Hailey Schaeffer

Professor Graves

LANG 120

11/10/17

Comparing Philosophical Styles of Writing

Even though philosophy is thought of as a single discipline, when it comes to

writing, there are many differences in how the authors choose to communicate their

main ideas or arguments. I will analyze and compare several articles I have read

from different sources to show how the authors compare their ideas in different

manors.

Robert Frodeman calls the first article I read Philosophy Dedisciplined. This

essay delves into the shortcomings of disciplinary philosophy, the most prominent

form of academic philosophy in the twentieth century across the United States. This

essay in and of itself is an argument against the aberration that disciplinary

philosophy is seen as in comparison with the traditional Western philosophy that

had been the go-to for two-thousand years. As dedisciplined philosophy, this type of

education is a possible way to incorporate the more theoretical and institutional

parts of philosophy. This essay is based on the results of a survey sent to ...500

philosophy departments across North America in the summer of 2010. The author

of this article uses visual aids, graphs, and data to support his argument. He uses

many short paragraphs, mainly in first person. He also asks rhetorical questions,

such as could Philosophy experience a like fate? Frodeman also shows the
counterargument in his writing, along with quoting other philosophers and reliable

sources to make his argument appear to be legitimate.

The next article I will analyze is Atheist in a Foxhole. David Rnnegard is an

atheist philosopher, researcher, and teacher in a corporate social responsibility in

Stockholm. In this article, Ronnegard shares his opinions on what he believes

religion and the meaning of life and death to be. This is a very opinion-based article,

but it can be read by anyone. Struggling with lung cancer does not stop his desire to

live life fully. He values the life he has at the moment, because he does not believe in

an afterlife. Although he is not Christian and does not believe in god, life after death,

or a sort of heaven, Ronnegard occasionally quotes examples from the bible to

explain himself. He mentions that his own life has been grounded on rational

thought and empirical evidence. This article is also mainly written in first person,

however seems to be more personal than factual. Ronnegard has seem to make

philosophy more of a personal journey rather than a professional approach. He

incorporates religion into philosophy due to the personal nature of his work and utilizes

other rhetorical strategies in the attempt to connect to the reader on a more personal level.

The last article I will talk about is called Studies in Analytic Philosophy in

China. This piece of scholarly literature details the shortcomings of Chinas approach

to analytical philosophy. The argument contained within this article depicts a sort of

old-fashioned approach to philosophy. One that is centered not on the traditionally

western approach to philosophy, which has major emphasis on the analytical but

rather the more Chinese approach of maintaining philosophical works that are

often full of superficial descriptions and categorical judgments of the philosopher

under discussion. While criticizing the Chinese approach to philosophy, Jiang Yi

also touches upon the potential pitfalls of western philosophy including the over-

emphasized importance of analytical and logical approaches to philosophy.

Comparing Atheist in a Foxhole and the article Studies of Analytical

Philosophy in China, not many similarities are prevalent. In fact, more differences

are obvious than commonalities. For example, the publisher of the Atheist in a

Foxhole is a magazine article company whereas the Studies of Analytical Philosophy

in China can be found on the JSTOR website. Also the Studies of Analytical

Philosophy in China is written as a scholarly article as opposed to the blog-like

article of Atheist in a Foxhole. When looking at a comparison of philosophers styles

of writing there were some correlations between Philosophy Dedisciplined and

Atheist in a foxhole. One of these similarities includes being able to maintain a first

person narrative while also sustaining credibility and a small sense of objectivism.

Also the two of these have visual aids and graphs to help support the main

argument. Both of the afore mentioned articles also utilize rhetorical questions to

help engage the reader. As much as these articles are alike, the fact remains that

they are fundamentally different. For example, Atheist in a Foxhole was a very

personal story and within that, a journey of self-discovery. On the other hand

philosophy Dedisciplined primarily shows counterarguments and provides more

legitimate resources of information in order to justify their reasoning. Lastly, in

comparison of Philosophy Dedisciplined and the Studies of Analytical Philosophy in

China, the point was made that they too do not have much in common, excepting the

fact that they both use rhetorical questions to emphasize the importance of their
individual perspectives. One example of rhetoric from Philosophy Dedisciplined

includes could philosophy experience a like fate? On the other hand, the Studies of

Analytical Philosophy in China utilizes rhetoric such like both Chinese traditional

philosophy and modern philosophical trends possibly trying to state that the

Chinese are somehow the originals and that this modern philosophy is something

that might not stick around.

 Sources Cited

Frodeman, Robert. Philosophy Dedisciplined. Synthese, vol. 190, no. 11, 2012, pp.

19171936., doi:10.1007/s11229-012-0181-0.

Jiang, Yi, and Tongdong Bai. Studies in Analytic Philosophy in China. Synthese, vol. 175, no.

1, 2009, pp. 312., doi:10.1007/s11229-009-9534-8.

Rnnegard, David. Atheist In A Foxhole. Philosophy Now: a Magazine of Ideas,

philosophynow.org/issues/105/Atheist_In_A_Foxhole.