October Writing Assignment Suggestions

Use this page to stir it up and get your mind working if you are short of ideas to write about.
Feel free to take any of these questions or ideas and make them your own for your paper.

For each figure and each idea, there are certain things that are always worth doing:

A good explanation that cites evidence constantly is THE most important first step

Figure out what evidence is used to support a claim. Always look for the evidence, why the figure thought the idea was right.
State the idea very carefully and very precisely.
If you aren't sure whether the idea is This or That, explain what both This and That are and see what happens if you assume This is right or That is right, then explain that in turn.

Next is an effort to figure out what is good and strong about the idea: what is the "baby" in the "bathwater," as in "don't throw out the baby with the bathwater" for this idea or this figure?
What are some obvious objections to the idea? How could the figure perhaps meet those objections?
What assumptions did the figure make to come up with the idea?
What things about the idea assume that the world is different from the way we know it to be (i.e. we know it is made up of atoms, etc., but Anaxagoras' ideas reject atoms and much else that we believe we know).
Where did the idea come from? What previous figure had a similar idea? What previous figure had a different idea that this new idea contradicts or modifies?
Do we know where the idea went: for example, we know that Parmenides' ideas went to Zeno, who worked with them in a novel way.
Surely there's more....

Can you explain how Pythagoras' ideas about number are plausible?
Of course, that sort of asks to explain what his ideas about number are...
I'mnot too excited to hear about the acousmata, because they are not terribly philosophical.
What about reincarnation? How did he think that worked?

What is the role of contrast and antithesis and the unity of opposites in Heraclitus
Why can't you step into the same river twice? Can you even step into it once? Why isn't it the same river? Are you the same you from time to time?
What did Heraclitus think of people's ability to know things? What about his own ability?
What are Heraclitus' firsts? Why is he worth studying in the history of philosophy and science?
How did the world come to be and change according to Heraclitus?

try to reconstruct the logic of the way of truth in your own words.
try to explain McKirahan's explanation of why Parmenides wrote the way of opinion as well, even though Parmenides thought it was mistaken.
Is Parmenides talking about the whole universe when talks of "being" and "it," or do his arguments also apply to every single thing in this world of ours: for example, do they apply to me?
What is the role of time in Parmenides?

How do Zeno's paradoxes support Parmenides' ideas?
How and why does McKirahan disagree with what Zeno thinks Parmenides is saying? Why does McKirahan think that Parmenides actually meant something else?

Given that 1) Zeno did not really come up with his own theory, but rather constructed challenges to those who did not believe Parmenides, and 2) we think we can solve a lot of Zeno's paradoxes, why is Zeno still such an important figure philosophically?

"Everything is in everything"? What does that mean? What does everything mean? are both everythings the same? Why?
There is no smallest and no largest? and there are unlimited quantities of largeness and smallest?

Teleology and mechanistic causation: how do they relate and what role might they play in Anaxagoras
Where is mind?
What is mind?
Why is mind?

In some ways, Anaxagoras is most puzzling and hardest to be sure that we understand: what is most important about what Anaxagoras did? what part of what he said makes him a great contributor to the development of philosophy and science?

Just a story?
A reasoned account?
A story that uses reason where it wants to, ignores it otherwise?
A precursor to modern science? If so, recognizably so or just accidentally?
Relatively rich lunatics' ideas?
Of course, you'd have to be a lot more detailed and precise than just the above..

Aristotle, Plato, etc.
Consider distance in time, space, and distance in ideology.
Consider our own difficulty understanding what they can possibly be talking about: what do you have to pretend you don't know in order to make a guess at what they are saying?

You can also look back to the Milesians, to Xenophanes, to anything we studied before, but make sure that something from our October reading is central.

EVERY TIME YOU SAY THAT SOME ANCIENT FIGURE THOUGHT OR SAID THIS OR THAT, CITE THE FRAGMENT OR TESTIMONIUM. Not McKirahan, the fragment, the testimonium.
Of course, you can cite McKirahan too, but he is an interpreter and has no direct reliable line which he can use to call up one of these guys and ask what he meant.