Help with my Philosophy EE

[felipedolo]

Hello everybody, I'm thinking in writing a philosphy EE about Nietzsche's critic to Plato's theory of ideas and use of reason, being those ideas the cause of the nihilism in the modern western philosophy. The problem here is that I don't know how to make a title with this theme, or how should I develop this investigation problem.

Got any ideas?

[Sandwich]

When you say 'about' Nietzsche's critique, what do you actually mean? The thing with Philosophy EEs is they have to be argumentative and not descriptive. So you've got to be making an argument for or against something, really. You couldn't just narrate Nietzsche's criticisms, for instance. So you have to try to come up with some kind of way to make it incisive. I also don't quite understand your english in "being those ideas the cause of the nihilism in the modern western philosophy" - ??

 

Also for anybody doing a Philosophy EE I strongly recommend you read both the subject-specific part of the EE guide AND also google 50 Excellent Extended Essays and make sure you read all the Philosophy ones. In my opinion, those are the most valuable resource for understanding exactly what the IB want from Philosophy EEs. If you try to emulate one of those in terms of approach and style, you're onto a winner

[felipedolo]

I've actually read them, and I've read the IB guide for the Philosophy EE, but yet I don't understand exactly the approach one may give to it.

Should it be like: you've got to select a theme, and then create an own argument based on another's philosopher ideas, articles, and sources in general or am I wrong?

@Sandwich

[Sandwich]

Erm well it's hard to explain the approach in any way better than actually reading it done well. Maybe re-read the Philosophy Excellent EEs?? It's basically an analytical approach to anything philosophical - selecting themes or whatever is irrelevant. You just pick your topic, it can be anything, provided it's suitably philosophical. I don't know how better to describe it other than suggest you re-read the essays and think about the kinds of question they asked and how they addressed it, how they broke it down etc. then try and find a topic that you think you could analyse with that same kind of approach. If you still don't understand the approach despite reading multiple excellent examples of approaches, then maybe not do a Philosophy EE!

 

If you don't get the style and direction right, you can end up scoring really badly.