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Preface | |
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Methods of Proceeding | |
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Introductory | |
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Selecting a topic | |
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The irrelevance of most library research | |
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Resolving controversies | |
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Appreciating philosophers of an earlier period | |
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The outline | |
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Preparation of the final draft | |
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Writing blocks | |
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Rules of the Game | |
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Plagiarism as a legal wrong (violation of another person's property right) | |
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Plagiarism as a moral wrong (cheating and lying) | |
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Quotation, attribution, and acknowledgment | |
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Alternative formats for notes | |
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Acceptable abbreviations in notes | |
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Criteria for Grading Student Papers | |
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Clarity | |
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Presence of argument | |
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Cogency of argument | |
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Originality, subtlety, imaginativeness | |
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Degree of difficulty | |
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Ordering the criteria | |
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General Principles of Good Writing | |
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Clarity again | |
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Simplicity | |
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Economy | |
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Padding | |
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Repetitiveness | |
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Redundancy | |
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Misplaced emphasis | |
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Pretentiousness and fancy words | |
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A miscellany of further judgments | |
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Mistakes of Grammar | |
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Grammatical and nongrammatical writing errors | |
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Criteria of correct grammar | |
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A sampler of grammatical rules and their problems | |
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Summary | |
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Some Common Mistakes in Diction | |
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Diction and grammar | |
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Linguistic correctness and controversy | |
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Constantly changing usage | |
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Linguistic liberals and conservatives | |
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Sample mistakes of diction | |
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Stylistic Infelicities | |
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The concept of style | |
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Prose writing as a source of pleasure | |
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The paragraph | |
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Motion metaphors | |
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Smoothing the flow | |
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Conspicuous over-use of favorite words | |
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Forget adornment and eloquence | |
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Types of poor writing styles | |
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Language and Logic | |
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Correct and incorrect reasoning | |
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Deductive and inductive reasoning | |
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Sentences and propositions | |
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Arguments | |
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Premises as unproved assumptions | |
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Logical necessity versus psychological certainty | |
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Necessity and contingency | |
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Three types of impossibility | |
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Basic Deductive Logic | |
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Possible truth value combinations | |
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Validity and soundness | |
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Definition of truth functional connectives | |
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Necessary and sufficient conditions | |
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Valid deductive argument forms: a sampler | |
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Logic Without Necessity | |
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Informal fallacies | |
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Some inductive inferences, good and bad | |
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Begging the question | |
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Analogical reasoning | |
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A sampler of fallacies | |
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Varieties of Philosophy Papers | |
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Rules of strategy | |
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Manageable philosophical tasks | |
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Modest partial reasons | |
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Interpretation | |
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Generalization and counterexample | |
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Definition | |
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Other categories of philosophical papers | |
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Philosophical Research on the Internet | |
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Appendix: A Checklist for Philosophy Papers | |