Existentialism

ASSIGNMENTS
PHIL 339:01
Dr. McWhorter
Fall, 2007

The assignments in this course consist of the following:

Take Home Exam worth 20% of the final grade.
Reaction Paper worth 20%
Book Review worth 20% of the final grade.
Term Paper worth a total of 40% of the final grade, but broken down into the following steps:
1. Topic - 2%
2. Bibliography - 8%
3. Outline - 5%
4. Finished Paper - 25%

Descriptions of the assignments can be found below. Click here for information regarding policies governing assignments.

October 11:
Take Home Exam: One week ahead of the due date, students will be given a set of essay questions to be answered outside of class. Answers should be typed, double-spaced, and documented where appropriate. This exam will be open book. Late papers will be treated in accordance with the standard late policy.

October 23 - November 13:
Reaction Papers on Sartre's Being and Nothingness. Each student will write one reaction paper to be due on one of the six days. Papers are to be 2-4 pages long, typed and double-spaced, with page numbers of quotations and paraphrases in parentheses in the body of the text. Papers should focus on one or two points in the reading that the student found to be of particular interest and should either critique the text or elaborate upon it (or both). Papers will be graded on the basis of thoughtfulness and insight into the text. These papers are not to be mere summaries of the reading, but some summary (between about 30% and 50%) is expected. Papers that deal only with points raised in the first few pages of the reading assignment will be viewed with suspicion and disdain.

November 15:
Existentialist Literature Book Review. Each student will select a work of fiction from the list below. The student is to read the book and write a 5-7 page critique of it. The critique should explain why the work can be classified as existentialist and should delve into some of its existentialist themes in relation to the philosophical arguments and themes in the work of Sartre. In particular, students should attempt to explain the actions of characters as outgrowths of the ontological conditions Sartre describes. Late papers will be treated in accordance with the standard late policy.

 
Term Paper:
The term paper is a research paper due during finals week. It should be about 15-20 pages long, typed, double-spaced, and appropriately documented. The paper must have a bibliography of relevant material on which the student draws to support his or her thesis. Writing a term paper is a lengthy process. Students will be expected to demonstrate progress on the project by meeting the deadlines for graded preliminary assignments as follows:
November 15: Students must turn in a type-written paragraph describing the area in which they are interested in doing research.
November 27: Students must turn in a type-written bibliographical list of all the works they plan to examine in relation to their term paper topics. This list must include at least five journal articles and at least five books. More of each would be much better, especially more journal articles. Online sources other than complete journal articles are not to be included--in other words, webpages don't count as sources. Citations should be in standard format according to the Chicago Manual of Style or Turabian.
December 4: Having read in depth, students will submit a working outline of the paper's main arguments. This outline should be at least two type-written pages long. It should consist of (1) a well-polished opening paragraph incorporating the main thesis statement, (2) at least three main sections containing a sketch of the arguments to be presented in the term paper (including a section on the relevant extant literature on the topic), (3) a concluding paragraph, and (4) a revised working bibliography.
Scheduled Exam Date: The finished term paper with bibliography is due. It should incorporate the thesis statement (perhaps as revised through further study), a consideration of the relevant literature on the topic in question, clear and well-developed arguments for the positions the student takes on the issue (including relevant textual and possibly historical or empirical evidence), a clear and eloquent conclusion, documentation of all quotations and paraphrases, and a bibliography.
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