One of the most effective methods of bringing your knowledge together, both for your own understanding and when arguing a point of view, is to write an essay. The process of writing an essay forces you to think about your primary question: it should be broad enough to have something substantial to write about, whilst not being so broad that you cannot answer the question within the required word count. The essay is an effective way to demonstrate your ability to understand the views of others, whilst being able to effectively and soundly critique those views and infer conclusions from them.
Essay writing – or research for a piece – is often a daunting task for those who have little to no experience. However, as with any skill, it can be practiced. This task is made all the more difficult when the subject matter is philosophical in nature; philosophy in itself is a subject requiring you to digest difficult concepts and theories before you can embark on writing on the various philosophical issues. Having an informative guide to carry you through the process makes this task easier by giving you a structured representation of how your essay will look whilst also giving you strategies on how to structure arguments or formulate critiques.
There are various forms of a philosophical essay – this depends on the desired audience and the aim of the essay. However all essays should have a well established beginning, middle and end, in line with how the logical human mind operates. The saying goes that when writing an essay, “say what you are going to do, do it, and summarise what you have done”. This is a simple yet highly effective structure, allowing the audience to follow the journey of the piece from beginning to end.
What follows is taken from Philosophical Writings An Introduction by A. P. Martinich and has been a constant source of benefit and point of reference for philosophical writers to convey their thoughts, or to find a research methodology that is academically acceptable. The beauty of the following structure is that it serves a dual function: first as an exercise on how to think about a philosophical issue, and secondly, the actual structure of the essay.
Below are two structures of a philosophical essay: simple and complex. It is up to the writer as to which one to use. This will usually depend on your skill and also the content of the hypothesis you wish to explore. However it’s important to be familiar with both: you may want to use a simple structure alongside aspects of the complex structure that can add further depth to the essay.
“Compare writing an essay with riding in an automobile. If a passenger does not know the destination, it will be difficult for him to remember the roads he has taken. If, on the other hand, the destination is known, then every left and right turn, every sign and traffic signal, is organized in relation to that destination.”
A Simple Structure
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State the hypothesis. This can be a simple statement demonstrating what you intend to discuss in the main essay. The thesis might be an evaluative statement like “Justice is rendering each person what is due to him,” or a historical thesis such as “Descartes’s method of doubt is the same as Sextus’ scepticism.”
Try to assert all of the premises as soon as possible to give the reader an insight of what to expect in the remainder of the essay
Show your argument to be valid, meaning that you should try to demonstrate how your premises will lead to your conclusion. This means that the link between the premises and the conclusion should be made clear and they should be structured such that the reader is able to follow the argument step by step
Prove that your premises are true. Begin by stating the evidence for each premise. Here is where you should try to anticipate any objections or criticisms for your premises. Clearing these up will mean the reader will be at ease and will be more willing to accept your conclusion
This is the final portion of the essay and can be tackled in several ways:
- Summarise the argument and without adding any new content or conclusions.
- Explain any further implications of your proved thesis.
- Explore any potential further research that can be done. Proceed with this option with caution: it can suggest your research is incomplete.
- Explain why your results are important and what impact it can have in the field of research.
"There should be no surprises in philosophy, except those caused by an insight, expressed with brilliant clarity. Do not confuse rhetorical pyrotechnics for philosophical light."
A Complex Structure
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- Orientation
- Specify what general topic will be discussed.
- Report what previous philosophers have thought about this topic
- State what is to be proved; state the thesis
- Report who has held the same or a similar view
- Report who has held the opposite or a different view
- Motivation: Explain why this thesis or topic is interesting or important
- State what you will assume in your essay without argument
- Explain the general force of the argument
- Explain what the premises mean
- Explain those terms that are used in a technical sense, or which are ambiguous; resolve the ambiguity
- Explain how the conclusion follows from the premises
- The inference to intermediate conclusions will have to be explained as part of the complete explanation
- Sometimes one can explain the inferences by citing rules from a natural deduction system, e.g. modus ponens or modus tollens. More often the explanation concerns explaining the conceptual relations between the concepts expressed in the premises
- Give the rules that justify the inferences that are not apparent from the initial statement of the argument
- Give the evidence for the premises
- Explain the premises; and explain the meaning of those terms that might be misunderstood and which bear upon the truth of your premises
- Adduce the intuitions of the audience; supply examples and subsidiary arguments that lend support to the truth of your premises
- Raise objections
- Raise objections that have actually been raised against your position
- Raise the objections that historically significant philosophers have already raised to that problem
- Raise the objections that your professor or fellow students have raised
- Raise objections that no one else has raised and which, when answered, further explicate and shore up your thesis
- Raise objections that have actually been raised against your position
- Answer the objections
- State the upshot of what you have proven
- Indicate further results that one might try to get
Points to Remember
Although the outline above is largely self-explanatory there are some additional points to be aware of:
- Not every essay will contain every element of the outline.
- Not every essay will contain these elements in the order in which they are given here.
- Some items in the outline are roughly the same. This is because when making an argument we often follow the same method; provide some background information, state your own position, then add some more background info etc.
- The outline has some fluidity in that some elements (not the primary elements) can be moved to other parts of the outline. For example, at the beginning of an essay, in the course of explaining what previous philosophers have thought about this problem, you might want to introduce the argument that some other philosopher gives for his position.
