Firstname Lastname (email address)

1. Beginning: State the proposition to be proved.

1. Orientation

1. Specify what general topic will be discussed.
2. Report what previous philosophers have thought about this topic.

2. State what is to be proved; state the thesis.

1. Report who has held the same or a similar view.
2. Report who has held the opposite or a different view.

3. Motivation: Explain why this thesis or topic is interesting or important.
4. State what you will assume in your essay without argument.

2. Give the argument for the proposition to be proved.

1. Explain the general force of the argument.
2. Explain what the premises mean.

3. Show that the argument is valid.

1. Explain those terms that are used in a technical sense, or which are ambiguous; resolve the ambiguity.
2. Explain how the conclusion follows from the premises.

1. The inference to intermediate conclusions will have to be explained as part of the complete explanation.
2. Sometimes one can explain the inferences by citing rules from a natural deduction system, e.g. modus ponens or modus tollens. More often the explanation concerns explaining the conceptual relations between the concepts expressed in the premises.

3. Give the rules that justify the inferences that are not apparent from the initial statement of the argument.

4. Show that the premises are true.

1. Give the evidence for the premises.

1. Explain the premises; and explain the meaning of those terms that might be misunderstood and which bear upon the truth of your premises.
2. Adduce (to give reasons why you think something is true) the intuitions of the audience; supply examples and subsidiary arguments that lend support to the truth of your premises.

2. Raise objections.

1. Raise objections that have actually been raised against your position.

1. Raise the objections that historically significant philosophers have already raised to that problem.
2. Raise the objections that your professor or fellow students have raised.

2. Raise objections that no one else has raised and which, when answered, further explicate and shore up your thesis.

3. Answer the objections.

5. Conclusion

1. State the upshot of what you have proven.
2. Indicate further results that one might try to get.