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WRITING IN PHILOSOPHY: REPLY TO FREDERICK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2021

Brian D. Earp
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Extract

Frederick (2021, see the preceding article) offers a critique of my writing tips aimed at undergraduate students coming to philosophy – and in many cases, essay writing – for the first time (Earp, 2021, in this volume) Frederick claims that most of my tips are good tips but characterizes two of them as bad tips, as follows:

Bad tip 1. Be very careful about making any universal claims (involving words such as ‘every’, ‘never’, ‘always’). Such a claim can be refuted by just a single counterexample. Do not leave yourself open to such refutation. Make a universal claim only if you are sure that there are no counterexamples.

Bad tip 2. Pick a smaller, more narrow thesis and argue for it thoroughly rather than a more ambitious thesis for which you argue less thoroughly.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 20 , Issue 58 , Summer 2021 , pp. 89 - 92
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Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy, 2021

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References

Earp, B. D. (2021) ‘Some Writing Tips for Philosophy’, Think 58 (this volume).Google Scholar
Frederick, D. (2021) ‘Critique of Brian Earp's ‘Some Writing Tips for Philosophy’, Think 58 (this volume).Google Scholar