Fall Term Examination

The Fall Term exam is going to look substantially as follows.  After you've had a chance to look at it I may revise some of the questions so that they are more clear for you.

 

Humanities Seminar 2009-2010

Fall Term Examination

You have options for how you go about producing this exam.  Regardless of which questions you choose to answer, you may prepare outlines, make notes, or write down quotes that you want to use as evidence provided that you turn all of these items in with your written exam.

Respond to EITHER question 1 or question 2 (30 points), then EITHER question 3 or question  4 (30 points), then EITHER of the case studies (40 points).

1.  Attached is an excerpt from To The Lighthouse:  Lily Briscoe is engaged in conversation with Paul Rayley during the dinner party that takes place toward the end of Part I.  Place the passage in dramatic context, then identify and discuss three specific moments in the passage that are related to larger themes in the novel.

2.  Attached is an excerpt from Pride and Prejudice in which Lady Catherine is engaged in conversation with Elizabeth Bennett.  Place the passage in dramatic context, then identify and discuss three specific moments in the passage that are related to larger themes in the novel. 

3.  Making explicit reference to Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and to the readings, viewings, and conversations that informed our recent debates about “good food,” please design from scratch a food system that reflects your values about food and food production.  You may conduct your thought experiment as an extension of the “tropical island” discussion we had in class or you may define some other set of circumstances.  Regardless of where you imagine your system, your thought experiment must: A) identify at least three values you hold about food and food production; B) identify the values that are in tension with yours and why you rejected them; C) explain how the values you hold are reflected in the system you design.

4.  Attached is an excerpt from the Meno, a dialogue of Plato.  Making specific reference to this excerpt (paragraphs are numbered for your convenience), discuss ONE prominent feature of EACH of the following:

a) Plato’s methodology;

b) the principles that govern his life and work;

c) his theories about the nature of the universe and its relationship to human existence. 

You may also find it useful to refer to or draw upon your knowledge of the other dialogues of Plato we have read. 

Fall Term Examination 2009-2010

Case Study Options

1.  Imagine this:  you are walking down a street in a major city and observe a single adult sleeping on a sidewalk grate.

The Task:  draw upon material studied this term to make sense of what you have just observed.  The perspectives of the Existentialists, Austen, Woolf, Plato, and Rousseau offer differing approaches to making sense of what you’ve observed; draw upon and compare at least three of these perspectives in your presentation.  You may present your findings in writing or in other formats appropriate for the project.  You may work in pairs.  Your completed project must be turned in at the scheduled exam period, free from technical difficulties.

2.  Read the full text of President Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech (10 Dec 09).  You’ll notice that early in the speech President Obama makes explicit reference (“…Over time, as codes of law sought to control violence within groups, so did philosophers, clerics, and statesmen seek to regulate the destructive power of war….”) to contributions made by philosophers to questions of war and peace.  As you continue to read, you’ll also notice that his overall ethical stance toward war and peace is grounded in one of the philosophies we studied this fall.

Which one is it?  Is President Obama drawing most heavily upon the existentialists, on Plato, or on Rousseau in this speech?  Does he explicitly or implicitly reject the other two? 

Make specific reference to the speech itself in your written response, as well as to the philosopher(s) you identify as most important. 

 

The REVISED VERSION of the exam can be downloaded below:

Download Fall Term Exam 2009-2010

Comments

[Jeannie]

In question 4 and in the second case study, is it the idea that we would read these documents ahead of time? Is that allowed/suggested/cheating? Thanks.

[Todd Sumner]

Jeannie, in question 4 (as in questions 1&2) i will provide a short xeroxed passage from the Meno that one would read during the exam period. Regarding the Obama case study, one would in fact follow the link to the speech and read it in advance, identifying the quotes you want to use and so forth. One could even print out a copy to use during the exam, etc, but because it's about 8 pages long one would want to have read it prior to the exam period in order to economize the available time.

[Alice]

in the first 2 options. when you say "dramatic context" does that mean you just want us to talk about the conversation in context? how does the "dramatic" part play in?

[Steph]

How long are you expecting these to be? I think that we talked about this in class, but it is still unclear to me.

[Jeannie]

I would like clarification on what we're supposed to write about for the second case study. As it is phrased currently, I could answer the assignment in two words. In most of our writing assignments, you use a phrase like "explain," or "compare," or "make sense of." Could you add a sentence that uses a phrase like that to help me know what I should elaborate on? Thanks.

[Ali]

I can't seem to find the rousseau notes on here.
would you mind posting them if they're not up, or reminding me where they are?

thanks

[Steph]

Ali, I'm not sure if these are the ones you're talking about, but there are some Rousseau notes if you go under "Archives" then "November 2009" then go to the bottom.

[Todd Sumner]

Alice, dramatic context (as opposed to other forms of context) means where does the moment happen in the "story" of the novel. Steph, the pieces should be as long as they need to be to answer the question. Ali, are those the notes you were looking for? Jeannie: how about "evaluate the speech with an eye toward which of the traditions we studied is featured most prominently; discuss the extent to which the other two are explicitly or implicitly rejected."

[Jeannie]

Thanks! I think that between this and our conversation I have a better handle on how to approach it.

[Sam]

Mr. Sumner, fyi i would be another interested in a Six Degrees of Separation topic on the exam.

[zrap]

Now that I have done some more thinking. I would really like to write about six degrees of separation on the exam.