Philosophy 5 Honors: Critical Composition

Pierce College

Department of History, Philosophy, & Sociology

Winter, 2019

Final Essay Prompt

Due Thursday, January 31 Friday, February 1st Sunday, February 3rd by 11:59PM. 

Turn this assignment in via email (to laych@piercecollege.edu or teach@christopherlay.com) both as an attachment and pasted into the body of your email. 

This assignment amounts to 30% of your course grade.

In eight pages (that is, in no fewer than eight pages, and no more than eight and a half pages), using what we've learned up to this point in the They Say, I Say text:

1) explain the difference between conscious and unconscious, automatic judgments;

2) explain Brentano's infinite regress worry, how unconscious thoughts could address that worry, and why he doesn't think we need to appeal to unconscious thoughts to address that worry, as he presents himself in the assigned parts of his Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint;

3) explain one argument from one of the previously assigned, philosophical readings having to do with the types of awareness we can have of our own or others' thoughts (from Delbanco, Socrates, Descartes, Alexander, Russell, or Brentano);

4) explain an argument or evidence having to do with the existence or non-existence of unconscious biases that you have discovered in a new (not previously discussed in an essay turned in to me by you) scientific, peer-reviewed article;

5) argue for the importance of your research for Brentano's theory of consciousness, and what he says about unconscious; and

6) defend either your thesis or your argument in support of your thesis against someone who could disagree with it.  

If you submit someone else's ideas, words, or phrases, you must cite those individuals: plagiarism of any kind will not be accepted.  If you submit ideas, words, or phrases from a previous essay of your own, explicitly state as much.  Do not just represent, word for word, your old material.  Go to http://libguides.piercecollege.edu/citation for excellent information on citing.

Use one-inch margins all around, double-spacing throughout, and Times New Roman font, size 12 only–and no title pages please.