PHI 200 Week 3

Final Paper Rough Draft

For this rough draft, you must identify a specific philosophical issue having to do with ethics, epistemology, or religion. You will need to find a topic over which there is a useful debate, in order to present both sides of the debate. Here, you will not need to indicate what your own position is, relative to the issue; you will be doing that, however, in the final version of the paper.

To receive full credit for this paper, you must do the following in three pages:

Identify the specific issue

Make clear one basic dispute over the issue you identify

Give a brief outline of the two sides of the debate

Provide at least one good source for each side of the debate (for the final version, you will need a minimum of five sources, at least two for each side).

Discussion Questions

The Limits of Skepticism

Can a person be skeptical about everything, or are there limits? Is it possible to doubt everything, or almost everything? Are there beliefs you possess that cannot be challenged or shown to be false? How might the skeptic respond to your claim that such a belief cannot be doubted? Identify one such specific belief and present your response to the skeptic. (If you don't have such a belief, explain how one could live while not accepting any claim as true.)

Creationism and Science

After watching the video, explain what the basic issue is about teaching creationism (or Intelligent Design) in public school science classes. Indicate how you would resolve this dispute. Be sure to support your answer. Respond and reply to your fellow students.