<p>I’m deciding between Philosophy and English. I’m equally torn between them, and have decided to make the following the deal breaker: do most Philosophy papers require library research, or do most of them require you to respond purely from your own analysis and opinions? I prefer the latter and I want to get better at it. The few philosophy courses I’ve taken so far require no research at all; they consist mainly of breaking down arguments, evaluating them, comparing them to another set of arguments, etc. I find it a more creative, thoughtful process and can’t get enough of it.</p>
<p>Philosophy papers aren’t research papers, they’re argument papers. Personal opinion is relevant only to the extent that you can support that opinion, and refute opposing opinions, with sound reasoning.</p>
<p>You will definitely need to do some research, especially when you are writing arguments. Namely, you will need to reference arguments made by other philosophers. Writing a good philosophy paper requires original argument and researched argument together. It sounds like you’ve taken mainly introductory courses.</p>
<p>Any upper-level class that requires writing papers is going to require some sort of research/source.</p>