The topic is the following claim:

"Everyone has a unique private truth and a unique private reality."

Your task is to write a short polished essay (2 pages or so) critically analyzing this claim. The claim seems true in some ways, but false in other ways, doesn't it? I'd like you to clearly explain exactly how it's true, and how it's false. The readings for Part 1 of this class directly address this claim.

Please do not attempt to write ANYTHING on this topic until you have done the assigned readings for Part 1 and reviewed the guidelines for written work in the Syllabus. Your answer must reflect familiarity with the assigned readings, particularly the discussion of subjectivity and objectivity in metaphysics and epistemology.

Compose and polish your essay outside Angel, using your word processing program. The vast majority of students use MSWord. I can read MSWord files and insert comments within MSWord files, so I highly recommend that you use MSWord. Be sure to end your file name with .doc if it's a Word file.

If you don't have Microsoft Word, but you have a text editor that outputs text-only format or rich-text format (RTF), use that. Use .txt or .rtf as the file extension -- that will tell me what kind of file it is and I won't have to fiddle around trying to find something that works. Text-only format is like a typewriter -- no font changes, fancy graphics. RTF has a few more text enhancements (bold, italics).

Be sure your file is publicly readable AND writable. If you have set the file permissions to read-only, you will not receive any comments.

Name your file appropriately. Angel is picky about filenames, so be sure to give your file a name Angel will accept.

Angel will NOT ACCEPT filenames containing any of the following characters:

spaces, tabs, line feeds, carriage returns
: ~ [ ] ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) + ` } } | \ < > , ? / ; ' "

Please check the list of special characters above and make sure your filename doesn't contain any of these characters. NOTE: Microsoft and Apple operating systems allow spaces in file names. You MUST remove any spaces from file names before Angel will allow you to submit the file.

When you are ready to hand in your essay, start up Angel and find the Course Menu on the left side of your Angel screen. Click on Exams and Assignments, then Essay Assignments. A new screen will appear, listing all the essay assignments. Click on the appropriate assignment name.

A new screen appears with the options "Student Files" and "Submit Assignment." If you have composed your essay outside Angel, you need to upload it to Angel. This just means you have to transfer a copy of your essay to the Angel server. (Your essay will not be removed from your home machine.) Only after your essay is uploaded can you submit it. You must put your essay into what Angel calls the "Assignment Dropbox."

So to upload your essay, click on "Student Files" and follow the directions to copy the file into the Assignment Dropbox. THEN click on "Submit Assignment."

NOTE: You must submit essay assignments via the Assignment Dropbox. You CANNOT submit essay assignments by email. Do not send me your essay by email and expect me to put it in the Assignment Dropbox for you; Angel's password protection does not allow that. Furthermore, Angel's record-keeping system does not permit me to assign grades to anything that comes into Angel as email. Angel's record-keeping system allows me to record grades only for exams and papers submitted via Angel's expected channels.

It turns out you can't really read your files anymore once you've submitted them; in other words Angel APPEARS to garble most files. Angel thinks its job is done if it just transfers the bits; it can't display like MS Word. This is okay. Don't worry if you can't read your submission within Angel.

Grades and comments for essay assignments will be available no later than one week after the due date. To check your grade, look in "My Grades."