| Core 102
History and the Modern World Roger Williams University T-F 2:00-3:30, T-F 3:30-5:00 CAS 207 Fall, 2001 |
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office: Feinstein College 110 Hours: M, T, Th, F. 9:00-10:00 or by appointment Phone (401) 254-3230 E-mail: mswanson@rwu.edu |
Examination 1. Due Tuesday, November 13
Instructions: Do all three parts.
Type and Double Space your answers.
Part 1. Below are twelve quotations extracted from the readings in The Democratic Idea. Identify the author and source of each quotation. Each quotation is from a unique source, but some authors may have more than one quotation represented.
| Q.1 | Again it is the people who bestow office on the deserving, the noblest reward of virtue in the state; the people have the power of approving or rejecting laws, and what is most important of all, they deliberate on the question of war and peace. |
| Q.2 | But it is even more possible that the public can enlighten itself. In fact, such enlightenment is virtually assured under conditions of freedom....The only thing needed for such enlightenment is freedom, and particularly....the freedom to make public use of one's reason in every case. |
| Q.3 | But where the laws rule, all--rich and poor, powerful and weak-- are equal before them. There the poor are able to speak the same language as the strong--the language of law and justice. |
| Q.4 | For who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty? She needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious; those are the shifts and the defenses that error uses against her power. |
| Q.5 | For this end we must be knit together as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection, we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities for the supply of other's necessities, we must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness gentleness, patience, and liberality, we must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work... |
| Q.6 | It is admitted that moderation and the mean are the best, and therefore it will clearly be best to possess the gifts of fortune in moderation; for in that condition of life men are most ready to follow rational principle. But he who greatly excels in beauty, strength, birth, or wealth, or on the other hand is very poor, very weak, or very much disgraced, finds it difficult to follow rational principle. |
| Q.7 | No private person has any right in any manner to prejudice another person in his civil enjoyments, because he is of another church or religion. All the rights and franchises that belong to him as a man, or as a denizen, are inviolably to be preserved to him. These are not the business of religion. |
| Q.8 | The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property; and the end why they choose and authorize a legislative is, that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the members of the society;.... Whensoever therefore the legislative shall endeavour to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience... |
| Q.9 | The great impediment to action is, in our opinion, not discussion, but the want of that knowledge which is gained by discussion preparatory to action. |
| Q.10 | The other kind of liberty I call civil or federal; it may also be termed moral, in reference to the covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the polite covenants and constitutions, amongst men themselves. This liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it; and it is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest. |
| Q.11 | Therefore, since there is nothing better than reason, and since it exists in both man and God, the first common possession of man and God is reason. But those who have reason in common must also have right reason in common, ans since right reason is Law, we must believe that men have Law in Common with the gods. Further, that share Law must also share justice;... |
| Q.12 | To this war of every man, against every man, this is also consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law: Where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues. |
| Author List |
| Aristotle |
| Cicero |
| Euripides |
| Hobbes |
| Kant |
| Locke |
| Milton |
| Pericles |
| Polybius |
| Winthrop |
Part 2:
Choose any three quotes, and in three short responses, (a) explain what they mean in your own words, and (b) whether you are in general agreement with the idea the quote contains, why, or why not. You shouldn't need more than c. 100-125 words for each of these. Note: make sure to sharpen your focus on the quote itself and not on the essay as a whole.
Part 3.
Write a short essay (3-4 pp.) in which you discuss the following proposition:Freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression are fundamental to any successful democracy.Incorporate ideas from as many of the readings in The Democratic Idea as you can. Hint: the best answers will make frequent references to the "R" word.