| Reasoning &
Writing in the College:
CAS 105 Summer
2002
How Are We to Live?
: Ethics and Moral Problems
Nathan Nobis, Department of Philosophy
MWR 1:15 - 4:15 CRN 10167
Short Description:
This course is designed to improve your ability to write clear, organized,
and understandable argumentative essays. Argumentative essays are essays
where you give reasons to support a clear thesis and raise and respond
to objections to your reasons. We will carefully read, discuss and debate,
and then write and revise argumentative essays to attempt to reasonably
answer some pressing, hotly debated and personally relevant moral questions
concerning such topics as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment,
human rights, animal rights, racism and sexism, and world poverty. This course is designed to improve your ability to think and write carefully
and critically about any topic (not just ethics or philosophy). Students
interested in these topics and interestedin working to improve their writing
are encouraged to enroll.
See the course web page at: http://courses.ats.rochester.edu/nobis/CAS105/summer.html
'Extended'Description:
No particular position on these issues will be advocated. Rather, we will
assist each other in critically examining the views that have been taken
on these issues in order for each of us to arrive at well-reasoned and
intellectually defensible answers. The aim is not to tell you what to
think, but to enable you better reason for yourself by developing your
ability to
- read and understand
complex arguments,
- identify the premises
and conclusions of these arguments,
- evaluate how well
the premises support the conclusions,
- evaluate the plausibility
of these premises, and
- formulate and defend
your own views, both orally and in writing.
Here is some guidance
on what kind of writing will be cultivated in this course: You should
strive to write for a reasonably intelligent audience unfamiliar with
the material. In other words, someone who has never taken this course
should be able to understand your paper. One good way to ensure this is
to let a roommate or friend (who isn't taking the course) read your paper.
If she can make sense of it and can explain what’s going on to you,
you’re on the right track. If not, you should strongly consider rewriting
your paper until she can make sense of it. You should think of yourself
as trying to teach the material to the reader.
The rationale for
this requirement is as follows: most of the writing you do in your professional
life will be for people who ask you to answer a question because they
do not know the answer. They won't be satisfied with your work if they
have to guess at what you mean because your sentences are unclear, confusing
and ungrammatical, or your presentation is poorly organized. Your job,
therefore, is to present your answer in a clear, concise way that anticipates
and responds to questions and objections that might arise in the reader's
mind. This ability is essential to good expository, analytical and argumentative
writing. Writing about philosophy (or doing philosophy) cultivates these
skills that are transferable to any context that requires clear, careful,
concise and precise communication.
last
updated
01/08/2003
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