Topics

Your term paper must engage philosophically with some aspect of Marx’s thought covered in the course. The paper requires some outside sources.

It is suggested that you focus your paper on one of the following types of topics:

Interpretive: A paper that gives a critical interpretation or explanation of some feature of Marx’s thought. These papers will focus on some problem in the interpretation of Marx’s writings. The nature and relevance of the problem should be in dialogue with the secondary literature on Marx, based on both texts we have read in class and additional sources you have discovered in your research. In particular, one or more specific texts should be analyzed closely in order to provide an answer to some question about how we should understand Marx’s thought. These papers should be focused and specific, not broad overviews. Such papers may naturally involve some evaluative discussion of the limits or aptness of Marx’s thought, but the primary focus should be understanding rather than evaluation. A simple thesis like “Marx was right/wrong about X” will not do.

Application: A paper that applies Marx’s ideas to make an original argument about an issue of contemporary philosophical interest. Such papers will still involve close engagement and reconstruction of Marx’s ideas, but will do so less for the purpose of specifically of understanding Marx’s philosophy for its own sake, and more for the purposes of showing how Marx can help us understand contemporary problems. This paper will use the reconstructed ideas to present a positive solution to some problem of contemporary interest, or present arguments in favor of some certain contemporary view, or present a criticism of some such view. You should make sure to clearly articulate the problem or view you are responding to through engaging with an existing body of philosophical writing. Again, these papers should be focused and specific.

Stages

1. Topic Proposal
   • Must include whether you propose to do an interpretive or application paper (or something else), the question your paper hopes to answer (with brief explanation), and which text(s) of Marx you plan to focus on.
   • You are encouraged but not required to include a tentative thesis statement.
   • Due 3/21
2. Initial Bibliography
   • A list of 5-10 sources that you will use in your paper, not including sources from the class syllabus. Each source should be accompanied by 1-2 sentences explaining how you will use the source in your paper.
   • Sources should be appropriately academic sources with correctly formatted citations.
   • Due 4/11

Final Paper Specifications

1. Must contain a clear, easily identifiable, declarative thesis.
   • Not “In this paper I will explore…”
   • Rather: “In this paper I will argue that…”
2. The points discussed should be specific and supported by textual evidence and careful argument.
3. Deeper, more focused discussions are generally preferable to broad overviews.
4. Must consistently follow a major manual of style (MLA, Chicago, APA, etc.) for grammar, citations, and bibliography.
5. Paper must have a descriptive title.
6. 4,500-6,000 words in length.

Grading criteria: Command of topic, defends a well-formulated thesis, writing is clear and organized, research skills, grammar, punctuation, and citations.

Deadline: 5/6 on MyCourses/D2L