The paper (6-10 pages long) is due Wed., Dec. 6 in
my office (Cowell Annex A-106) by 5:00pm. Note that there is also a
take home exam
version
of this assignment, which you may choose to do instead of this one.
You should use some material from the second part of
the course--i.e., Popper and/or Kuhn, and possibly also one or more
of Popper's critics (Neurath, Putnam, Lakatos). Most if not all of the
topics will also allow you to bring in material from the first part
(e.g. you could write on Carnap vs. Popper, or Quine vs. Popper).
The first three suggested topics below are new; the
others are modified versions of topics from the first paper
The below topics are suggestions. If you want to
write on another topic, feel free to do so. It might be a good idea,
however, in that case, to check with me first.
Note that the topics tend to have many
sub-questions. You need not (and probably should not) try to answer
all of them. (You certainly should not just answer them one
after another in order--that would make a bad paper.) I put them
there to suggest various directions for thinking about the topic, and
in particular to head off superficial or excessively simple ways of
thinking about it.
The main focus of the paper should be, one way or
another, on texts we've read for this class, though you're welcome to
use other material also if it seems useful/relevant. If you do use
outside sources, it should go without saying that you must cite them,
and provide enough bibliographical information that I can figure out
what they are. (For sources from the recommended or required reading,
title and page number should be sufficient.)
I recommend an attempt to interpret
(understand/explain/make sense of) the views of the authors we've
read, rather than, say, an attempt to make an argument of your own
against them. (I recommend this particularly if one or more of
these authors rubs you the wrong way or seems obviously wrong or
uninteresting.) All of the suggested topics below are along those
lines. This is only a recommendation, however: I suspect that an
effort in this direction is most likely to produce a good paper, but
if you think you have a good idea along other lines, go ahead and try
it.