Reading in philosophy

Reading Philosophy in English

Leonardo Tello

Poll

Do you read philosophical texts in English?

• Of Course!

• If there is no other option :|

• Absolutely NO!

DEFINITION AND PURPOSE OF ABSTRACTS

An abstract is a short summary of a (published or unpublished) research paper, usually about a paragraph (c. 6-7 sentences, 150-250 words) long. 

A well-written abstract serves multiple purposes:

• an abstract lets readers get the gist or essence of your paper or article quickly, in order to decide whether to read the full paper;

• an abstract prepares readers to follow the detailed information, analyses, and arguments in your full paper;

• and, later, an abstract helps readers remember key points from your paper.

THE CONTENTS OF AN ABSTRACT

• the context or background information for your research; the general topic under study; the specific topic of your research

• the central questions or statement of the problem your research addresses

• what’s already known about this question, what previous research has done or shown 

• the main reason(s), the exigency, the rationale, the goals for your research—Why is it important to address these questions?

• main findings, results, or arguments

• the significance or implications of the findings or arguments.

The 15-Minute Encounter

The aim of the following structured set of question is to generate a page or two of notes on the reading you want to do. It is designed for reading journal articles or chapters in collections. (If you plan to read an entire monograph, or to read a chapter of a monograph, these questions might not all make very good sense.)

The First Glimpse (5 minutes)

The first questions you should ask yourself are superficial. They deal with the paper’s structure and ‘metadata’. What kind of work is this? How many pages do we have? How many sections? Answering these questions can be done on a first glimpse of the work.

The First Glimpse (5 minutes)

• What kind of work is this?

• How many pages?

• Who wrote it?

• What is the title?

• Based on the title, what is the paper about?

• How many sections?

• Based on the section headings, what is the debate the paper engages in?

Multiple Choice

What kind of work is this?

• A book

• A research paper

• A journal's article

• A monograph

Open Ended

Who wrote it?

Open Ended

How many pages?

Multiple Choice

Based on the title, what is the paper about?

• Episthemology

• Philosophy of science

• History of philosophy

Mining, Searching, Scanning (5 minutes)

Now it is time carefully to read the abstract, if there is one. Answer the following questions based on a selective scanning, searching, and mining of the text.

Mining, Searching, Scanning (5 minutes)

• What is the central claim defended?

• Who is the main opponent? What is the main argument?

• Is there a technical innovation that makes this argument possible?

• Does the paper make a negative or a positive point? (Or both?)

• Does the author consider objections to the main argument? If so, how many?

Multiple Choice

What is the central claim defended?

• Kant’s transcendental method considers the laws of physics as conditions of the possibility of experience

• There is no space for the concepts of physisc in the trascentental philosophy of Kant

• The project of laws of physics as conditions of possibility for an objective account of nature is central to the natural philosophy of newton

Multiple Choice

Does the paper make a positive or negative point?

• Positive

• Negative

• Both

Multiple Choice

Does the author consider objections to the main argument?

• Yes

• No

The Network Placement (5 minutes)

How is the text related your previous ideas and other texts? The network refers to the interrelationships between your knowledge and the rest of the world

The Network Placement

• What was new to me?

• What seems useful to remember?

• What other articles did I read that made a similar point or addressed a similar topic?

• Do I need to schedule reading this article in full?

Skim the Article to Find its Conclusion and Get a Sense of its Structure

• Pay special attention to the opening and closing paragraphs, since authors will often tell you there what they intend to be arguing for

• When you do figure out what the author's main conclusion is, try to restate it in your own words

Online Philosophy Research Tools

• https://www.researchgate.net/

• https://www.jstor.org/

• https://libguides.mit.edu/philosophy

• https://rdl.lib.uconn.edu/subjects/1961