Help me pick a subject

[Artha]

I need to write a paper for English which is supposed to be a representation of the writing skills I've learned in high school. Writing it correctly won't be a problem, but I'm having the dickens of a time coming up with a topic. It's a research paper, but I can pretty safely stick to internet sources (excluding wikipedia :'()

I'd like to learn something.
I'd like to write about something of a philosophical nature (particularly existentialism or objectivism).
I'd like to use the words ergo, concordantly and vis-a-vis.
The paper's got to be ~5 pages long (double spaced).


TIA,
<3

[Parkbandit]

If you want to use those 3 words.. you must want to discuss the merits of the movie "The Matrix".

You are welcome.

[Asha]

Read any book by Paolo Coelho, and it won't take long becouse they're amazingly short.
That would cover you learning something, also would be covering something existential and all his topicsare of a debatable nature.
Seriously, a paper on either one of his books or his writing alone, would easily cover the bases you'd have covered at a high school level if not more.
Unless I'm reading this wrong and you need to be writing a paper about the writing skillz you've learned in high school. :shrug:

[HarmNone]

Here's a link to an Ayn Rand site that may give you some food for thought and result in an interesting subject for research and presentation. She has several concepts that could be elaborated upon, and all are a part of the philosophy of Objectivism.

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_intro

[Latrinsorm]

If you want to write about the Matrix but want to classy it up a little, write about the Experience Machine.

My suggestion is to write about Kant and the various ways he revolutionized everything.

[Artha]

Thanks HN, the Rand stuff's pretty interesting, it's easy to look back and see it all in play in Atlas Shrugged (as she kind of mentions). It's kind of interesting vis-a-vis her communist childhood.

And I don't want to write about the Matrix, but I try to write my papers as if they would be read by the Architect. Because that's how I roll.

[HarmNone]

Welcome, Artha. I found that page a few days ago and thought it was interesting reading. There should be a number of possibilities in there for a rousing topic for your research paper. :)

[Back]

One word. Nietzsche (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/).

[Kranar]

I'd like to write about something of a philosophical nature (particularly existentialism or objectivism).


Depends if you want something that's purely philosophical, or something that's scientific/mathematical but that has incredibly signficant implications on philosophy.

If you want something philosophical and also mathematical, might want to take a look at Kurt Godel's Incompleteness Theorem and its implication on the nature of truth. Some of the ideas you'd be exposed to are how neither mathematics nor any formal system can ever hope to define the concept of "truth." That really, mathematics has no solid and rigid footing on which to stand upon, and is subject to just the same fuzziness and uncertainty as anything else that can be studied.

If you want a philosophy and science combo, take a look at the Uncertainty Principle of quantum mechanics, Schrodinger's cat, and if you're really daring to explore some of the most mind boggling and profound concepts science has to offer, take a look at Bell's Theorem. All of these theorems and principles show how the entire concept of a definite and exact reality are false, and that events in the universe are nothing more than series of random variables that converge/collapse the instant that someone observes them.

If you've ever given thought to the question "Is the moon still there when no one is looking at it?" then you may be very surprised to learn the answer in studying quantum mechanics.

Also, don't feel intimidated if a lot of what you find at first on these issues is full of math symbols and other weird looking stuff. That stuff is important and establishes in concrete terms the validity and seriousness of the math and science behind the ideas, but there's also tons of material available with no math equations at all that explain these concepts in a wonderful way. There are great books such as "A Brief History of Time" "Godel, Escher, Bach" "The Mind's I" and heck just a mountain of good stuff available to read for the every day man who wants to begin to get an understanding of how facinating and counter-intuitive the universe we live in really is.

[Stanley Burrell]

Thanks HN, the Rand stuff's pretty interesting, it's easy to look back and see it all in play in Atlas Shrugged (as she kind of mentions). It's kind of interesting vis-a-vis her communist childhood.

And I don't want to write about the Matrix, but I try to write my papers as if they would be read by the Architect. Because that's how I roll.

If you've read some other Ayn Rand titles, I suggest Anthem over Atlas Shrugged... A lot.

[Miss X]

I'm with Backlash here! Been reading a bit about Nietzsche on and off for the past few weeks, leads you on to many others too. You could easily write 5+ pages on nihilism Vs any faith based religion I would imagine. Been a few years now since I did philosophy in undergrad but I definitely learnt a lot from it. :)