A strong philosophy essay moves from a precise philosophical question through a careful reconstruction of the strongest existing arguments on each side, presents a defended position with explicit premises and conclusions, addresses the strongest objections from the literature with reasoned replies, and closes with a measured statement of what the essay has and has not established, all in Chicago Manual of Style notes and bibliography or APA seventh edition format. This hub gathers our philosophy essay examples, argumentative philosophy paper walk throughs, close readings of canonical texts, ethics and applied ethics case analyses, metaphysics and epistemology exposition essays, philosophy of mind and philosophy of science essays, political philosophy and philosophy of law essays, AP philosophy of mind preparation where it appears, and senior and graduate seminar paper support across analytic continental and non Western philosophical traditions.
How philosophy students use this hub
Undergraduate philosophy majors take an introduction to philosophy that introduces the major fields and the basic argumentative methods, an introduction to logic that introduces propositional and predicate logic with truth tables and the standard natural deduction system, a survey of the history of ancient philosophy from the pre Socratics through Plato Aristotle and the Hellenistic schools, a survey of the history of modern philosophy from Descartes through Hume and Kant, and a slate of subfield courses including ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, philosophy of law, political philosophy, aesthetics, and feminist philosophy. Honors and graduate students add nineteenth and twentieth century continental philosophy from Hegel through Husserl Heidegger and the Frankfurt School, advanced logic including modal and intensional logic, and a senior or master of arts thesis on a focused argumentative question.
Our philosophy resources are organized around this curriculum with worked philosophy essays for major topics across all subfields, close readings of canonical texts at the depth a senior or graduate seminar requires, applied ethics case analyses for medical bioethics environmental ethics business ethics and engineering ethics, and a curated bank of paper topics organized by subfield era and tradition. High school students preparing for International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge essays and the IB Philosophy higher level paper one and paper two reach for our practice essay packs and the worked exemplars scored against the IB published rubric.
Writers on the philosophy desk hold at least a master of arts in philosophy with sixty nine percent carrying an earned doctorate in a specific subfield. For short turnaround essays, argument reconstructions and discussion board posts we recommend the homework help desk tutoring resources. For senior theses, master of arts theses, doctoral seminar papers and journal article drafts we recommend the dissertation writing service homework help for students.
Argument reconstruction and close reading method
Argument reconstruction is the foundational practice of analytic philosophy writing. Our argument reconstruction walk throughs work through the canonical anchor of the relevant text, identifying the explicit premises and conclusions, the implicit premises that the argument requires, the inferential moves between premises and conclusions, the validity and soundness assessment of each step, and the dialectical position of the argument in relation to the broader literature. Each reconstruction closes with a critical engagement that identifies the most plausible point of attack and either presses the objection or rebuts it on behalf of the original argument.
Worked argument reconstructions on our shelf include Anselm's ontological argument with attention to the Gaunilo objection and the Kant objection that existence is not a real predicate; the cosmological argument across the Aquinas Leibniz Clarke and Craig formulations with attention to the principle of sufficient reason and the modal versions; the design argument across the Paley Hume and contemporary fine tuning formulations; the Kantian moral law derivation in the Groundwork with attention to the categorical imperative formulations; the Mill principle of utility argument and the contemporary preference utilitarian and rule utilitarian developments; the Rawlsian original position argument for the two principles of justice; the Nozick experience machine argument against hedonism; the Singer argument for our obligations to distant strangers; and the Thomson violinist argument on abortion.
Philosophy essay structure and Chicago Manual of Style
The standard philosophy essay structure on this hub introduces the philosophical question and the dialectical situation in the first paragraph, presents a precise thesis at the end of the introduction that names the position the essay will defend and the reason structure the essay will offer, then proceeds through body sections that each open with a clear claim, develop with careful argument and citation of the relevant texts and secondary literature, and close with a statement of what the section has established. The argument body is followed by an explicit objections section that names the strongest objection from the relevant literature, presents it in its strongest form, and offers a reasoned reply. The conclusion does not merely restate the thesis but states with measured precision what the essay has and has not established and points toward the next dialectical move.
