Topic 1: Titles

PHI332 : The Class : Essays : Titles

Topic 1: Titles

Not all essays in health care ethics defend a thesis. Some essays make it their goal merely to explore an issue or raise questions without taking sides (for example, "'Experimental' Pregnancy" p. 544). Such exploratory essays often contain arguments, usually paired pro and con on an issue, but they do not defend one main thesis overall.

On the other hand, some essays have titles that clearly signal the thesis that will be defended. For example, Goldman's title, "The Refutation of Medical Paternalism," (p. 59) tells us to expect his main thesis to be something like "Medical paternalism is refuted." By the way (make a note to yourself!) when you write your research paper, you will pick this sort of title, a title that tells what your main thesis is.

Some titles ask questions, like Katz's "Informed Consent-Must It Remain a Fairy Tale?" (p. 86). When a title asks a question, the essay might be either exploratory or thesis-defending. If the essay defends a thesis, we can expect the thesis to be either a yes or no answer to the question raised in the title.

Our text, in addition, contains selections that are not essays at all:

Chronicles (that is, histories), for example Burton's "A Chronicle: Dax's Case As It Happened" (p. 174).
Transcripts, for example "Transcript of Proceedings: Testimony of Mary C. Northern" (p. 174).
Historical documents, for example "The Hippocratic Oath" (p. 55).

All of these selections are there to provide background information to the reader. They may contain arguments, but they are not, taken as a whole, an argument.

Legal opinion--for example "Arato v. Avedon" (p. 77)--will contain argument defending a judicial "opinion" or thesis. But the title in such case never tells you what the thesis is.

To complete this topic successfully, do as many of the following exercises as you find necessary to acquire the relevant skill. You have acquired the relevant skill when your answers to exercises are reliably either the same as the given answers or are alternative answers you can explain and defend:

ASSIGNMENT 1: Exercise3.1.1

Once you have completed this module you should:

Go on to Topic 2: Introductory Sections
or
Go back to Argument ID in Essays

E-mail George Rudebusch at George.Rudebusch@nau.edu
or call (520) 523-7091