Editing Suggestions (PDF)
Assignments
Debate Resolution
“By the end of the seventeenth century, the English had developed an alternative to absolute monarchy, ended the authority of the Church in politics and society, and recognized the need for state-supported scientific research. In essence, by 1700 England had created the first modern, secular, science and technology-driven society.”
Format
Round 1
- Pro side presents its argument (5-7 minutes)
- Con side presents its argument (5-7 minutes)
5-minute break to prepare rebuttals
Round 2
- Con side presents its rebuttal (3-5 minutes)
- Pro side presents its rebuttal (3-5 minutes)
5-minute break for debaters and audience to prepare questions
Round 3
- Questions from debaters and audience (15 minutes)
5-minute break to prepare closing statements
Round 4
- Closing statements by con and pro sides, in that order (3 minutes each)
- Vote by class to determine winner
- Awarding of “Age of Reason”-themed prize!
Debate teams may want to meet ahead of time to prepare the arguments they will use during the debate. Teams should also anticipate their opponent’s arguments and questions from the floor, and prepare rebuttal points. Each team should designate ahead of time who will a) deliver the opening argument; b) deliver the rebuttal; c) respond to questions; and d) make the closing statement. Each speaker should stand when presenting an argument or rebuttal, and should speak slowly and clearly. If possible, practice your presentations before the day of the debate. Finally, at the start of the debate each participant is required to turn in a single-sided, one page position statement. Each team member will be graded individually.
Requirements
- Please write a five-page paper in response to ONE of the topics below. The text should be double-spaced. Do not skip extra spaces between paragraphs. A hard-copy version of the paper is due Ses #5.
- Your paper must be computer-processed. Please give your paper a title, and write your name on the back of the last page. Do not write your name elsewhere on the paper. All pages should be numbered. Refer to the editing handout, posted on the website, for further editing suggestions. You may also consult with tutors at the Writing Center or with me about your paper.
- Citations to texts read in this course should be made in parentheses in your paper. For example, if you refer to a passage on page 13 of Descartes’ Discourse, indicate this in the following manner at the end of your sentence, after the period: (Descartes, 13). Full citations to any work not assigned in class should be made in footnote or endnote form, but for this paper you do not need to consult any outside readings.
Topics
- Why were people in the town of Dole and the surrounding Franche-Comté prepared to believe that Huguette Roy was repeatedly visited by the spirit of Leonarde Colin in 1628? [N.B. The more you site specific examples from the seventeenth-century account of the events, the more compelling your argument will be.]
- It is the early 1640s; imagine you are René Descartes. Someone sends you a manuscript copy detailing a curious ghost story entitled “The Apparition of a Spirit;” the incident in question supposedly happened in a town in the Franche-Comté in 1628. Write an essay intended for general circulation or a letter to an acquaintance in which you critique the way the clerical figures in the story examined Huguette Roy, then explain how you would have investigated the events described in the manuscript. Your critique of the clerics and your proposals for investigating the events should be consistent with Cartesian epistemology as expressed in the Discourse on Method.
Debate Resolution
“Taken together, the authors of the French Enlightenment we have studied (Voltaire; Montesquieu; La Mettrie; Diderot, d’Alembert and their collaborators on the Encyclopédie; and Rousseau) outline a coherent and reasonable plan for the reform of eighteenth-century politics, education, society and manufacturing.”
Format
Round 1
- Pro side presents its argument (5-7 minutes)
- Con side presents its argument (5-7 minutes)
5-minute break to prepare rebuttals
Round 2
- Con side presents its rebuttal (3-5 minutes)
- Pro side presents its rebuttal (3-5 minutes)
5-minute break for debaters and audience to prepare questions
Round 3
- Questions from debaters and audience (15 minutes)
5-minute break to prepare closing statements
Round 4
- Closing statements by con and pro sides, in that order (3 minutes each)
- Vote by class to determine winner
- Awarding of “Age of Reason”-themed prize!
Debate teams may want to meet ahead of time to prepare the arguments they will use during the debate. Teams should also anticipate their opponent’s arguments and questions from the floor, and prepare rebuttal points. Each team should designate ahead of time who will a) deliver the opening argument; b) deliver the rebuttal; c) respond to questions; and d) make the closing statement. Each speaker should stand when presenting an argument or rebuttal, and should speak slowly and clearly. If possible, practice your presentations before the day of the debate. Finally, at the start of the debate each participant is required to turn in a single-sided, one page position statement. Each team member will be graded individually.
Requirements
- Please write a five-page paper in response to ONE of the topics below. The text should be double-spaced. Do not skip extra spaces between paragraphs. A hard-copy version of the paper is due Ses #13.
