Short Answer Questions
(class 16)

Notes:

1) This assignment, like ALL assignments in this class, must be typed. See handout on class expectations

2) You MUST use blackboard's digital dropbox (details here) to submit this homework; if you do not use microsoft word, be sure to follow these directions

3 ) BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE FILE-NAMING CONVENTIONS FOR THIS COURSE.

All files should be saved on your computer as: your last name, followed by an underscore ("_"), followed by the first two letters of your first name, followed by an underscore ("_"), followed by the assignment number. So if a student named Saddam Hussein were to submit assignment number 16, the file name would be:

hussein_sa_16.doc

THIS IS ASSIGNMENT 16

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Be absolutely sure to put your answers in your own words. If you find yourself relying on the authors' words, you may not understand the material yet. Read the relevant passages again until you can discuss the issues in your own words. Although the readings this week are short, the material can be complex; if you have questions be sure to e-mail or call me. As always, better to ask me a question than turn in work that doesn't reflect your potential as a student. I will give no credit to answers that merely repeat the authors' words; persuade me that you understand the reading!

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I will grade only 2 questions from the 5 below; I will certainly grade question number 5, and I will choose one additional question from the previous four at random to grade. Any question you do not answer will, however, immediately become one of the questions I grade.

1) Carefully describe the process by which global trade helped foster the Enlightenment in Europe. By "the process by which" I mean here the chain of interrelated events that connects global trade to the birth of the Enlightenment thought.

USE YOUR OWN WORDS

 

Some Help in Answering Question #1: Phrases you might not know from the reading: "patronage networks": the social networks of individuals and institutions willing to pay for cultural and intellectual productions. "dynastic court": the circle of officials that surround a family line of kings and queens. hint: It will be hard to answer question #1 without knowing the answers to the three subquestions -- A, B & C -- below. Be sure you know how to answer these sub-questions before you answer question 1. I am not expecting you to formally answer the sub-questions A, B & C, but knowledge of their answers is required to answer question 1 (which I will expect you to answer). Subquestions A, B, & C A) Before roughly 1750, who patronized cultural production in Europe? B) After roughly 1750, who patronized cultural production; HOW AND WHY DID THE TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE PRODUCED BY THIS SOCIAL GROUP DIFFER FROM THE KNOWLEDGE PRODUCED BY THE SOCIAL GROUP BEFORE 1750? C) What is the relationship between world trade and the changes in patronage networks?

2) Carefully describe three reasons why might we describe Enlightenment thinkers as a threat to the political order of the period. Be sure your answer explains how and why.

USE YOUR OWN WORDS

3) Taking the section on the Enlightenment as whole (pp. 179 - 186), carefully describe 3 principle and distinctive assumptions of this new way of thinking THAT WERE SHARED BY MOST IF NOT ALL OF THE THINKERS. By assumptions, I mean here beliefs that Enlightenment thinkers both took to be true and that structured their thought or worldview. You, for example, probably assume things like (A) the world is round (B) college will improve your job prospects (C) stealing is wrong.

USE YOUR OWN WORDS

4) (a 2 part question) (A) Why and how did so many social thinkers in this period come to seek "natural" laws for human behavior and (B) why and how did assumptions about the existence of such "natural" laws encourage European ethno-centrism regarding the fate of non-Europeans societies? Your answer needs to explain why, once Europeans believed that societies evolved according to the "laws" of nature that they (the Europeans) had discovered, they increasingly viewed fate of non-Europeans societies through an ethno-centric lense.

USE YOUR OWN WORDS

5) Taking the section on the Enlightenment as whole (pp. 179 - 186), was the Enlightenment primarily the product of (A) new scientific discoveries or (B) of social changes in Europe? (worth 80 rather than 20 points)

Respond to question 5 with a paragraph or two. Organize this paragraph around a claim that summarizes your argument (for example: "The Enlightenment was primarily the product of X rather than Y for reasons A, B and C.") Then support your claim with evidence, including examples as necessary (and available to you from the readings). After supplying evidence for your claim, write a warrant that links your evidence to your claim regarding the origin of the Enlightenment. Finally, you must label your claim/evidence/warrant: put a (CL) before your claim, a (EV) before your evidence, and a (WA) before your warrant. USE YOUR OWN WORDS

Be sure your answer explains why your reader should believe you that the Enlightment was primarily caused by A rather than B or B rather than A.

Note: if you don't identify your claim/evidence/warrant, you will not receive credit for this exercise.