POSSIBLE LONGER PAPER TOPICS

     You may choose any topic you like for this research paper, provided it is connected in
some way with something we have done or will do this semester. This leaves the field wide open:
any philosopher or philosophical issue we have looked at is fair game. 
     But you can't write a paper called "The Confessions." Someone already wrote that, and
we tend to believe Augustine did a pretty good job. What you want to write is something on some
particular aspect of the work you'd like to study. The autobiographical elements in The
Confessions would be a possibility as would Augustine's Platonic Ideas in The Confessions. Some
others are listed below. These are merely some suggested topics. If you can't come up with
something, come and talk to me and I'll help you.
          
          1) Right is Right, Even When It's Wrong: A Study of Socrates' Ethics
          2) Living In A Cave: Plato's Allegory and PostModern Philosophy
          3) Aquinas' Use of Aristotle
          4) Proving God: Anselm and Aquinas
                         5) Jewish Philosophy: The Importance of Maimonides For Modern Judaic Thought
          6) Christian or Pagan? The Philosophic Thought of Augustine
          7) How is Cartesian Geometry Philosophy?
          8) Is Descartes Philosophy or Science?
          9) Always Thinking, Thinking: The Importance of Thought in Pascal
          10) Rationalism and Modernism: Hume, Kant, and Derrida 
          11) PostModernism and Modern Art
          12) Beckett and Nietzsche: Existentialism
          13) Beckett's Use of Sartre? 
          14) Nihilistic Philosophy: Existentialism and Samuel Beckett
          15) Baudrillard and Contemporary Philosophy
          16) Disney and Baudrillard: What Is Real?

     These are just a few suggestions off the top of my head. I encourage you to be creative
and interesting. Remember, I have to read these, but you have to spend a few weeks researching
and writing them.
     I would also encourage you to begin this paper early, at least the research and basic ideas.
Don't wait until the last minute. You'll be in trouble because the end of the semester will bring
other work from this and other classes. You will also find that books you would like to use will
already have been taken out of the library by other students.
     When you submit the proposed topic for this paper, I'll return it to you either approved
(possibly with suggestions), or disapproved (probably because it's too broad or too narrow for
this paper). If you would like me to send you via e-mail a twenty-five page document on writing
papers and doing research, send an e-mail note requesting it.
     
Keep track of all due dates!
April 12: Submit topic via e-mail: davidsalomon@bhsu.edu
May 3: All papers due ** NO EXCEPTIONS                                          Any questions, just ask!