HR100B: Ideas that Shaped the West

The Dying of Transcendence

First Essay Assignment

The first essay is due at the beginning of class on Monday, October 25.

The paper is to be 7 double-spaced, typed pages with standard (1") margins (6 pages is the minimum requirement). The paper should be clear, concise, well-ordered, and precise in its presentation. Grammar and spelling will be taken into account in the grading of the paper. LATE PAPERS WILL NOT BE GRADED.

In the essay, you may address any of the texts that we are studying in the first half of the course-- "Everyman"; King Lear; Descartes's Meditations; Spinoza's Ethics; Paradise Lost; Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding; Pope's Essay on Man. We are keeping the topic open, and encouraging you to explore your interests-- the texts you find most compelling, and the issues that you consider most significant and compelling. You may focus on one text, or compare and contrast two texts. (Considering the complexity of all these texts, we would not recommend addressing more than two texts.) What is most important is that you analyze the text or texts closely, and organize your essay around a clear, central, argumentative thesis.

The paper is not a summary or a report. We expect your paper to explore a specific topic. This means that your paper must focus on a particular issue, problem, or critical point in the texts you choose. For example, if you choose to write on the shift from typological thinking to population thinking in evolutionary theory, a particular focus might be “How does the Shift from Typological Thinking to Population in Evolutionary Theory Change a Traditional Conception of God?” Your focus should be articulated in the form of a question, as in the example provided here. This question is to be both the title and the thesis of your paper. Your question must be examined critically. This means that the careful thinking you have done about your question should guide your analysis of the material. Your paper is, in effect, a response to your question. In addition, you should be able to formulate credible judgments about the material that reflect your understanding of it. We expect that your paper will be based solely on the texts on which you choose to write. We are most interested in the paper as a presentation of your own critical reflection.

Some of the topics you might consider are:

• Cartesian dualism vs. Spinozan monism
• Gender (for instance, in King Lear and/or Paradise Lost)
• Sympathy for the devil: the perspectives of the villains in King Lear and/or Paradise Lost
• The transcendence of dying: the moment of death (for instance, in Everyman and/or King Lear)
• The problem of free will
• Arguments for God
• Arguments against God
• Science and scientific thought
• The heroism-- or the futility-- of perseverance through adversity
• The role of art or the artist in the divine scheme-- or in an immanent world without transcendence