Philosophy 101
Introduction to Philosophy
Spring 2005
Citations
The paper assignment in this class asks you to Extract, Explain, and Evaluate an argument from a selection by Mark Mahin that I have supplied to you. Your paper must contain a full bibliographic reference to the book in which the Mahin selection appears. You may use one of the citation conventions below to do so. I hope that, when you write your paper, you do notuse any sources other than your lecture notes and the selection by Mahin. But if you do use other sources, you must use proper citations techniques. You must provide a full bibliographical citation for any work whose ideas you use, discuss, or criticize. More generally, you must cite an author or source if you present any idea that is not your own.
When Citations Are Required
You must cite a source in all of the following cases.
0. You present and critically evaluate an author’s work (e.g., Mahin’s argument).
1. Direct quotation: if you use an author’s own words, you must enclose those words in quotation marks and give a precise citation, with page number, immediately before or after the quotation. (Generally, it is better to avoid direct quotation. Do not use direct quotation when you are presenting an author’s argument in numbered premise-conclusion form. Use your own words.)
2. Paraphrases (restatements of an author’s idea using your own words): give a precise citation, with page number, immediately before or after the paraphrase.
3. Any time that you present an idea that is not original with you (even if this presentation is neither a direct quotation nor a paraphrase).
4. Any time that you present a theory or (alleged) fact that is not widely known (for example, a scientific theory or experimental result).
When in doubt, cite. If you have any questions about whether a citation is necessary, please ask.
Citation Conventions
Here are two common citation conventions. You may adopt either one.
Method 1
You can adopt the (name, date, page number) convention that is commonly used by the American Psychological Association. On this convention, the name, date, and page number are given in the main text in parentheses; a full bibliographical reference is given at the end of the paper. Examples: you could write the following.
Leibniz (1994, p. 105) asserts that there must be a sufficient reason for the world. Mackie (1994, p. 120) argues that God does not exist.
In a section labeled “Bibliography” at the end of your paper, you would have the following.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von. 1994. “On the Ultimate Origination of the Universe.” In Fred Feldman (Ed.), Introduction to Philosophy (Revised Version), pp. 105-110. New York: McGraw-Hill. Reprinted from Paul Schrecker and Anne Martin Schrecker (Trans.) Leibniz: Monadology and Other Essays, MacMillan (1965).
Mackie, J. L. 1994. “Evil and Omnipotence”. In Fred Feldman (Ed.), Introduction to Philosophy (Revised Version), pp. 120-128. New York: McGraw-Hill. Reprinted fromMind 54 (1955).
Method 2
You can place a footnote (or endnote) number at every place in the text where you make use of an author’s idea. For instance
Leibniz asserts that there must be a sufficient reason for the world.1 Mackie argues that God does not exist.2
At the bottom of that same page you would have a footnote, or at the end of the paper you would have endnotes that look as follows.
1Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von. 1994. “On the Ultimate Origination of the Universe.” In Fred Feldman (Ed.), Introduction to Philosophy (Revised Version), pp. 105-110. New York: McGraw-Hill. Reprinted from Paul Schrecker and Anne Martin Schrecker (Trans.) Leibniz: Monadology and Other Essays, MacMillan (1965).
2Mackie, J. L. 1994. “Evil and Omnipotence”. In Fred Feldman (Ed.), Introduction to Philosophy (Revised Version), pp. 120-128. New York: McGraw-Hill. Reprinted fromMind 54 (1955).
If you cite a single article or book more than once, you will need to use terms like op. cit. or ibid.
Citation of Class Lectures
I do not require you to present citations for material that you take from my class lectures. But feel free to do so, if you wish.
Citation of Material Retrieved from the Web
You must provide citations for material that you use from the Web. Citations of articles that donot appear in print or electronic journals should have the following form (either in a note or bibliography).
Author. Date of retrieval (or date of composition, if available). Title. Retrieved on <date> from <source: include both descriptive information of the source and a URL>.
For example,
Chalmers, David. 2003. “The Representational Character of Experience.” Retrieved July 30, 2003 from University of Arizona, David Chalmers’s Web site: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/papers/representation.html
Many papers or articles on the web have appeared in standard print journals. In these cases, you should both cite the print version and give retrieval information.
Braun, David. 1998. “Understanding Belief Reports.” Philosophical Review 107, pp. 555-595. Electronic Version. Retrieved July 30, 2003 from University of Rochester, David Braun’s Web site: http://www.ling.rochester.edu/~braun/Papers/belief.htm
For guidance about how to cite various other types of Web sources, see the following sites.
http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html
Frequent Citations of a Single Work
In the paper you write for this course, you will often need to refer to the selection from Mahin’s book. To do this, you may (1) place a full citation to Mahin’s work in your paper, using one of the above methods and (2) then adopt the convention of referring to the selection by name and/or page number alone, if you tell me that you are doing so. For example, you can write
Mahin presents an argument for the existence of God. (Mahin 1985, pp. 20-25; all further references to Mahin are to this passage.)
Or you could notify me that you are doing this in a note. After doing this, you can write things like “Mahin argues that . . .” without further citations. However, your paper must still contain a full citation to Mahin, using one of the above methods.
Questions?
If you have any questions about citations, please talk to me or Hye-Jung Oh.