PHIL 4300-01W: Senior Seminar

University of West Georgia

Fall 2007

 

Wednesday December 12, 2-4pm

 

 

This test will be worth 25% of your total course grade. This is a timed test; you will have two hours (120 minutes) to complete the test. This is a “Writing-to-Learn” assignment.

 

You are required to provide your own blue book for the test. Blue books are mini notebooks designed especially for writing tests. They are available from the UWG Bookstore and at the cart in the atrium of the TLC. They come in two sizes: small and large. Because of the length of this exam, you should probably use a large bluebook. They are very inexpensive (less than $.50 each).

 

Section 1 will consist of two essay/discussion questions. You will be given a list of topics drawn from the following:

 

·         Peirce’s negative account of inquiry (in “Some Consequences of Four Incapacities”).

 

·         Peirce’s positive account of inquiry (in “The Fixation of Belief”).

 

·         Peirce’s early pragmatism and his later pragmaticism.

 

·         Peirce’s (extreme) scholastic realism.

 

·         Peirce’s evolutionary cosmology.

 

·         Peirce’s so-called “modal shift.”

 

·         Peirce’s view of vagueness.

 

·         Peirce’s work on triadic logic and his rejection of bivalence.

 

I will give you four of these topics from which to choose. You will be required to write essays on two of them.

 

Your essays should be as detailed, clear and precise as time allows. In other words, tell me everything you know about the topic on which you are writing.

 

I recommend that as part of your preparation for this examine, you actually practice composing each of these essays. I expect that you will spend 40 minutes or longer on each of these essays during the two hours you will have to take the test. I realize that, for some essay questions on this study guide, we may have covered more material than you could write in the length of time you have to complete the test. So in preparing, you should select which arguments, moral issues, and relevant facts you plan to discuss while writing your answers. It is unwise to study by simply reading through the lecture notes and textbook again and again and then attempt to compose an essay for the first time “on the fly,” while taking the test. In preparing to take the test, you should, at the very least, construct an outline of each of the essays you may be asked to write. I recommend that you go beyond simply constructing outlines and actually practice writing your essays as much as possible while preparing for the test.

 

 

Section 2 will consist of one essay/discussion question. This question will draw upon everything that you’ve learned about Peirce in this course. I will not reveal the question until you take the test. There will be no options in this section; each student will be required to answer the same single question. You should plan to spend roughly one third of your time (about 40 minutes) writing your response to this question.