Wayne F. Buck, Ph.D., MBA

Dear Student:

First, philosophy is not an easy subject. In fact, it is rather difficult. This for introductory courses, particularly the way I teach them. You will have to apply yourself to a degree matched only in chemistry, physics or mathematics courses. Rumor to the contrary, reading and writing about philosophy is not like reading and writing about novels or poems or the movies. Nor is it an expression of one's feelings or ideas about "life." Philosophy consists of a series of problems, and of investigations into those problems. In each case, one attempts to solve a problem by making claims, which purport to be true and by backing those claims with arguments.

Philosophy is akin to science in this respect. It is also like science in that it asks about the nature and functioning of various things. The two are, however, concerned with quite different questions regarding these things, and this difference is what makes philosophy and its problems so peculiar and difficult. As scientists, we want to know what, e.g., gravity is and how it operates; or what blood is made of and how it functions in the body. As philosophers, we ask more fundamental, and hence more abstract, questions. We want to know, e.g., what a person is, and how persons are different from machines or mere animals; or we want to know what knowing itself is, and how it is possible to know anything at all.

Many of the difficulties in understanding and doing philosophy come right here, at the beginning. Because we are rarely confronted with explicit philosophical problems in everyday life, it is hard to grasp their distinctive character. Sometimes, it is hard to see what there is a problem at all or to appreciate its importance. I hope that the three problems I have chosen for this course -- the nature of science, the essence of a person, and women's liberation -- are particularly accessible in this regard.

The course will nonetheless be difficult and at times frustrating. I will ask you to think in a way that is  "unnatural." Most of you will do it badly -- at first. Indeed, there is a certain injustice here, since from the beginning I will ask you to do things you cannot be reasonably expected to do until the course is over (perhaps in this respect philosophy is like life -- no one is really prepared to "do" life well until it is mostly over). This is the paradox of learning any skill, however. A swimming instructor teaches you by demanding that you swim at the very beginning -- he simply allows you to swim badly and then points out your mistakes.

Some advice on how to study philosophy may therefore be in order. First, reading philosophy.

The readings in this course by and large consist of articles and books written in the last 25 years. They are all significant, original contributions to current philosophical problems. Many are articles taken right from the philosophy journals. They cannot be read as you read a short story or newspaper article. You will have to study each article, re-reading it several times. Each must be dissected by your, using your own unique intelligence, and then put back together in a way that gives you a clear and distinct understanding of its arguments. The author must be interrogated, forced to admit to his hidden assumptions and the flaws of his reasoning. At the same time, you must bend over backwards to give him the benefit of the doubt, to see your objections as misunderstandings of what he means. If you find a mistake in the argument, you must do your best to patch it up for the author and make his case as strong as possible. This is true especially if you disagree with the argument, for only if you imagine how the author would respond to your criticism can you be assured of not misunderstanding him or overlooking a point in his favor. So reading a philosophy text is an activity. Make outlines, mark up the page with comments and questions and doubts, read from the middle, from the end, and discuss it with your friends.

Second, writing philosophy.

A philosophical paper consists of three things: claims, arguments for those claims, and remarks to the reader explaining where the argument stands at the moment and where it is going next. Always keep the reader in mind. Be sensitive to how your words will strike him, the confusions he is liable to, and the natural objections that will be raised to your arguments. Understand very clearly what it is you are trying to say, and be sure your words capture your meaning exactly. Precision and clarity of expression are categorical imperatives for writing philosophy. Above all, provide arguments. It is not enough to make claims. It is not even enough to make true claims. What you must do is support your claims with clear, convincing, explicit arguments. Proving your conclusion also demands, however, presenting and criticizing the plausible arguments against you. Unless you have both presented a good argument for your position and shown how the arguments against it are flawed, you have not established your case.

Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to learn to red and write philosophy form listening to lectures in a classroom. And it is how well you read and write philosophy that determines your grade. I will explain the substance of each reading in class, and reconstruct its argument in a clearer and (inevitably) simpler form. You should read the article before class, and then in class take careful notes. Go back and analyze the article in earnest using your notes as a guide to the author's purpose and the development of his argument. This will put you in a good position to write your paper and to convincingly argue your own beliefs.

