This first paper will be a response/examination/analysis of any of the essays we’ve read up to this point in the class. This includes Plato’s Allegory, Bacon’s Four Idols, Douglass’s How I Learned to Read, Seneca’s Liberal and Vocational Studies, Martha Nussbaum’s Education for Profit/Democracy, and John Adams’s Eloquence is the Child of Liberty. That’s five essays. You may choose to write about one or perhaps do a comparison of two or analyze three or more.
PAPER DUE DATE: [DUE SUNDAY, JUNE 30], you’re asked to write a 3-4 page essay on any one of the authors we’ve read to date. You might consider one essay or compare two or discuss three or more as a set following a specific theme/idea. Consider the following possible paper topics:
1. Define Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” What is the central message? Is he describing education alone? Where does “politics” come in? This essay topic has several possibilities. You might break the Allegory down into parts, or break it into its themes [illusion, education, politics]. You might describe the “process” by which a person is educated–and what this process, in Plato’s vision, should lead to.
2. Compare the teachings of Plato with Francis Bacon [his “Four Idols” is now in the Plato module]. Read the first page of Bacon and you’ll get a basic understanding of what he meant. How are the ideas of Plato and Bacon similar? Different?
3. Analyze Douglass’s “Narrative,” describing how exactly he learned how to read and how he learned how to write. He learned how to read in three basic ways and he learned how to write in three basic ways. The essay is about stealing an “education.” How did he do it?
4. Write a division and analysis paper on Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative.” How is his essay designed? What is Douglass trying to teach us?
5. Compare Frederick Douglass “Narrative” with Plato’s “Allegory.” A person’s education is the product of several things. What does Plato suggest is the correct process? Does Douglass’s experience mirror what Plato writes about?
6. Discuss the concept of “rewards and punishments” in relation to either Plato or Douglass [you might add Bacon’s Four Idols and write a three part analysis]. We are rewarded by certain behaviors and punished by others. Discuss.
7. Do Douglass and Seneca share the same view of liberal education [the gaining of wisdom through knowledge]? Do they see education as important in the same way? Is it “wisdom” Douglass believes is necessary? Or are his views more practical? Are reading and writing, in fact, enough?
8. What does Seneca see as the distinguishing feature between liberal and vocational studies?
9. Seneca starts out by arguing that the “liberal studies” are themselves not necessary, though the “pursuit of wisdom” and its “high ideals” is the only meaningful discipline worthy of the name “liberal studies.” This is a thesis. Does he defend it well?
10. What are the divisions of the essay? How does Seneca design the essay? By what method? And does it work? Does he move methodically toward something? Does he stay with his idea?
11. Notice in paragraphs 3-6 Seneca lists a number of pursuits that do not result in wisdom but rather open the door to wisdom. What are these subsets? Does he make his point successfully? Is he focused on the original idea still?
12. In Seneca, Paragraph 7 studies the individual qualities of “character.” Why does he do this?
13. In Seneca, Paragraph 9 studies “wisdom” and its importance. What are the subsets of this paragraph? In other words, how does he develop the ideas?
14. In Seneca, Paragraphs 10-12 reflect upon useless knowledge, superfluous knowledge, and the intemperate and superfluous nature of some philosophers. These last few paragraphs strengthen the point of the essay—that liberal studies, though important, will not alone lead to wisdom. In fact, they can be ___________________, You decide the value of a liberal education.
15. Martha Nussbaum, in her remarkable essay on education in the US and India, comments that the US educational system is still relatively strong. Explain why she feels this is so. Does America aspire to education for “economic growth” or for “human development”?
16. In the head note to Nussbaum’s essay [on page 47] the editor Michael Austin writes, ‘Nussbaum argues that higher education should look to the Greek and Roman models of learning for inspiration [notably the arguments of Plato and Seneca]. Plato and Seneca, he adds, essentially argue that ‘education should encourage critical self-examination and prepare students to be citizens of the world.’ Explain this approach and why you feel it would work or not work.
17. Nussbaum asks, “What does it mean , then, for a nation to advance?” What is her answer for this?
18. Nussbaum compares the models for economic growth to models for human development. In both America and India, she says on page 50, policies have not been sufficiently rethought with ideas of human development in view. Explain what she means by this and what a nation might do to move toward an educational system that favors human development over economics.
19. Nussbaum discusses on the bottom of page 52 and the top of page 53 what essentially a paradigm geared only toward economic growth would look like. What would it look like, essentially?
20. Nussbaum outlines a series of bullet points on what a nation will need from its citizens to build a humane, people-sensitive democracy. Select a few of these and discuss them.
21. John Quincy Adams’s essay is short but loaded. He begins with a statement on page 147, “The only birthplace of eloquence therefore must be a free state.” Explain what he means by this and how he goes on to defend this idea.
22. Adams writes, “Between authority and obedience there can be no deliberation.” This suggests that obedience to authority limits a person’s ability to “deliberate.” What does this mean and how does he defend this idea?
23. In the last paragraph of Adams’s short essay, he argues that the “powers of speech” are the “inseparable companions” of freedom. He then asks the reader to consider what the logician might argue–[what eloquence is] and to “answer” him. What are the things the logician might rgue and what does Adams ask the reader to answer him/her with?
24. Write a division/analysis paper on three or more of these authors. What does each author argue [in relation to one idea].
25. See the sets of QUESTIONS/CONNECTIONS at the END OF EACH CHAPTER and select one to write a paper on. Please indicate if you’ve chosen this as your paper idea.
