Essay Assignment 
due Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Prof. Dowden, Space and Time


     Write an essay that discusses the philosophical issues involving time in the attached
story of a botched suicide.   Show some evidence of having understood what Le Poidevin has
said on these issues in his book Travels in Four Dimensions; The Enigmas of Space and Time. 
Do outside research to enrich your discussion and to support your position.


     Your essay should be about eight pages typed double-space, counting the cover page. 
Begin your essay with a cover page that includes your essay title, your name, my name, the
course number, plus an abstract of 150-200 words that summarizes the issues you discuss
and the principal positions you defend or explore.  Use 8.5 x 11 inch standard paper, with a 12
point type size.  Use page numbers.  Don't bother placing your essay in a special folder.  Just
staple the pages together.
     Depth of philosophical insight and quality of argumentation are the paramount factors
in the grade on the essay, but English writing skill is a significant factor. 
     Write an academic paper.  That is, use a professional academic style; don't be chatty
or poetic or using flowery language; don't make non-academic jokes.  Be clear; don't confuse
your reader.  You should consider yourself to be a philosopher writing this essay to other
philosophers.  Assume that your reader can think well philosophically, but may not be familiar
with your specific topic.
     You are required to give credit to other authors from whom you receive significant
ideas.  If your paper repeats word for word what someone else has said, then place those
words within quotation marks and give a footnote indicating where the reader can go to double
check.  For large quotes, skip the quotation marks and indent the passage.  If your paper
contains someone else's ideas that aren't normally considered to be common knowledge in the
philosophical community, and if you are not directly quoting that person, then add a footnote
indicating where the person presented the ideas.  Do not give every paragraph a footnote.  A
footnote is assumed not to refer back to more than one paragraph unless you say something
to the contrary such as "The position on a priori truth in these three paragraphs originated in
the work of G. Frege, The Nature of A Priori Truth, pp. 98-101."
     The single most helpful, yet easy, way to improve your essay is to complete it; let it cool
for two days; then re-read it as if you are a new reader.  Then revise your essay.
     More extensive tips on writing philosophy papers are available on the Philosophy
Department's web page at http://www.csus.edu/phil/req/writing.htm
     Late essays are accepted but with a penalty of one-third of a letter grade for each 24
hour period after noon on the due date.  Submit late essays as soon as possible by email to
dowden@csus.edu with the subject line of "Space and Time essay" so my spam filter won't
dump your email into my Delete Folder.  If the essay is late, you don't need to turn in a paper
copy of the essay, but do make sure you get an email answer (this shouldn't take over one
day) saying your late essay was received.
LIBA 205, Phil. 192D
Prof. Dowden


                       A Botched Suicide

You are very depressed. You are suicidally depressed. You have a gun. But
you do not quite have the courage to point the gun at yourself and kill
yourself in this way. If only someone else would kill you, that would be a
good thing. But you can't really ask someone to kill you. That wouldn't be
fair. You decide that if you remain this depressed and you find a time
machine, you will travel back in time to just about now, and kill your earlier
self. That would be good. In that way you even would get rid of the
depressing time you will spend between now and when you would get into
that time machine. You start to muse about the coherence of this idea, when
something amazing happens. 

Out of nowhere you suddenly see someone coming towards you with a gun
pointed at you. In fact he looks very much like you, except that he is
bleeding badly from his left eye, and can barely stand up straight. You are at
peace. You look straight at him, calmly. He shoots. You feel a searing pain
in your left eye. 

Your mind is in chaos.  You stagger around and accidentally enter a strange
looking cubicle. You drift off into unconsciousness. After a while, you can
not tell how long, you drift back into consciousness and stagger out of the
cubicle. You see someone in the distance looking at you calmly and
fixedly. You realize that it is your younger self. He looks straight at you. You
are in terrible pain. You have to end this, you have to kill him, really kill
him once and for all. You shoot him, but your eyesight is so bad that your
aim is off. You do not kill him, you merely damage his left eye. He
staggers off. You fall to the ground in agony, and decide to study the
paradoxes of time travel more seriously. 

							[Frank Arntzenius and Tim Maudlin]