Compare Thucydides’ account of the Athenian Plague and the Corcyrean Civil War. What do these stories say about civil society and citizens? Be sure to consider not only what these stories tell us about human nature, but also about the role of necessity, the relationship between natural disasters and political disasters, the precariousness of law and justice itself.
The paper for this class is supposed to be an interpretation of the relevant text(s) based on your careful reading of those texts. You defend your interpretation by providing the relevant textual evidence and analyzing it in order to build up a logical case for your interpretation. You should not use secondary sources (i.e. sources other than the philosophical text we are reading), and the papers must not have any extraneous material in them, for example, praise of the author and his importance to western philosophy, or historical examples that buttress the argument. Your papers are not supposed to be opinion pieces or personal philosophical statements. The goal of paper assignments is for you to think critically about the arguments of the author in question based on your own reading of the text.
Guidelines for Papers
1. Your paper is supposed to be an interpretation of some aspect of the work(s): in other words, an argument concerning some aspect of the work based on analysis of relevant textual evidence. Your paper is not supposed to be a summary of the work, a statement of your opinion about the work, or a discussion of its historical significance or relevance. Frame your paper as an investigation of why and how the author makes the argument he or she does rather than simply saying what is said. Do not summarize. Turn your topic into an argument.
2. Give a clear statement of your argument at the beginning of your paper (e.g. a thesis statement in the introductory paragraph followed by a roadmap of what your argument will explore).
3. Unify your paper with a single argument with a logical development from one step of the argument to the next. Do not make your paper a collection of separate points or examples.
4. Every time you state that the author states or argues something you should have evidence to support your statement, either in the form of a quotation or a specific textual reference. Only quote what you need for your purposes. Try to look at your quotations as something more than mere evidence, and instead as material that you can analyze (break down into its parts in order to interpret it) in order to make your argument.
5. Use clear and simple language, but a formal style. Obscurity is not profundity. Make sure that you know the meaning of the words you use. You are writing a formal paper, not an email message. Avoid colloquial or chatty language. Do not use contractions: not using them reminds you of the appropriate level of discourse for your paper.
Criteria for assessing your work:
Do you have a clear statement of your argument?
Do you provide relevant evidence?
Is your writing clear?
Do you demonstrate understanding of the work(s) you are analyzing?
To what degree do you address the most important questions and problems posed by the work(s) you are interpreting?
Practical matters:
State your prompt
Double-spaced
12 point font
1 inch margins
Cite the works by page numbers in parentheses after the relevant reference or quotation. If you need to clarify which work you are using, simply add the author. For instance, you might say: Locke’s theory of property is based upon the idea that something becomes one’s own when an individual mixes their labor with an object, as “whatsoever then he removes out of the State that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joyned to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property” (Locke, Second Treatise, Sec. 27).
Papers should be organized: introduction, body paragraphs supporting the main argument, conclusion
Include a works cited page/bibliography
Please put a word count at the end of the paper
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|