- Your paper must be computer-processed. Please give your paper a title, and write your name on the back of the last page. Do not write your name elsewhere on the paper. All pages should be numbered. Refer to the editing handout, posted on the web site, for further editing suggestions. You may also consult with tutors at the Writing Center or with me about your paper.
- Citations to texts read in this course should be made in parentheses in your paper. For example, if you refer to a passage on page 13 of Descartes’ Discourse, indicate this in the following manner at the end of your sentence, after the period: (Descartes, 13). Full citations to any work not assigned in class should be made in footnote or endnote form, but for this paper in most cases you do not need to consult outside readings.
Topics
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“Sir Isaac Newton was the last of the great early modern humanist theologians, not the first modern scientist.” Write an essay in which you defend this proposition. You may wish to use material available online at “The Newton Project” to develop your argument; the link is available on the “materials” page of the web site. You may not use other online sources.
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In what ways is the author of the excerpts you have read from the Theological-Political Treatise a follower of René Descartes? In what ways does he break with Cartesian thought and method as outlined in the Discourse on Method?
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Imagine you are a college student in Amsterdam in 1670. You have just read a clandestinely circulated, anonymous manuscript entitled Theological-Political Treatise. The somewhat scruffy instructor who slipped this work to you under the table hints that it was written by a heretical Jew named Baruch Spinoza. The same ill-kempt teacher then gives you the following assignment:
“How would the author of the Theological-Political Treatise evaluate ONE of the following two seventeenth-century English political debates: 1) the arguments of Thomas Rainsborough, William Ireton and others at Putney in 1647 concerning the extent of participation in politics by the English people; or 2) the arguments of John Locke and Roger L’Estrange on the relations between Church and State.”
Requirements
- Please write a ten-page paper in response to ONE of the topics below. Please note that if you have not proposed a topic in response to questions three, four, or five below by Ses #22, you must write on question one or two. The text should be double-spaced. Do not skip extra spaces between paragraphs. A hard-copy version of the paper is due at the beginning of the final session.
- Your paper must be computer-processed. Please give your paper a title, and write your name on the back of the last page. Do not write your name elsewhere on the paper. All pages should be numbered. Refer to the editing handout, posted on the web site, for further editing suggestions. You may also consult with tutors at the Writing Center or with me about your paper.
- Citations to texts read in this course should be made in parentheses in your paper. For example, if you refer to a passage on page 13 of Descartes’ Discourse, indicate this in the following manner at the end of your sentence, after the period: (Descartes, 13). Full citations to any work not assigned in class should be made in footnote or endnote form, but for this paper in most cases you do not need to consult outside readings.
Topics
- Write an essay in which you agree or disagree with the following statement:
“Developments in Europe during the Age of Reason suggest that humans are created inherently unequal, and any political system that attempts to even out these inequalities is doomed to failure and civil war.” Successful essays will draw on a broad array of seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth-century readings and events we have encountered in our readings this term.
- Write an essay in which you agree or disagree with the following statement:
“Developments in Europe during the Age of Reason suggest that a belief in a deity as the originator of human life is the necessary precondition for a stable, successful political community.” Successful essays will draw on a broad array of seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth-century readings and events we have encountered in our readings this term.
- Analyze a primary source from our period that we have not discussed in class.
- Possibilities include literature, plays, essays, paintings, sculpture, or architecture of the period. Do not hesitate to ask me for recommendations if you wish to work on a primary source but do not have a specific one in mind. You should consult the list of primary and secondary sources on the web site (“Primary and Secondary Source Bibliography”), although you are not limited to the works listed there. Discuss the content and style of the work, and place it in the context of themes we have discussed this semester. If you choose this option, you must get my approval for the source by Ses #22.
- Read a secondary monograph on a topic of interest that you would like to explore in greater depth. For example, you may wish to read more about the life of a writer, artist, or political figure from the period. Or you may want to learn more about natural philosophy or political thought during the Age of Reason. Consult the list of primary and secondary sources on the web site, although you are not limited to the works listed there. (“Primary and Secondary Source Bibliography”) Once you have read the monograph, write a paper in which you summarize the work’s argument in not more than one or two pages, then place it in the context of the themes we have been discussing. DO NOT WRITE A BOOK REPORT! To locate a secondary work, you may also consult the bibliographies at the end of each chapter in Hunt, et al., The Making of the West, or you may ask me for suggestions. If you choose this option, you must get my approval for the monograph by Ses #22.
- Propose your own final paper topic. You must submit the topic for my approval by Ses #22.
Paper Suggestions (PDF)
Course Info
Learning Resource Types
assignment
Written Assignments