Chicago Manual of Style notes and bibliography is the dominant citation format in the philosophy discipline and is the format used in journals such as Ethics, the Philosophical Review and the Journal of Philosophy. The seventeenth edition format includes footnotes or endnotes for every quotation paraphrase or specific attributable claim, with the first citation giving the full bibliographic information and subsequent citations using a shortened form, and a complete bibliography at the end of the paper organized alphabetically by author with the modern Chicago elements. APA seventh edition with author date in text citations and a hanging indent reference list is supported and is more common in philosophy of mind and cognitive science adjacent essays. Citations to canonical texts use the standard Stephanus pagination for Plato, the Bekker numbers for Aristotle, the AT pagination for Descartes, and the Akademie Ausgabe pagination for Kant, with the translator and edition given in the bibliography.
Ethics and applied ethics case analyses
Ethics content on this hub covers the canonical normative theories that any philosophy student is expected to recognize and apply. Consequentialism is presented from Bentham and Mill through the contemporary preference utilitarianism of Singer and the rule consequentialism of Hooker with attention to the standard objections including the demandingness objection the integrity objection from Williams and the separateness of persons objection from Rawls. Deontology is presented from Kant in the Groundwork and Critique of Practical Reason through the contemporary deontological positions of Korsgaard Wood and the canonical Foot and Thomson trolley problem essays with attention to the doctrine of double effect and the act omission distinction. Virtue ethics is presented from Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics through the contemporary neo Aristotelian positions of Anscombe MacIntyre Foot and Hursthouse with attention to the eudaimonia framing and the role of character and practical wisdom.
Contractualism is presented from Hobbes Locke Rousseau and Kant through the contemporary positions of Rawls Scanlon and Gauthier with attention to the contractualist criterion of justifiability to all affected. Care ethics is presented from Gilligan Noddings and Held with attention to the relational frame and the critique of impartialist ethics. Worked applied ethics case analyses on our shelf include medical bioethics cases on informed consent end of life decision making organ allocation and the recent gene editing debate; environmental ethics cases on intergenerational justice the precautionary principle and the rights of nature debate; business ethics cases on shareholder versus stakeholder theories whistleblowing and corporate moral responsibility; and engineering ethics cases on the Challenger and Columbia disasters the Volkswagen emissions scandal and the recent algorithmic accountability debate.
Metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of mind
Metaphysics content on this hub covers the canonical questions of ontology and modality. The realism nominalism debate on universals is presented from Plato through Aristotle the medieval realist conceptualist and nominalist positions and the contemporary Lewisian and Armstrong positions. Personal identity is presented through the Locke memory criterion the contemporary psychological continuity views of Parfit and Shoemaker and the animalist views of Olson and Snowdon. Free will is presented through the libertarian positions of Kane and van Inwagen the compatibilist positions of Frankfurt and Fischer the hard incompatibilist positions of Pereboom and the contemporary work on moral responsibility. Time and modality are presented through the Lewisian modal realism the Plantinga and Stalnaker positions on possible worlds and the contemporary metaphysics of time including presentism eternalism and the growing block view.
Epistemology content covers the analysis of knowledge from the Theaetetus through the Gettier counterexamples to the contemporary safety sensitivity virtue and contextualist responses; the internalism externalism debate from Goldman through BonJour and Pryor; the foundationalism coherentism reliabilism debate; the canonical skeptical arguments including the Cartesian dream argument the brain in a vat scenario and the contemporary radical skepticism of Stroud; and the social epistemology and testimony work of Coady and Lackey. Philosophy of mind content covers the mind body problem from Descartes through the identity theory of Smart and Place the functionalism of Putnam and Block the eliminative materialism of Churchland the property dualism of Chalmers and the contemporary integrated information theory and global workspace theory accounts; consciousness with attention to the hard problem and the Mary thought experiment of Jackson; mental content from Putnam Burge and Fodor through the contemporary internalism externalism debate; and the canonical zombie argument and the recent work on neural correlates of consciousness.
