University of Manitoba – Department of Philosophy

Fall 2023 – PHIL 1420– A01 – PHILOSOPHY AS A WAY OF LIFE

Simone.mahrenholz@umanitoba.ca

Final Assignment – Please read the specifics closely.

Write an academic essay (structure below). You can choose any topic that is related to
class-material, authors read, or class discussions. Sample topics below.

Basic formalities:
Due date: Friday, Dec. 8th. Should you need a few more days, please contact me via email in
advance, letting me know how much more time you think you need.
Submission on UMLearn: under Assessments – Assignments
Length: 1300-1400 words, excluding bibliography.
Format: word or pdf (word is preferred, as it works better for my comments, pdf is also fine)
Citation style: Chicago style, meaning footnotes1 and bibliography. A Chicago style sample text is
uploaded on UMLearn. (One important detail: When you quote a text for first time, the full bibliographic
info is needed in the footnote. Each subsequent time, use an abbreviation. See sample text.)
Important: When you quote authors, directly or indirectly, always add page numbers!
Structure: Your paper should have:
- a brief introduction, presenting your question or topic and (if you like) your motivation for
choosing it
- a main part, which can consist of a few sub-parts, organized with sub-headings
- a conclusion
- a bibliography (details below)
- a cover page (the 1st page), containing your name(s), course-title, term (Winter 2023),
institution (U of M), the title of your paper, plus this honor pledge statement (which you
can copy directly)
In accordance with the Honor Code, I affirm that this work is my own, written by myself, and that all
content taken from other sources has been properly acknowledged. I am aware that all forms of
plagiarism, even if unintentional, might result in an F for the paper, could result in an F for the
course, and might have further consequences. I am further aware, that copying or paraphrasing AI-
generated text without proper and precise acknowledgement is plagiarism.

Note: A missing or incomplete honor pledge statement can lead to an F for this paper.

References: your text should directly quote (not just reference) at least two passages from at least
one of the authors we addressed in class plus at least one additional academic source.

How to find academic literature: see next. page.

In addition to (not instead of) your academic sources, you can refer to internet-material. If you
quote from online-sources, such as blog-entries or YouTube-videos: submit the link in a footnote,
including title and author/speaker, in case of video, include also a time stamp, such as: 01:05:56
(hour, minute, second), to avoid plagiarism. – Mention the video also in the bibliography (then
without the time stamp).

1
This is a footnote. Command in your word-program: Insert-footnote-insert. Numbering occurs
automatically.
 2

Bibliography: to be organized alphabetically (see sample text for Chicago style); it must contain all
sources you explicitly or indirectly quoted or referenced. (Else: danger of plagiarism.)
(Please do not mix up a bibliography with endnotes: endnotes are footnotes placed at the end of your
text. This assignment asks for footnotes and bibliography.) Do not simply provide the URL when
referencing academic sources. Again, see sample text, or check SEP-bibliographies.)
Pagination: Don’t forget pagination!2

Sample topics: (these are mainly meant as inspirations – you can use and change them, or come up
with something totally different)
- Stoic versus Epicurean techniques to deal with emotional crises: A comparison.
- Stoics versus the Epicureans on the topic of death
- How does love relate to beauty, truth and the good? Diotima’s theory on the nature of love
(eros) in Plato’s Symposion (step ladder) and its relation to education
- Cornel West on the courage needed for self-examination and the difference between truth and
Truth (if you quote from this video, indicate minute and second of the passages you quote and
discuss, see above on time stamps)
- Michel Foucault on the care for the self from Classical Greece to Early Christianity
- (Alternative title: A comparison of the Greek/Early Roman ‘self’ versus the Christian ‘soul’
with Michel Foucault)
- How Marcus Aurelius changed my life: an interpretation of key passages and their relevance
for (my) contemporary life.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and its connection to Stoicism.
- CBT and Philosophy (see for instance the text we discussed in class - but do not simply re-
narrate that text, pick a topic or question, and examine it more closely)
- Take any passage from any text we read, create a topic/question out of this, and discuss.
- Compare any two texts under the aspect of a question you choose– for instance content from
the CBT-text (about cognitive distortions) and David Foster Wallace’s advice in “This is
Water” (Important: When referencing “This is Water”, quote according to the slightly longer
written version, uploaded on D2L- not the video! When referencing it in the
bibliography/footnotes, just mention author, title, and “transcript”, plus page number)
- How philosophy saved my life. (Pick a problem, author(s), solution(s).)
- Discuss a movie/novel you love by relating it to a text we read in class. …

Important: Your paper can relate to your personal experience – but now with establishing concrete
connections to texts we discussed.

How to find academic literature:

A fast and easy way is the JSTOR-database (how to get there: see footnote below).3 Another place to
search is Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), each article contains a large bibliography. Or, of
course, our UofM library website:
https://umanitoba.ca/libraries/
the “find materials” box there also brings up articles, less specific though than JSTOR. But worth a try.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) is good as well, at times shorter, but lacking the extended
bibliography.

2
How to create page numbers in word: insert – page numbers. (Sometimes, that choice shows up in the drop
down menue, sometimes it only shows up as an icon on the right when you click on insert in the light grey field,
instead of the black field at the top of the page: the newest version is a bit tricky.)
3
For JSTOR: go to UofM libraries page: Databases A-Z – click on J for JSTOR, scroll down to JSTOR, search
for your topics and and download pdfs.
 3

Also: SEP and IEP count as secondary sources !! :) – But pay attention to “how to quote” the SEP: it
is explained on their website. Here is an example – for bibliographical information, go to: author and
citation info – on the right. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epictetus/

On ChatGPT and generative AI in general. Don’t use it! (I encountered several (in part) AI-
generated texts by students in the past, and they have mostly easily recognizable characteristics.) If I
get the impression that you used content that you did not reference, I will confront you directly with
asking questions. – If you absolutely cannot write this paper without using generative AI, then, write
an appendix that outlines exactly how you used it. This includes a) Indicate the passage(s) in your text
that contain paraphrases from generative AI (e.g. via a color code), b) the program you used, and c)
the prompts you gave. As said: you need to write an extra passage for that (not included in the word
count), you need to invent and present ways to account for this: introducing color codes for marking
the AI-generated parts of your paper, etc. That will be a lot of work. But again: Don’t.)

Grading criteria
- Clarity of your question or topic.
- The degree to which you deal with concrete texts we discussed, by quoting and commenting on
passages, not just making general, sweeping remarks in the way YouTube-videos or blog entries do.
- Clarity of verbal expression and of giving reasons or background for your claims
- Correct spelling and grammar (word underlines mistakes and suggests corrections; if you don’t have
word, some other programs or email-programs do that as well.)
- Attention to the formalities laid out above.

Do not write about the life of the author you chose, no biographical remarks! - except briefly when it
directly relates to your point. (For instance, you can of course mention that Epictetus was a former
slave, or that Marcus Aurelius was an emperor who wrote at night on the battlefield, if it serves your
argument.)

Tip: Editing, rewriting is everything. Never does the first draft represent your abilities. Also, ideally,
let a friend or a relative, or someone from the Academic Learning Centre (contact below) read it and
provide critical feedback on passages that are still unclear or on grammar and spelling typos.
Before submitting your paper, ideally print it out and edit it a last time on paper: some grammar-
issues or other flaws you do see only then.
Academic Learning Centre (http://umanitoba.ca/student/academiclearning/index.html, telephone:
204-480-1481). Book early, ideally before you even started writing your paper.

Most importantly: Pick a topic that excites you. You can for instance begin to develop your topic by
starting from a favorite text passages of yours in this course. – Have fun.