Analysis Paper: Final Product
This week you will submit your final product. You will use a logical analysis of your choice. The argument you select can come from any source (a movie, book, religious teaching, politician’s soundbite, song, poem, supreme court judgment, etc.) and can be analyzed using any of the methods practiced during this course (fallacies, famous forms, natural deduction, quantifiers, probability, and induction). You analysis paper should have minimal introductory material. The ideal sequence for analysis is:
- Reproduce the argument
- Give a brief interpretation
- Translate into symbolic form
- Prove validity or invalidity
- Examine the truth of the premises
- Make suggestions on how the argument could be improved
Purpose: This assignment allows you to take the skills developed through the course and apply them in a more naturalistic mode. Since humans do not communicate through highly rigorous symbolic notation but rather through prose, this assignment brings logic closer to regular life. This exercise gives you practice applying logic to new circumstances.
Parameters: Your paper should be 4–5 double-spaced, typewritten pages submitted as a Word document. There is no particular style required since this is an informal assignment, but you do need to cite your sources if you choose to use any (APA, MLA, or Turabian format is acceptable). Even academic philosophy is often written in first person, but this paper does not need a title page, bibliography page, etc. Only one reference is required (the original argument or position being analyzed). This assignment utilizes the SafeAssign originality tool. Upon submission, SafeAssign will generate an originality report that detects plagiarism. This report will be sent to your instructor.
