You may choose any topic you like for this longer 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 Meditations." Someone already wrote that, and we tend to believe Descartes 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 question of doubt in The Meditations would be a possibility. 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 Contemporary Ethical Issues
2) Living In A Cave: Plato's Allegory and Postmodern Philosophy
3) Aquinas' Use of Aristotle
4) Proving God: Anselm and Aquinas
5) Free Will and Faculty Psychology
6) How is Cartesian Geometry Philosophy?
7) Is Descartes Philosophy or Science?
8) Always Thinking, Thinking: The Importance of Rational Thought in Pascal
9) Postmodern Aesthetics and Modern Art
10) Responsibility in Sartre's Existential Ethics
11) Modern Aesthetics and How We Get Here
12) An Extended Analysis of the Ethics in "Crimes and Misdemeanors"
13) "The Matrix" and Plato's Allegory of the Cave

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. You will undoubtedly need to use Interlibrary Loan for this assignment as our library's holdings in philosophy, particularly contemporary issues, are lacking.
When you submit the proposed topic for this paper, I'll return your e-mail either approved (possibly with suggestions), or disapproved (probably because it's too broad or too narrow for this paper). You can access a twenty-five page document on writing papers and doing research by going to the section on "The Longer Paper" at the bottom of http://www.bhsu.edu/dsalomon/eng102/spring2001/.

Keep track of all due dates!
Friday, March 30: Submit topic via e-mail: davidsalomon@bhsu.edu
Wednesday, May 2: All papers due ** NO EXCEPTIONS
Any questions, just ask!