they feel.

3. Further tips 

(a) Don’t wait until the last minute. Writing a good paper depends on you thinking your way through an argument. You’re not writing a ‘reaction’ paper, where you simply comment on what you think about the text – you need to develop a coherent, sustained argument, and doing this well takes some time. (b) You don’t need to use outside sources, i.e. sources other than the textbook. This requirement may go against some deeply ingrained habits that you have for completing writing assignments, but there is a good reason for this restriction. You’re not writing a report or a summary, instead, I’m looking for an account of what you think about a particular issue. I want your work, not someone else’s.  Leibniz Argument on Lockes Empiricism Essay

You might object: (notice I’m raising an objection I think you might have to my argument, and giving you a response to it) “But I don’t understand the material, and so I often go to the Internet for help in explaining this subject.” There’s nothing, in principle that is wrong with the approach. But in practice, this move is often more of a crutch than a helpful guide. Let me give you an example. You can find summaries of Descartes’ Meditations on SparkNotes. These summaries are sometimes helpful, and sometimes wrong; there’s mistakes on the SparkNotes Descartes site. But what these summaries do is enable you to avoid actually trying to read and decipher the text yourself. Interpreting and understanding for yourself what the text says is what is important, as opposed to parroting someone else’s canned interpretations. (c) DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. If you copy from the textbook verbatim, that’s plagiarism. If you ‘translate’ the words in the textbook into your paper, that’s plagiarism. If you copy from other sources either verbatim or by translating a few words, that’s plagiarism. If there is a single sentence or phrase that is borrowed without proper attribution, that’s plagiarism. (d) When quoting the textbook, be sure to distinguish between the authors of the primary sources and the authors who complied and organized the textbook and provided commentary. (e) How do we distinguish truth and opinion? This is itself an important philosophical question, but it is important at the outset to steer clear of a na ̈ıve relativism. Relativism is the view that truth and/or values are subjective – that everyone has their own personal truth that is legitimate and different from everyone else’s.  Leibniz Argument on Lockes Empiricism Essay

4. Format and other details 

(a) Your paper should be in the neighborhood of 3 – 4 pages. 1000 words is a good target. (b) I went to college too. Making font size and margins larger in order to get to 3 pages is really

obvious. You can do it, but don’t think for a minute that you’re being clever. (c) I don’t care what citation method you use. If all you’re using is the textbook for the class, page numbers suffice. But if you use any other sources, then you must document them according to an established citation style. What you learned in your English composition classes counts here. I think that the Chicago citation style is the best, but as your composition courses teach APA and MLA, that’s totally fine. (d) I’m happy to look at early drafts of your papers to give you feedback. However, the closer it is to the due date of the paper, the less likely it will be that I will have time to give you feedback. Leibniz Argument on Lockes Empiricism Essay

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