Philosophers have tended to agree that there is some special relationship between mental states
and their characteristic behavior (e.g., between pain and wincing, groaning…, between anger,
and raising your voice, etc,.) but they have taken different views of the nature of that
relationship. Write a paper that compares and/or contrasts two different views of the relationship
between mental states and behavior (e.g., the behaviorist’s view and the functionalist’s view, the
behaviorist’s view and Putnam’s view in ‘Brains and Behavior’, etc.).
Length: 4-5 pages/1000-1400 words (100 words is fine; over 1400 is not.)
Advice:
• Focus on being clear, direct and accurate: don’t waste space on irrelevant information or
background information.
• Express your points as simply as you can: no flowery language or additional descriptive
language just for the sake of it.
• Write an outline for your paper: think about which points you need to include, and in which
order, in order to answer the prompt. Stick to the outline when writing the paper.
• Read your work aloud to yourself and think about whether you have clearly said what you
intended to say. Remember that writing is an act of communication: if someone else cannot
understand what you have in mind, you haven’t achieved your goal.
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