SAN DIEGO MESA COLLEGE
PHIL 125
CRN: 62707
FALL 2015
INSTRUCTOR: PROF. NINA ROSENSTAND
PHILOSOPHY OF WOMEN
1st RESEARCH PAPER: TOPICS
DUE DATE: Oct.21. Late papers accepted Oct.26, with -3 point penalty
FORMAT OF PAPER: 2 ½ - 4 typed, double-spaced pages on one of the subjects below. The paper topics
require at least one outside scholarly source. Sources may be chosen from one of the unassigned texts in your
textbook, or from the LRC collection: books and periodicals, other collections, reputable Internet sources, etc.
(Wikipedia is not a scholarly source, but an acceptable additional source.) For each quote or reference you must
have a footnote or endnote, even if you are only referring to the textbooks. Any standard reference method will be
accepted (MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style). The quotes and footnotes/endnotes are in addition to the 2 ½ - 4
pages (a page of text excerpt or endnotes doesn't qualify as one of the pages). The paper cannot be submitted
by e-mail. You MUST keep a copy (hard copy and electronic if applicable) of your paper! Max. points: 50 (The 2 nd
research paper will also be worth max. 50 points.)
HOW-TO? Express yourself in your own words whenever possible, and save the quotes for very important phrases
which you would like to leave the way the author expressed them. Don't "pad" your paper with quotes, and never
put a quote in a paper without any explanation. You must follow up and explain why you think the quote is
important.
I. THE GODDESS TRADITION AND ITS DECLINE
Give an account of the Goddess tradition and its decline according to Eisler and Lerner, and assess their
projects critically (= evaluate: what are their goals? Do they achieve them in a scholarly manner? Do you
agree with their arguments? Your essay should include an analysis of Lerner’s three stages from goddess
to god.) At least one additional scholarly/historic source is mandatory; you may use as many as you like.
II WOMEN IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY
Give an account of the role of women in early Christianity based on Letters of St. Paul, Eisler ( The Chalice
and the Blade Ch.9) and The Gnostic Gospels excerpt by Elaine Pagels, including Pagels’s theory of the
role of Mary Magdalene. At least one additional scholarly/historic source is mandatory; you may use as
many as you like.
III. ROLES OF WOMEN IN A NON-WESTERN CULTURAL TRADITION
Give an account of women’s social roles within a non-Western cultural tradition from within the past 300
years; you may choose material from Paula Gunn Allen and/or Mary Shepardson (American Indian
women’s roles), or you may do independent research into another culture or subculture. You need at
least 2 scholarly sources.
PLAGIARISM POLICY:
Plagiarism will result in an F for the assignment, and will be reported acc. to SDCCD regulations.
What is plagiarism in a research paper? Copying from someone else’s paper; having someone else write your
paper; copying/quoting from an outside source (such as a book, a journal, or a webpage/other Internet source), or
from the textbook, without stating the source. Changing a word here and there is not sufficient! Whenever you quote
or use information from a text other than your own, the proper procedure is to reference it.