Need an idea for a research paper
Currently in high school with a long research paper due in a couple months, and we were given no specific question. Therefore, I ask the People for some ideas to light my mind's fuse...
Requesting something relatively common - such that students and teachers can read it without scratching their heads.
Requesting something relatively common - such that students and teachers can read it without scratching their heads.
Comments (14)
It is a school wide paper meaning I can pretty much do it on whatever I want it to be. The topic is philosophy of course, and it explains why I am here :D
What sorts of topics have you been learning about? Have you studied philosophy in school, or you're just interested in it and that's why you want to do a paper on it?
I am in the US. It was not meant for any specific class
No, I have not studied any of this in school. Through my interest in mathematics I learned of Archimedes and it led to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle which got me interested in philosophy. Ever since then I have been reading other philosophers here and there.
You might like doing a project on propositional and predicate logic then. Depending on the length. It's very mathsy.
So who assiged it?
Anyway, another suggestion. How about a paper on what mathematics is ontologically?
Most of this article has to do with this issue: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-mathematics/
And here's a good book about it (though one biased towards a particular answer): https://www.amazon.com/What-Mathematics-Really-Reuben-Hersh/dp/0195130871
My dual enrollment teacher which I have no idea what it is about
I just got the class this semester
Jeez, I don't even have the slightest clue in the understanding of mathematical logic... although if it takes relatively little time to go over an introduction to mathematical logic book, then I am surely willing to do this.
Also, any viable sources you can point to me (since I can’t cite the “gold” from here)?
My first philosophy classes in college were The Nature of Human Nature and Art and Philosophy. You can find all sorts of things written about either of these, seek out some authors who appeal to you, and almost anyone should be able to relate to the subject matter.
Or, my personal favorite: the trolley problem. Simple concept with HUGE potential for philosophical analysis and discussion.
In case you don't know what it is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem
You could write a paper about Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, Charles Bukowski (a poet and fiction writer, very disreputable character but lots of fun) or maybe a famous criminal -- like Al Capone or Donald Trump.
In order to write a research paper, you - a high school student - need a topic that interests you, is manageable (The History of the World is a hair too large) and for which there are research materials available. You could do a paper on the Boer War from the Afrikaner perspective, but you might not find much in the way of resources -- Afrikaners spoke Dutch, if I remember correctly. How's your 19th century Dutch? Not good? Skip that topic, then. You will be using the Internet, of course, but it still takes time to read material, and sift out the ample amounts of bad information that is floating around out there. (Even before the Internet, back in the stone age of print, there was bad information floating around.)
You also need a topic that you can get your head around right away. Even if it is due in 3 months (not that long) you might want to get started soon.
Have you all had any instruction on "how to write a research paper"? Like, devising a plan, taking notes, outlining, writing a draft, putting together a bibliography, etc.?
Of course I know how to write a research paper; the difference is that this is the first time I’ve been given the opportunity to choose what I’ll research instead of a relatively stupid (in my opinion) topic like pollution, gobal warming etc.
Originally before this post I was thinking of the incompatability of existentialism and hard determinism. These are ideas that do wrap around my head easy along with propisitional and predicate logic.
Definitely I agree that things I cannot understand will cause me to lose interest in even completing the assignment, however I still want to show teachers and my friends alike the importance, depth, and compatability philosophy has in our practical side of reaility.
Edit: Lol you think Donald Trump is a criminal? Not yet proven so it’ll be quite a tremendous leap.