Tips for Answering Essay Questions:

I started to write up some suggestions for writing good essay answers and then it occurred to me that there may already be precisely this kind of information on the Web. And it turns out that there is. No need to reinvent the wheel. Here are some sites that have some useful information.

Here are some tips more specific to the types of questions you will likely see from me.

1. As a general rule, I suggest that students imagine that they are explaining the issue to their moms. In other words, don’t imagine I’m your audience. (I already know what Thales said and why it was important. I’m the one who told YOU, remember?)

Envision your audience as an intelligent but uninformed reader. (Think of your mom, your dad or your friend who has never had this class. If your Mom is a philosophy professor, this will not work.) How would you explain to your mom who Thales was and why he is significant to the origins of Philosophy and Science? If your mom or your friend would understand it after reading your essay, then you’ve done a good job.

2. I usually start my essay question by making some sort of statement. If I used specific terms in an essay question that we’ve covered in class, it’s probably a good idea to explain those terms whether the question explicitly asks you to or not.

Further if YOU use a term we’ve discussed in class (e.g. Philosophy is a dialectical process. Would your mom know what “dialectical process” means? Or your friend?) be certain to go on to explain that term in your essay.

3. You might sometimes notice that a statement in one question actually contains part of the answer to another question. Here’s an example of two such questions.

Kant’s ethics suffers from the fact that it leads to Real (strong) Moral Dilemmas. Explain what these are and how Kant’s system makes them likely and frequent in real life. W. D. Ross introduces the notion of “prima facie duties” to explain both our intuition that “Lying is wrong.” and our intuition that sometimes lying is the right thing to do. Explain Ross’s modified deontological system. Be certain to discuss how Ross believes we come to know what our actual duty is in any given situation.

W. D. Ross offers a deontological intuitionist moral system. Explain the role that moral intuition plays in Ross’s system. If Ross’s account of how we acquire moral knowledge is correct, moral disputes cannot really be argued. Why is that?

Note the second question refers to Ross’s intuitionism. This answers part of the first question: “(discuss how)… Ross believes we come to know what our actual duty is in any given situation.” Some of this can go on between essay questions and multiple choice questions. The attentive reader may be better able to answer one question, or part of one anyway, by using information contained in the other.

4. Look for the specific purpose of the question. In general, regardless of what the question is asking, I am trying to give you an opportunity two show me what you know, what you have learned and what connections you can draw among these points. The questions may read “blah, blah, blah, … Ross.” But whatever the specifics, I am asking you to show me you understand Ross’s ethics.

5. Having said that, don’t waste time providing information not related to the specific question. The answers provided should be straightforward and relevant to the question as asked. So if the question is specifically about Ross, just talking about ethics in general is likely not relevant and eating into the time you have to complete the exam.

6. Many of the essay questions are cluster-questions. That is, though it is “one question” calling for one essay response, there are several parts that need to be addressed to write a complete answer. Also, the parts, while distinct, are usually strongly related to one another. Therefore, the answer should explore HOW these parts are related to one another.

7. Finally, you are not tweeting. An essay is NOT a bulleted list. It is not a chronicle or table of elements or properties. If you want to write a bulleted outline for yourself to help you structure your essay that would be fine. But do not mistake that for a completed essay response. An essay is presented in a discursive way that takes the form of paragraphs.

Here is a question from the first exam. I have also included both of very good and a very poor essay response. See if you can tell which is which.

1) Thales of Ionia is considered the founder of Western science and Western philosophy. He is famous/infamous for claiming that "everything is water." Briefly explain why Thales claimed this. How does this represent a move towards “logos” as opposed to “mythos.” That is, how does his theory represent an important break with previous attempts by humans to make sense of the world?

A) Thales of Ionia is famous for saying that everything is water. What he means by this is that the basic substance that makes up all that we see, all the stuff of reality, is water. He believes this because he reasons that there must be a basic substance to reality; that, and only that, could explain how one thing can change into something else. The substance, that which “stands under” the appearances actually stays the same, but the appearance of the substance changes. Thales knew that water could do this; water can change, appearing solid to appearing liquid to appearing gaseous, but it remains the same substance, water, the whole time. Of the four basic elements with which he was familiar (earth, air, fire and water), water seemed the most versatile and therefore the most basic.

Now this theory was immediately criticized and rejected. His students presented the counter example of “dry cliffs” which clearly could not be made of water, demonstrating that this theory is at best flawed. But the importance here is that he attempted to explain a feature of reality by providing a reasoned explanation, one that was recommended by argument and evidence. This represents “logos,” and is a departure from “mythos. “ Mythos, by contrast, represents an attempt to understand and rationalize the world, not through reason and argument, but through imaginative narratives, employing supernatural forces and purported to have divine origins. Myths were not offered nor regarded as “testable hypotheses,” but Thales was offering his theory for precisely that kind of critical review.

The importance of Thales theory then, even though it was shot down, is that for the first time someone was offering a theory that could be shot down. Since it was supported by reason and argument it could be defeated by better reason and better argument. This is why Thales is considered both the founder of science and the founder of Western philosophy. He initiated a conversation that is still going on. It proceeds by theory postulation, justification, critical review and revision, a dialectical process that seeks to come closer and closer to the truth of things through argument and discussion.

B) Thales said everything is water because he could not understand change. He didn’t know what everything was so he thought it was water. He argued about this and that was logos, not mythos because he wasn’t telling stories from the gods. Science and philosophy have the same methodology.

Example:

Essay Prompt:

• Explain the difference between the Realm of Being and the Realm of Becoming according to Plato. Which of these two competing realms is supposed to be “more real,” more powerful, and more lasting and why does Plato claim this? According to Plato, there could not exist actual cats unless there existed a Platonic “Form” of cat. Explain why Plato held this view. If this is correct, then forms are ontologically prior to their particulars. Explain what is meant by this phrase.

A) Terms to explain:

Realm of Being

Realm of Becoming

Form

Particular

Ontologically prior

B) Outline Elements To Be Covered

1. Explain the realms and what distinguishes each.

2. Explain the “residents” of each domain.

3. Explain how Forms are related to particular things.

4. Explain why Forms are “ontologically prior” to their corresponding particulars.

5. Give examples and/or an analogy to explain the relation.

C) Rubric for Scoring Essay

Item	Possible Score	Earned Score
Explain the realms and what distinguishes each.	8
Explain the “residents” of each domain.	8
Explain how Forms are related to particular things.	6
Explain why Forms are “ontologically prior” to their corresponding particulars.	6
Give examples and/or an analogy to explain the relation.	5
Total	33