I will help you to learn to write philosophy by requiring a preliminary draft of every paper. I will read and comment extensively on this draft and then hand it back. You will use it as the basis for your final version of the paper. In order for this procedure to work, however, the drafts must be taken seriously. You should write them as full, complete papers, not as outlines or sketches. I will grade them as "Acceptable" or "Unacceptable" and require that an "Acceptable" draft be submitted before I will grade the final version.

Some guidelines to keep in mind while writing your papers: There is an old teaching adage that goes "Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you've told them." Adopt this policy in writing a paper. Announce at the very beginning what problem your paper is going to discuss. State the problem clearly and concisely. Do not write with the idea that I will be your reader. Think of your audience as the interested layman who has perhaps read the articles in question, but who does not understand them. Your task is to explain to the intelligent and critical, but confused and uninformed, reader what the problem is, what the various possible solutions are and then to convince him that the solution you prefer is the best. After stating the problem, let your reader know what your solution is going to be. In arguing for your conclusion, make only those claims and arguments that are relevant to the problem at hand. Go methodically, step by step, through the relevant arguments -- don't wander. And don't bullshit -- bullshit can be spotted a mile away in a philosophy paper.

One more thing about writing philosophy. After I give an assignment, students often ask me "Do you want my own personal opinion in the paper?" I never really know what to answer, because I'm not sure what the student means by the words "personal opinion." Certainly philosophy papers are not simply book reports about the claims and arguments others make. Your papers should not be just a recounting of the articles and lectures. So in that sense, yes, I want your own "personal opinion." On the other hand, I don't want your "feelings" on the issue either. A philosophy paper is not a report on your ideas, attitudes and beliefs, although it will include your ideas and beliefs. This may confuse you, for it may seem that there is nothing else a philosophy paper could be. This is not so.

Suppose you are a member of a geology research team. Some soil samples are brought in, and your supervisor asks each member of the team to take one sample and analyze it. Would you ask your supervisor whether she wanted your own "personal opinion" on the soil's characteristics? No. You would do the physical and chemical analysis, come to some conclusion about the soil sample, report that conclusion and support it with evidence you had developed from your analyses.

Suppose further that your supervisor gave you analyses of the same soil done last year by another research team, and she asked you to evaluate their findings. What would you do? How would you write your research report? You would first present the conclusions and analyses of the previous team as impartially and clearly as possible. Then you would point out the errors and weaknesses of their analyses, as well as indicating the acceptable and worthwhile aspects of their research. Then you would present your own findings and the evidence in favor of those findings. Your paper would not be simply a report on what others found, nor your own "personal opinion" but a reasoned and convincing presentation of your findings.

You should look at philosophy papers the same way. Consider the class as a philosophical research team. I am your supervisor, and you are one of the team's research staff. The readings are research reports written by previous teams. During the semester, I will assign to the teach research problems and you are to write research reports on these problems, evaluating previous analyses and then doing an analysis of your own.

What I have said so far might sound pretty discouraging, and perhaps has convinced you not to take the course. But you do not need to be a gifted writer or a genius to do well in this course. You need only pay attention in class, read the assignments carefully and make a sincere effort to write good papers. I think you will find each part of the course interesting and I hope that at least some of it will be entertaining. Just because philosophy is often concerned with serious issues does not mean it cannot also be playful.

There are also practical benefits to be gained from this course. First, it will improve your ability to think and reason. In reading and writing about abstract problems, you practice and further develop analytic, critical and argumentative skills which are necessary in many other endeavors. This, in turn, will give you confidence in yourself and your ability to think through problems and come to your own decisions. It will make you less dependent on others and put you in a better position to understand yourself and others.

Second, you will learn something about philosophy and the philosophical tradition. Philosophy has been and still is a central force in the culture and intellectual life of our society. It is philosophers who have most clearly and thoroughly elaborated the values, ideals and theories which shape the way we live and think today. This is true not only in morals and religion, but also in the natural sciences, in political science, in economics and literature.

Third, philosophy has the power to show us how extraordinary and strange are the most common place and mundane aspects of our existence. What seems simple and unproblematic is, if considered carefully, in fact highly puzzling and when investigated thoroughly very different from what it first seems. William James defined philosophy as "the unusually persistent effort to think things through." Philosophy is thus like a microscope, or a telescope, which reveals things hitherto unsuspected. The difference is that the unexpected and weird revealed by philosophy is what stands in front of us in our ordinary life, what we take for granted in our everyday thoughtlessness. Philosophy can give one a new and more satisfying understanding of ourselves, of others, and of the world.

I look forward to the semester ahead.