A 4-6 page paper, double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font (this will generate a minimum of 88 lines in a 4-page paper; the penalty is 2 points per every line short). NO first person references. You must include at least 5 works cited; one of the sources should come from either of your two textbooks by Mitchell. I require a title but not a title page; I do require that you properly cite your sources.

OR

A 15-20 minute one-on-one conversational presentation with the instructor.

Choose a philosopher. Discuss the basic philosophy of a philosopher you feel confident you have understood and have an interest in exploring further. Narrow your focus to an area of philosophy discussed throughout the semester – Metaphysics, Epistemology, or Axiology. Describe the origins of this philosophy by comparing/contrasting it to the thinking of another philosopher or school of thought.

Choose from the following list (you may choose someone not on this list, but it must be approved by the instructor in advance):

Anaximander

Anselm

Aquinas

Augustine

Bentham

Berkeley

de Beauvoir

Descartes Epicurus 

Gilman

Hegel Heidegger

Heraclitus

Hobbes

Hume

Hypatia

James Kant 

Kierkegaard

Leibniz Locke

Mill (Harriet T.) Mill (John S.)  Nietzsche 

Rousseau

Sartre

Spinoza

Schelling

Schopenhauer  Spinoza

Thales Wittgenstein

Wollstonecraft 

Xenophanes

Consider the following questions in your paper or presentation:

· What is this person’s philosophy? (Concentrate on a particular area of their philosophy to narrow your approach)

· Does this philosophy present a reaction to or an attack upon another philosopher or school of thought?

· Why is your chosen philosopher more convincing than the philosophy it is reacting to or attacking?

Have a clear thesis/idea that considers the above questions. See samples below:

· Kant was correct in criticizing Hume’s radical skepticism; little can be known about the world, but there can be an understanding of and about the self in relation to the world.

· Berkeley’s radical position that the world inside your head is the only world we can know, trumps Locke’s untenable argument of a world of knowable objects existing apart from oneself.

· While Bentham’s Utilitarianism was groundbreaking, John Stuart Mill should be credited for making it a viable ethical philosophy.