Study questions are available for each week's reading assignment. These are designed to help you focus your readings, and you should keep the questions in mind as you read each week's assignment. In order to help develop your writing and analytical skills, each week you will hand in a one-page typed response to one of the study questions. A good response will do two things: a) attempt to answer the question asked and b) raise some difficulty posed by the question you address. You do not, however, have to be narrowly confined by the study questions. If something else in the assigned text puzzles you or seems interesting or important to you, you may choose to address that issue. You might raise a question, make and objection or raise another possibility that the test does not address.
| WEEK # | TOPICS | STUDY QUESTIONS |
|---|---|---|
| THE ENLIGHTENMENT | ||
| Machiavelli | ||
| 1 and 2 | The New Understanding of Human Nature and Politics | |
| Hobbes | ||
| 3 | On Man | Week 3 Study Questions (PDF) |
| 4 | On Commonwealth | Week 4 Study Questions (PDF) |
| Locke | ||
| 5 | Contract | Week 5 Study Questions (PDF) |
| 6 | Legitimate Government | Week 6 Study Questions (PDF) |
| 7 | Freedom of Thought | Week 7 Study Questions (PDF) |
| LIBERTY AND AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONALISM | ||
| 8 | The American Founding | Week 8 Study Questions (PDF) |
| 9 | Liberty and Equality in America | Week 9 Study Questions (PDF) |
| STATESMANSHIP AND THE AMERICAN REGIME | ||
| 10 | Lincoln: A New Birth of Freedom? | Week 10 Study Questions (PDF) |
| A CRITIQUE OF ENLIGHTENMENT | ||
| Rousseau | ||
| 11 and 12 | Human Nature and Inequality | Weeks 11 and 12 Study Questions (PDF) |
| THE CRISIS OF MODERNITY | ||
| Nietzsche | ||
| 13 | A New Vision | Week 13 Study Questions (PDF) |