Level One Assignment Instructions

You paper should be between 150 and 300 words. It should be double-spaced, in a reasonable font, with at least 1 inch margins on all sides.

Choose one specific argument from the readings. This is not an exercise in making up your own argument. It is an exercise in getting clear about someone else’s argument. Be sure it is an argument: an attempt to marshal reasons in support of a conclusion. Be sure to include a reference to the work and page number that contains the argument.

Your paper should have two parts:

Part I

Present the argument in premise-conclusion form. That is, a list of numbered declarative sentences, followed by a conclusion. Here is an example of what I mean:

1. The mind thinks.
2. Hamburger does not think.
3. The brain is just glorified hamburger.
4. Therefore, the mind is not the brain.

(This argument has three premises, but your argument might have some other number of premises.)

Note that each premise should be a single sentence that can be evaluated as true or false. Premises should not be paragraphs. They should not be incomplete sentence bullet points. They should not be questions.

Try to reconstruct an argument that is valid. If you find an argument in the reading that doesn’t seem to be valid, try to identify appropriate implicit premises: assumptions that the author might be making that would make the argument valid.

Part II

In a short paragraph, explain to your reader how the conclusion is supposed to follow from the premises. Be sure, in do this, to make reference to the premises of the argument. Here is an example of what I mean:

According to premise (1) the mind thinks, but according to (2), hamburger does not think. But (3) says that the brain is just glorified hamburger. So this suggests that the brain, like hamburger, doesn’t think. So it follows that the mind is not the brain, because the mind thinks, but the brain doesn’t.

Your first attempt is due in class, Monday, August 31st.