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)