Archive for November, 2008

Depths of Philosophy

There is well-know Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev. He has small poem, which is very popular, and almost all people who know his works are familiar with this poem:
You wouldn’t understand Russia just using the intellect,
You couldn’t measure her using the common scale,
She has a special kind of grace,
You can only believe in her.
The main idea of this poem is that it is impossible to understand Russia by means of general and common ways. The same can be said about such science as philology. It is impossible to realize its importance and depth by means of pure intellect, because in order to perceive all peculiarities of philosophy, it is necessary to have more, much more than intellect. It is necessary to have specific way of thinking, which permits you penetrate into depths of existence, because existence is the subject and object of explorations and investigation in philosophy.
So, now you can understand that writing philosophy essay is far from easy. If you have to write this type of essay, it means that you have to prepare to find the meaning of definite philosophical idea. And it can be far from easy. If you write philosophy essay about ideas of ancient philosophy of Buddhism, it is not very difficult, because it is possible to understand main principle of Buddhism. But if it is necessary to write philosophy essay about one of philosophical ideas, which appeared in 19th and 20th centuries, then it, is necessary to make efforts in order to understand them. Late philosophical ideas are distinguished by big complicacy for understanding and not every student is able to understand its meaning and importance.



Quotations, Footnotes, Endnotes, and Bibliography in a Philosophy Essay

Quotations in your philosophy essay should be held to a minimum. The markers recognize the central texts well already, so do not have to have pages thereof recurring in front of them. Sure, some quotation will be useful and important– sometimes necessary – in both critical and exposition discussion. When you make quotations in your philosophy essay, you should make them obviously different from your text, utilizing quotation marks, or, when the cited passage is much greater than three lines, in an individual indented paragraph. Thus, quotations should be given correct referencing in an endnote or footnote.

Footnotes emerge at the page’s foot, clearly isolated from the main body, every one evidently numbered. Endnotes emerge at the philosophy essay’s end, again visibly isolated from the main body, numbered, and headed “Notes” or “Endnotes.” Any method is suitable, but you need to decide on one and keep on it all through your essay.
There are many various conventions for using footnotes and endnotes in your work. The Philosophy Department does not demand that any specific convention be followed, just that, again, you be dependable on in your usage of the convention, which you decide on.
At the end of your paper (usually after your endnotes, if they are used), it is important to list in a bibliography of the works that you refer to in your notes, and any other works, which you consulted in your researching and writing. The lists must in alphabetical order, following by authors’ surnames. The same is with format.



Philosophy Essay

Do you know what is important while writing philosophy essay? If you don’t know, then this article should be interesting and useful for you. Philosophy essay is rather specific type of essays and in order to write successful philosophy essay, it is necessary to make efforts. Philosophy essay presupposes that you have certain philosophical idea, which you have to understand and then present it in the essay with your support or with its rejection. All of us know that philosophy is very interesting science and it can’t be analyzed and investigated by dry strict scientific methods, because exactness and philosophy are like sky and ground, they can’t be combines or mixed. In order to understand philosophical idea it is necessary just let your mind to think about it and understand what feelings and thoughts it causes in you. Don’t use the method of deduction like well-known Sherlock Holmes, because philosophy idea is not mysterious criminal case. Philosophy is a science, dedicated to the problems of existence and that’s why think about any philosophical idea from the point of view of existence. If you manage to do it, then it is for sure you will understand the deep meaning of any philosophical idea. All character of essay depends upon your opinion about this idea. If you think that certain philosophical idea is enough reasonable, then you should present indisputable arguments in favor of it. If you don’t consider this idea as useful one, then prove it by arguments, which also should be indisputable.



How to Choose the Topic for Philosophy Essay

What do the topic for a philosophy essay look like? There are often two essential types of philosophy essay topics. They are “issue- or problem-focused” problems and “text-focused” problems. The topics of the first type are straighter about a specific philosophical issue, with no reference to any specific philosopher’s text, for example, what is scientific means? or is freewill euthanasia morally admissible?

Text-focused problems ask you to think about some specific philosopher’s writing on a particular issue, for instance, discuss critically David Hume’s number of causation in his outstanding A Treatise of Human Nature or was Wittgenstein right when said that “the word’s meaning is its usage in the language”, in his famous Philosophical Investigations, Sec. 43?
There is one more type of topic for a philosophy essay, which introduces a statement and proposes you to think about it, where this statement is an unattributed or “made up” quote, for instance, with no belief in God, any person cannot be moral and discuss it. Actually, this type is a variation of the problem-focused topic.
If you are proposed to discuss such statement referring to some particular text or philosopher, this problem becomes more text-focused, for example, with no belief in God, any person cannot be moral and discuss it with reference to Inventing Right and Wrong, the J. L. Mackie’s Ethics.
Seldom, a topic represents an unattributed statement, yet the statement is a quotation from a specific philosopher you have been studying or a good paraphrasing of their thoughts and ideas.




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