Examples of Practice and Feedback

Questions from the Week IV On-Line Assignment:
In analyzing the historical significance of documents from the past, it is very important to make explicit the assumptions that the author is making about the world and human nature. These assumptions may not be explicitly stated, and it may be necessary to pose questions of our own or to compare a document with one by another author to deduce what lies beneath an author's argument. Therefore, this week we will be focusing on making explicit the assumptions Hobbes and Mill made in their discussions of the proper role of the state and society in regulating conflict and competition.

1) Analyzing Hobbes' Assumptions

A. It is usually best to be sure that one understands a thinker's literal position before trying to make explicit what remains implicit in his or her argument. Therefore, begin by responding to the questions below about Hobbes argument.

• According to Hobbes, what was human life like before society was formed?
• According to Hobbes, what motivated our ancestors to form a society in the first place?
• Why did Hobbes believe that individuals can never have the right to revolt against their leaders?

B . Making explicit some of Hobbes assumptions.

1. In the space below indicate one assumption that Hobbes makes about human nature.
2. In the space below provide a short passage in which this assumption is implicit
3. Page number in reader:
4. In the space below explain what in this passage convinces you that Hobbes is making this assumption.
5. In the space below indicate one assumption that Hobbes makes about what the lives of early humans must have been like.
6. In the space below provide a short passage in which this assumption is implicit
7. Page number in reader:
8. In the space below explain what in this passage convinces you that Hobbes is making this assumption.

C. Comparing Hobbes assumptions with a different way of thinking

Imagine that Hobbes was brought back to life, a century after his death, and presented with this passage: from the Declaration of Independence :"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Briefly describe one assumption of Hobbes that would make him think that this passage was nonsense.

2) Making Mill's assumptions explicit.

A) Again, we must begin by restating Mill's position. What are three reasons that Mill argues that it is inappropriate for the majority to suppress the opinions of an individual?

1. First reason
2. Second reason
3. Third reason

B) Now we can move on to Mill's assumptions

1. In the box below describe an assumption about the nature of human beings that Mill does not share with Hobbes.
2. In the box below provide a brief passage from Mills in which you believe that this passage was implicit.
3. Page number in reader:
4. In the box below briefly explain what about this passage convinces you that Mill must have been making this assumption.

Question from the Assignment for Week 4B On-line Assignment
2) To produce an effective analysis of Victorian attitudes towards competition, you would need to go beyond just summarizing the positions of prominent intellectuals and discuss the deeper patterns that underlay these beliefs. One way to do this is to make explicit the values that made these ideas convincing to much of the reading public.

(By values we mean what makes a particular position desirable or undesirable. For example, a person opposed to government sponsored health care today might appeal to the values of independence and individualism. Someone supporting this policy might rest his or her argument on the values of safety from unexpected crises or of the collective responsibility to care for those who are less fortunate.)

A) In the box below enter a short passage (different than ones you used above) that captures some of the essential values underlying the defense of competition in Victorian Britain.

B. Describe what about this passage convinces you that this value is being appealed to by its author.

Questions from the Assignment for Week V On-line Assignment

Imagine that you were writing a paper comparing the attitudes towards economic competition in the defenders of capitalism (Smith, Smiles, etc.) and in its critics (Fourier, the Saint-Simonians, Marx and Engels). . . .

2) To produce an effective analysis of Victorian attitudes towards competition, you would need to go beyond just summarizing the positions of prominent intellectuals and discuss the deeper patterns that underlay these beliefs. One way to do this is to make explicit the values that made these ideas convincing to much of the reading public.

(By values we mean what makes a particular position desirable or undesirable. For example, a person opposed to government sponsored health care today might appeal to the values of independence and individualism. Someone supporting this policy might rest his or her argument on the values of safety from unexpected crises or of the collective responsibility to care for those who are less fortunate,)

A) In the box below enter a short passage (different than ones you used above) that captures some of the essential values underlying the defense of competition in Victorian Britain.

B. Describe what about this passage convinces you that this value is being appealed to by its author.

Questions from the Assignment for Week IX On-line Assignment
Imagine that you were writing a paper on the the shift of values involved in the growth of nationalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. . . .

3) Now we can begin to search for the values which led Treitschke to give such importance to the role of the state. This will be easier if we compare his values with those of an author that we read earlier in the course.
 A) Pick a short passage from Treitschke in which his values are particularly visible.
B) Pick a short passage from anyone we studied earlier in the semester which contains very different values.
C) In the box below describe one way in which the values underlying these two passages are different.
4) Friedrich List, writing in the 1840s came to very different conclusions about the desirability of allowing unrestricted trade with other countries than had Adam Smith seventy years earlier. Compare the selections from List in the reader with the passage from Smith passage linked here and think about their differences, both in terms of policy and in terms of basic values.
A) In the box below briefly describe the differences in the views of these two thinkers on whether nations should open their borders to trade with other countries.
B) Behind the differences in their opinions about policy lay differences in what each thinker values most highly.
In the box below enter a short passage form List in which his basic values are implicit.
Explain below what he is valuing most highly.
How are the imp]licit notion of what is desirable different in the passage from Smith?.
How have the differences in the values of Smith and List reflected in their prescriptions for national policies toward trade?

Questions from the Assignment for Week XI On-line Assignment

This week you will be working on a hypothetical paper comparing the attitudes of the opponents of war with the advocates of militarism that we studied in the previous week. To successfully create such a comparison, it will be necessary to go beyond the surface differences to explore the differences in the assumptions and values of the two groups.

1) As usual, it is best to get a good idea of the basic arguments, before you begin to try to unearth the implicit assumptions and values. One way to get a handle on this is to look at the variety of positions, being taken on each side of the argument.

a) In the spaces below present passages that contain three basic arguments against war that are present in the readings.

b) The authors that we read for this week all opposed war, but they came to this position from very different positions. Describe one basic difference between their essays on war. (This may involve a clear difference of opinion, or the two may have come to similar conclusions but based on different values or assumptions, or the two may express their ideas in a very different ways. Remember that just because two authors both speak out against war, it does not follow they have followed the same logical path or that they are focusing on the same negative aspects of war.)

Select passages from two opponents of war that demonstrate the differences in their positions.

Explain what about the passages suggests this difference.

2) Pick one pro-war source from week 10 and one anti-war source from week 11. You may chose essays, images, poems,or songs, and the two sources do not need to be in the same media.

a) Type the pro-war source here. (If you are using an image, briefly describe it.)

b) Type the anti-war source here (If you are using an image, briefly describe it.)

c) Describe the differences in the assumptions implicit in the two sources.

d) Explain what about the two sources convinces you that they rest upon different assumptions.

3) Pick one pro-war source from week 10 and one anti-war source from week 11. You may chose essays, images, poems, or songs, and the two sources do not need to be in the same media.

a) Type the pro-war source here. (If you are using an image, briefly describe it.)

b) Type the anti-war source here (If you are using an image, briefly describe it.)
c) Describe the differences in the values implicit in the two sources.

d) Explain what about the two sources convinces you that they rest upon different assumptions.

4) In a separate file compose a carefully, written thesis for a paper contrasting the values and assumptions of the supporters of war with those of its opponents. Go through several drafts until you are satisfied that you have developed a clear, convincing, and interesting thesis statement and copy it in the box below.

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