Political philosophy and philosophy of law
Political philosophy content on this hub covers the canonical questions of justice authority and democratic theory. The liberal egalitarian tradition is presented from Locke through Rawls Nagel and Cohen with attention to the original position the difference principle and the luck egalitarianism debate. The libertarian tradition is presented from Locke through Nozick Hayek and Narveson with attention to the entitlement theory the night watchman state and the contemporary self ownership debate. The communitarian critique is presented from Sandel MacIntyre Taylor and Walzer with attention to the encumbered self and the spheres of justice. The democratic theory tradition is presented from Schumpeter through Dahl Habermas Estlund and Christiano with attention to the aggregative and the deliberative conceptions of democracy.
The capabilities approach is presented from Sen and Nussbaum with attention to the central human capabilities and the contrast with the resourcist and welfarist approaches to justice. Critical race theory and feminist political philosophy are presented through Mills Pateman Crenshaw and Anderson with attention to the racial contract the sexual contract intersectionality and the relational equality view. Philosophy of law content covers the canonical positions of natural law theory through Aquinas and Finnis the legal positivism of Bentham Austin Hart and Raz the legal interpretivism of Dworkin and the legal realism of Holmes and Llewellyn with worked applications to constitutional interpretation statutory interpretation and the canonical hard cases including Riggs versus Palmer and Henningsen versus Bloomfield Motors.
Philosophy of science, philosophy of language and continental philosophy
Philosophy of science content covers the canonical demarcation criterion debate from the Vienna Circle and Popper through Kuhn Lakatos and Laudan with attention to the falsifiability criterion the paradigm shift account and the contemporary work of Chang and Massimi; scientific realism through Putnam Boyd and Psillos with attention to the no miracles argument and the pessimistic meta induction; explanation through Hempel Salmon and Kitcher with attention to the deductive nomological the statistical relevance and the unification accounts; the philosophy of physics with attention to the interpretation of quantum mechanics and the foundations of statistical mechanics; the philosophy of biology with attention to the species concept the evolutionary explanation and the recent work on extended evolutionary synthesis; and the philosophy of social science with attention to the methodological individualism methodological holism debate. Philosophy of language content covers the canonical Frege Russell Quine Kripke and Kaplan positions on reference meaning and necessity with worked applications to the canonical puzzles including the morning star evening star case and the Twin Earth thought experiment.
Continental philosophy content covers the canonical traditions that any philosophy student is expected to recognize. Phenomenology is presented from Husserl through Heidegger Merleau Ponty and Sartre with close readings of Being and Time the Phenomenology of Perception and Being and Nothingness. Hermeneutics is presented from Schleiermacher through Dilthey Heidegger Gadamer and Ricoeur with close readings of Truth and Method and the canonical hermeneutic circle. The Frankfurt School is presented from Horkheimer and Adorno through Marcuse Habermas and Honneth with close readings of Dialectic of Enlightenment and the Theory of Communicative Action. Poststructuralism is presented from Saussure through Derrida Foucault and Deleuze with close readings of Of Grammatology Discipline and Punish and Difference and Repetition. The contemporary speculative realist and new materialist positions are presented at the depth a graduate continental seminar requires.
Senior thesis and graduate seminar papers
The senior thesis or graduate seminar paper is the dominant credit eligible deliverable for philosophy majors and graduate students. Our deliverables include a complete proposal with the philosophical question, the dialectical situation, the position to be defended, and the chapter outline; an annotated bibliography writing guide with at least twenty primary and secondary sources from the relevant peer reviewed philosophy literature; a literature review essay help chapter situating the project in the relevant scholarly conversation; body chapters that develop the argument through careful argument reconstruction and engagement with the relevant texts; and a conclusion that states with measured precision what the thesis has and has not established. Common credit eligible deliverables include a complete senior thesis of forty to ninety pages, a graduate seminar paper of fifteen to thirty pages with a focused argument and at least twenty cited sources, an argumentative philosophy paper of three to seven pages with one focused argument, an argument reconstruction of two to four pages, an applied ethics case analysis of three to six pages, and a critical book review for a journal section.
