HARVARD
COLLEGE

Writing Center
WRITING CENTER BRIEF GUIDE SERIES

A Brief Guide to Writing the Philosophy Paper
The Challenges of Philosophical Writing
The aim of the assignments in your philosophy classes is to get you doing philosophy. But what is philosophy, and how is it to be done? The answer is complicated.
Philosophers are often motivated by one or more of what we might call the “Big Questions,” such as: How should we live? Is there free will? How do we know anything? or, What is truth? While philosophers do not agree among themselves on either the range of proper philosophical questions or the proper methods of answering them, they do agree that merely expressing one’s personal opinions on controversial topics like these is not doing philosophy.
Rather, philosophers insist on the method of first attaining clarity about the exact question being asked, and then providing answers supported by clear, logically structured arguments. An ideal philosophical argument should lead the reader in undeniable logical steps from obviously true premises to an unobvious conclusion. A negative argument is an objection that tries to show that a claim, theory, or argument is mistaken; if it does so successfully, we say that it refutes it. A positive argument tries to support a claim or theory, for example, the view that there is genuine free will, or the view that we should never eat animals. Positive philosophical arguments about the Big Questions that are ideal are extremely hard to construct, and philosophers interested in formulating or criticizing such arguments usually end up discussing other questions that may at first seem pedantic or contrived. These questions motivate philosophers because they seem, after investigation, to be logically related to the Big Questions and to shed

Harvard College
Writing Program
Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Harvard University

light on