Writing a Professional Philosophy Paper From Start to Finish

A Step-by-Step Look at How The Sausage Is Made

I'm sitting in on a class the University of Waterloo over the next two semesters on the fairly broad philosophical topic of Autonomy. As many, perhaps even most, defenses of Medical Aid in Dying rely on some kind of commitment to the exercise of individual autonomy, you can imagine how this class might tickle my fancy. While I'm not officially enrolled and thus am not required to complete the course assignments, I've decided to do the main work of the class, which is to produce a high quality piece of philosophical writing.

The class is a pro-seminar, which means that part of its goal is to teach graduate students to do the independent work that professional philosophers do every day. The paper, then, is written over two terms, with the first term focused on the pre-writing and research for the paper, and the second semester focused on the actual writing of the paper itself.

Doing-The-Research component requires doing a lot of critical reading of extant academic and public philosophy on the chosen subject, which, in turn, requires a certain among of note-taking and question-raising, often without obvious answers

Over the next few months, paid subscribers will have the opportunity to see my paper-writing process up close. For each paper I read, my readers will be able to see my thought-process, including all my notes and questions pertaining to each paper I read. Readers will also have access to rough drafts of the paper as I write it, along with the opportunity to provide comments on each post.

For only $5/mth, you can see all the nitty gritty details on how the sausage is made. Not only will you get the inside scoop, but you'll be able to make comments and suggestions, which will shape the course of the final product.

I’ll be starting with a paper by Ben Colburn, written in 2013, in which he claims to show that privileging autonomy in medical aid in dying situations creates a paradox. According to Colburn, autonomy cannot be respected if there are no other good options available. He claims that, in most medical aid in dying cases, the individuals choosing to die meaningfully feel that they have no other options. Therefore, if we say that someone exercises their individual autonomy by choosing to end their life with MAID, we do so in an autonomy-undermining situation, namely where there are no other meaningful options.

If you want to jump into this longterm journey with me, make sure you subscribe today as I’ll be posting my notes about the Colburn paper within the next few days.