How we choose writers and reviewers
Philosophy writers on this hub hold at least a master of arts in philosophy with sixty nine percent carrying an earned doctorate in a specific subfield. Roughly one in five have published at least one peer reviewed article in a journal indexed by the Philosopher Index or PhilPapers. Reviewers carry an earned doctorate and serve on a graduate program qualifying examination committee or have published in Ethics, the Philosophical Review, the Journal of Philosophy, Mind, Nous, the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy and Public Affairs or a top subfield journal. Every deliverable is audited twice. The first audit verifies argumentative accuracy and faithful engagement with the cited texts and secondary literature. The second audit verifies Chicago Manual of Style or APA seventh edition formatting conformity, citation accuracy against the cited sources including the standard Stephanus Bekker AT and Akademie pagination for canonical texts, and the absence of factual errors about author positions arguments or canonical scholarly disagreements.
Our author for this hub is Dr. Henry Whitfield, PhD Comparative Literature and Writing Studies, Humanities Editorial Lead, with broad coverage across literature history philosophy and writing studies and direct teaching experience in argumentative essay research papers instruction at the upper division undergraduate level. Our reviewer is Dr. Clara Bennett, PhD Behavioral and Social Sciences, Social Sciences and Business Editorial Lead, with cross domain experience reviewing political philosophy and ethics work for engagement with the contemporary social and behavioral science evidence that bears on normative arguments. Every section of this hub has been verified against the current Chicago Manual of Style seventeenth edition, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries on the relevant topics, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the most recent International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge and Philosophy course guides as of April 2026.
Reviews and ratings
- "The argumentative essay on the Singer argument for our obligations to distant strangers reconstructed the original 1972 argument carefully, addressed the demandingness objection from the contemporary literature, and presented a measured reply that conceded part of the objection while preserving the core conclusion. My ethics professor used my essay as the model in the next class." Senior philosophy major, ethics seminar. Rating 5 out of 5.
- "The close reading of the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals handled the three formulations of the categorical imperative correctly with citation to the Akademie pagination and engagement with the contemporary Korsgaard reading. My professor said my essay was at the publishable graduate seminar level." Senior philosophy major, Kant seminar. Rating 5 out of 5.
- "The applied ethics case analysis on the gene editing debate after the He Jiankui announcement applied the principlist Beauchamp and Childress framework correctly, addressed the Habermas argument about the moralization of human nature, and presented a measured position. My bioethics professor accepted the essay without revision." MA bioethics student, applied ethics seminar. Rating 5 out of 5.
- "The argument reconstruction of the Gettier counterexample to the justified true belief analysis of knowledge correctly identified the disjunction structure of Smith's belief and engaged the contemporary safety condition response from Sosa and Pritchard. My epistemology professor commented on the rigor." Senior philosophy major, epistemology seminar. Rating 4 out of 5.
- "The senior thesis chapter on the Rawlsian original position argument integrated the Theory of Justice text with the contemporary Cohen and Nagel critiques, used the Akademie pagination correctly for Kant, and was formatted in Chicago Manual of Style seventeenth edition. My advisor approved the chapter on the first read." Senior philosophy major, capstone project. Rating 5 out of 5.
References and further reading
- The Chicago Manual of Style. Seventeenth edition. The University of Chicago Press.
- American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Seventh edition.
- The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University Center for the Study of Language and Information.
- The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge.
- Rawls J. A Theory of Justice. Revised edition. Harvard University Press.
- Nozick R. Anarchy State and Utopia. Basic Books.
- Kant I. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge University Press, Wood translation.
- Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Hackett, Crisp translation.
- Plato. Republic. Hackett, Reeve translation.
- Descartes R. Meditations on First Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, Cottingham translation.
- Beauchamp TL and Childress JF. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. Eighth edition. Oxford University Press.
- International Baccalaureate Organization. Theory of Knowledge and Philosophy Course Guides. Current editions.