Due date: Wednesday, October 6. (Because of the delay in my announcing this assignment, I have moved the deadline to a later date than was originally given.)

Length: 3–6 pages

Formal requirements: As stated in the Composition Guide (PDF file; copies were distributed at the beginning of the term), §§ 1–5. Let me remind you that I am asking you to submit your papers with your name written only on the back of the last page, not on the front page of the paper itself (or in a header). Let me also remind you that I will not accept papers that are not stapled together.

Assignment: In the Apology, at 29c–e, Socrates says that if the jury offered to acquit him on condition that he cease to practice philosophy, under penalty of death, he would nonetheless refuse to change his ways. Your assignment comprises two tasks. First, explain what “practicing philosophy” means for Socrates, and why he holds his practice of it to be so important (specifically, more important than whether he lives or dies). Second, once you have explained Socrates’ position, offer a critical assessment of it. In your explanation of what philosophy is for Socrates, I recommend that you make use of Euthyphro for illustration.

Explanatory notes on the assignment:

1. I strongly urge you to re-read the Composition Guide with great care. Every entry in it is applicable to this assignment. I have provided you with such a guide so that you will understand what I expect of you in your papers. If there is anything in the document that is not clear to you, please ask about it in class.
2. Let me remind you that, as I said in the Composition Guide (§ 12), when you make interpretative claims about a text, you are expected to support your claims with citations or quotations, as appropriate. Do not simply expect your reader to remember where Socrates says this or that. I recommend that you use the Stephanus numbers in citing Plato. (I explained what these are in an earlier assignment page.)
   
3. Let me also remind you that, as I also said in the Composition Guide (§ 14), philosophical writing is not a matter of saying how you or the philosopher you write about feel about this or that. Philosophers are not, in general, much concerned with informing the reader of their feelings; rather, philosophers make claims, and they try to justify their claims with arguments. A claim is an utterance that may be assessed as true or false, right or wrong, justified or unjustified; an argument is a body of reasoning that may be evaluated as adequate or inadequate, rationally compelling or uncompelling, and so on. (I shall be saying more about the evaluation of arguments in upcoming class sessions.) A feeling cannot be assessed in any of these ways, nor is it in order to ask for an argument in support of one. If your account of Socrates’ philosophical position consists in saying that he “feels” this or that, then you are making philosophy impossible from the get-go, by putting his utterances out of reach of rational examination. I therefore recommend that you avoid such phrases as “Socrates feels that . . .” or “I feel that . . .” in your paper. If you must use them, do so only when you have specific reason to do so, not as a way of avoiding the responsibility to provide a rational basis for Socrates’ claims or for your own.
4. The same applies to the critical assessment that I have asked you to provide of Socrates’ position. Socrates makes certain claims about the value of what he is doing and about how we ought to regard the danger of death, and he provides some arguments in support of these claims. Are the claims true? Do the arguments provide compelling support for them? I should be greatly surprised if many of you—indeed, if any of you—found Socrates’ position compelling in its entirety. Very well, then: why do you reject it, or certain elements of it? If your judgments are not mere blind, thoughtless prejudices, you should be able to provide persuasive reasons for them: I want to know those reasons. To provide a critical assessment is not just to express your particular opinion of what Socrates says, but to provide reasons why other people—Socrates included—ought to agree with you. The evaluative part of your paper may be short, but it must be reasoned.
5. Finally, let me direct your attention to the page in this web site entitled “Common Compositional Faults.” In this page, I provide a list of the terms and abbreviations commonly used for designating the most frequently committed compositional faults, along with examples of these faults and links to web pages that explain what the faults are and how they may be avoided. I also provide an index of the proof-reading symbols that I shall be using in marking your papers. You will need to refer to this page to understand what I write in my comments on your papers.