The paper (6–12 pages long) is due, as an attachment, via the “Assignments” tool on ecommons, by midnight Tues., Jun. 10. The paper can be on any topic of your choice (so long as it is clearly a paper written for this course). In case you have no particular topic you want to write on, however, I provide some suggested topics here. After each suggested topic I provide a list of material from our readings which might be most relevant to that topic. However, it is not in any way mandatory that you cite everything from that list in your paper — you may well even want to narrow your focus explicitly to certain texts — nor is it necessarily the case that nothing from any of the others readings would be relevant.
Since these are only suggested topics to begin with, it
should go without saying that you are free to modify them in any way,
e.g. by narrowing their scope, considering them only from one point
of view, mixing them, etc.
If you’re using the versions of Lewis’s, Carnap’s, or Quine’s works that I put up on eCommons, you can
refer to them just by giving the title and page number. If you use a
different version, or if you use any other material if you think it
helps your paper, you must of course make it clear exactly what you
are using and how.1 I don’t particularly care how you do that: just please give at least
enough bibliographical information that I can find your source if
necessary. There’s no need for a separate bibliography or title page.
You can find answers to some commonly asked questions about my assignments and grading at http://people.ucsc.edu/~abestone/courses/faq.html.