Philosophy 251

Writing Assignment #4

General Information for Completing Writing Assignments:

(i) Each assignment is worth up to ten points. You will get one point for providing the correct answer and up to nine points for clearly and concisely justifying whatever answer you give. Note, that the emphasis is on justifying your solution regardless of whether it is correct or not. (Imagine that you are writing a solution that is to appear in a magazine in which the problem was presented in an earlier issue. Hence, you need to clearly and fully explain why the answer is the way it is, such that the readers will understand exactly why the answer is the way it is.) Below are some questions that I will ask when evaluating your assignments.

  1. Is the answer clearly stated and identified as the answer?
  2. Is the answer answering the question asked?
  3. Does the student justify the answer actually given?
  4. Does the student fail to account for (or contradict) a relevant fact from the problem?
  5. Does the student make any assumptions not warranted by the problem?
  6. Does the student contradict him/herself in the answer or justification?
  7. Would the justification be understandable to someone who has read the problem, but does not know the answer?

(ii) All assignments must be your own individual and independent work and be pledged. By 'your own individual and independent work' I understand that the student will not have discussed the assignment with any other individual or looked at any other individual's solution prior to the assignment being handed in.

(iii) All assignments are to be done on separate sheets of paper. Each sheet of paper must have your name on it.

(iv) Late assignments receive no credit.

Diamonds and Spades


Three cards are placed inside a hat. One card has a diamond on each side, one card a diamond on one side and a spade on the other, and one card a spade on each side. One card is withdrawn and put on an (opaque) table. Only one side of the card is visible. Suppose you see a diamond. Which of the following three options is true? Justify your answer.

(i) The other side is most likely a diamond.
(ii) The other side is most likely a spade.
(iii) The other side is equally likely to be a diamond or a spade.

Due: Monday, March, 25th, at the beginning of class.

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