Course Work on Plato and Descartes
1) Q&A: Compose and answer two original questions based on the Week One required readings. Ask and answer one question that addresses the works of each of the following philosophers:
Plato (you may select any of the particular reading assignments by Plato from Week One). Plato, Euthyphro (entire): [ Introductory Notes on the Euthyphro from The Online Library of Liberty, Plato, Dialogues, vol. 2 : See pp. 88-115 for Jowett’s translation of the Euthyphro]. ◦Study Guide [supplemental reading]: Euthyphro: Introductory Notes .
- Plato, Republic, Book IV, §437b-441e; Books VI-VII, §509d-521a [Excerpts can be found here: Plato, Dialogues, vol. 3 : Bk. IV, pp. 272-278; Bk. VII, pp. 351-360; and also here: Plato: Complete Works , Ed. John M. Cooper, Bk.IV, pp. 1099/1068-1104/1073; Bk. VII, pp. 1161/1130-1169/1138. [Please note that the three items below are for further study but not required reading.]
Descartes (consider here only Meditations I and II from Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy). Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy: Preface; Meditations I-II, pp. 1-12 [ [You can find an in-depth analysis of Descartes’s philosophy and more of his work here: The Online Library of Liberty ].
Click on the title link above, “Week One Q&A Discussion & Critical Comment Forum” to create your Q&A threads. YOU SHOULD CREATE A NEW THREAD FOR EACH ONE OF YOUR TWO QUESTIONS. You will then return later in the week to post your critical comments INSIDE of the two Q&A threads of your choice (remember that if a Q&A thread already has two comment replies, you need to move on to another Q&A thread that has no more than one reply). This means you will be creating two original threads and responding to two threads (each by a different peer) each week to complete both parts of the assignment–the Q&A Discussion and the Critical Comments.
Please note that each Q&A post, including the question but not any citations, should be around 350-500 words, and posts with fewer than 250 words will not receive any credit. Also remember to proofread your work for stylistic, grammatical, and spelling errors before submission.
Each one of your two Q&A Discussion threads should be formatted as follows (remember…these are two separate threads):
First thread:
My first question is:
My answer to this question is:
________________________________________
Second thread:
My second question is:
My answer to this question is:
________________________________________
________________________________________
2) Critical Comments: Find a Q&A post that you would like to critique. After opening the thread and thinking about the question and the answer, post your critique. To do this, click on the blue “Reply”
button, then enter your comments in the editing window that opens. Following this procedure allows for a very clear layout in the continuing discussion. No special format is required for your critical comments. Please take the time to review these helpful guidelines on Writing a Critique of Another Person’s Argument.
Remember that your goal here is not simply to agree or disagree with your peers’ answers to their questions or to share some thoughts that the authors’ posts bring to mind from your own reading (although you may add such peer comments); what you should be attempting here is an analysis and evaluation of their entire Q&A and any argumentation they may employ in defending the view they put forward. Most students find it very challenging to critically evaluate either their own work or that of their peers.
Please note that each of your critiques should be in the range of 200-400 words to be eligible for full credit.
Additionally, you may wish to comment on someone else’s critique of a Q&A Discussion. This is highly encouraged and will enhance your learning experience in this assignment as well as interaction with your peers. To comment on someones Critical Comments or critique, this time, the reply button will be grey.
When both parts of this assignment are complete, you should have written somewhere between 1100 and 1800 words for both Q&As and critical comments. The overall goal of both parts of this assignment is to ignite a genuine philosophical discussion that both interests and challenges you.
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