Everyone says that writing about philosophy is a ‘different sort of writing’, but I’m not entirely sure what it meant by that. Of course, you’re writing about philosophical texts and issues, but how is the actual process of writing any different than any other sort of academic writing?
By: kai_maguire
About the Author:
By: kai_maguire
About the Author:
well maybe because in philosophy you have to be more critical than usual and not make contradictions to your own beliefs. i think is as you said the process of writing shouldnt be any different but it is because a philosophy professor will look more in depth than any other professor so in that sense a philosophy professor or anyone in philosophy will be more alert to what you write about which other professors dont unless is math and math is just numbers. when writing a paper in any class you can get away with writing a crappy paper and they only see if you turn it in means you tried and that’s enough and in philosophy you have to turn in a paper that is coherent in all levels.if you are a good writer you already have a good critical practice and whether is philosophy or anyother the writing process i believe it to be the same of course in philosophy you need to know more about the claims you write about while in other subjects you can fool the professor in making it seen that you know or at least put an interest that is enough for most of them.
It is a different sort of writing because, more so than any other branch of the humanities, it is based around (in fact, entirely grounded upon) logic and maths.
You cannot (or at least should not) persaude your reader with rhetoric. You must be infinitely careful, consistent and detailed in your definitions. Almost every statement should be reducable to a logical equation.
In essence, a philosophy paper is really just an elaborate mathematical equation, with words substituted for numbers. In short, very different to any other discipline.