Critical Summaries – Textual Exegesis 3-5 Pages

Critical Summaries – Textual Exegesis 3-5 Pages

imes New Roman. Font 12. 1 inch margin This assignment is an adaptation of what is referred to in philosophy as a textual exegesis. A summary or exegesis is essentially a tool to help you in the task of careful and critical reading. The habit of critical analysis will serve you in everything you read. You might make it a practice to continue writing such summaries for your own benefit even when you are not required to turn them in! What follows are some tips on how to go about it.A good piece of philosophical writing can generally be seen as an attempt to give reasons for believing a thesis. Your summary should do two things:1. Analyse the argument and exhibit its structure. For a simple exegesis, this suffices.2. If required, give a critical assessment of it.This assignment asks you to do both. 1. To exhibit the structure of an argument, you will distinguish: Premises (the propositions that the argument requires you to accept at the outset), and conclusions (the thesis that the author is trying to get you to agree with). Premises a. State the premises (the presuppositions or assumptions that the author requires you to accept at the outset of the argument). Refer to the specific quotation or quotations where you find this in the piece. Include the page number of the quotation(s). b. State in your own words as well what the premises mean. Conclusions Pick out all and only the main points. Use a Top-Down approach: in other words, first ask yourself what, in a sentence or two, is the point of the whole passage or article. In your summary, you can start with that brief statement. Then go on to each principal part of the argument, and repeat the process until you have got down to a level of detail adequate for the space available in your summary. If the passage is very long, there will obviously have to be less detail. But mastery of a text requires the ability to summarize it to any desired length. When something remains unclear, don’t gloss it over, but draw attention to it. Pick out any difficulty of interpretation. Don’t be afraid of admitting that you don’t understand something, but try to say as clearly as possible what you find difficult to understand, and why. You might offer an alternative interpretations to the difficult passage. 2. To give a critical assessment of the piece, make very clear when you are no longer stating what the author says, but have come to your own critical assessment. At this point, indicate briefly whether and why you think the premises and assumptions you have been asked to accept are true or false, plausible or implausible. It is always a useful exercise to try as hard as you can to find good reasons to disagree with what a writer says, especially if you agree. Conversely, if you disagree with the conclusion, try hard to make up an independent defense of it. It is generally a good idea to assume that the authors you read are often wrong, but not that they are idiots. 3. In your assessment of the argument, consider these questions: o Is one or more of the premises false (if so, this makes the argument unsound). o Does the conclusion follow from the premises (if not, this makes the argument invalid). A strictly invalid argument can still be a good argument – It is the premises that are faulty or weak. o Does the argument rely on assumptions that are unacceptable, or arbitrary, or debatable? o Does the argument contain crucial ambiguities? (An ambiguous word or phrase is one that has more than one possible meaning. This can foul up an argument!) o Is rhetoric substituted for argument at some crucial stage? (e.g. That couldn’t be true, because if it were it would be too sad.) In addition, point out anything about the logic of the substance of the argument that seems especially interesting. It can be interesting because you strongly agree or because you strongly disagree. In either case, you should try briefly to justify your view. Reading for a summary and writing one is not easy. You should omit all the scholarly, decorative, and rhetorical features of an essay. This means: no introduction; no generalities; no background material; no footnotes; no bibliography; no quotations (except when the precise wording needs to be discussed); no purple prose or fancy phrases. Remember: you are not writing an essay. Suggested outline for your assignment: A. Structure of the argument 1. State the premises of the argument 2. State the conclusions B. Critical Assessment 1. Assessment of the validity of the premises or assumptions 2. Your assessment of whether the argument is a good one or bad one. Do you agree or disagree with the argument and on what basis? Are the premises plausible? Does the argument follow from the premises? Are there ambiguities in the argument? C. Interesting aspects of the argument 1. Point out any aspects of the argument and its logic that you find interesting. Text provided.

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