Unit 3 Essay

Choose one of the following (I , II or III). [Please note that after you have written the unit three essay, you may also turn in a revised version of the unit two essay (after I have graded it and returned it to you) for extrat credit]:

I. The Enlightenment on Survivor (4-6 pages, typed, one-and-a-half spaced)

More, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau are on "Survivor." The location is a small island in the South Pacific that has a small indigenous population. Recount their two month stay, including votes every two weeks to see who stays on the island. Be sure to include discussions of the follwing (see Enlightenment Chart):

  1. the state of nature
  2. human nature in the state of nature
  3. human nature in society
  4. natural law
  5. the social contract and the nature of civil society
  6. the proper form of government
  7. nature of government and leadership
  8. the right to revolt
  9. the relationship of citizens to ruler


II. Women and the French Revolution- The Declaration of the Rights of Women (4-6 pages, typed, one-and-a-half spaced)

Mary Wollstonecraft, Olympe de Gouges, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Marie-Jean de Condorcet, are in a Paris salon. They have been given the task of writing a section in the the new Constitution (1791) concerning women. To do so, they time travel to 1848 and bring back Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, the authors of the Declaration of Sentiments at the Seneca Falls Conference. Together, the four women and two men write a draft section for the new French Constitution. What was their conversation? What were their concerns? What sources did they use? What historical evidence? Finally, what did they write?

Sources:
Handout on the Enlightenment and Women's Rights
Jean Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse on Political Economy, 1755 (on women, family and property)
Jean–Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762 (on educating women)
Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789
Marquise de Condorcet, On Giving Women the Right of Citizenship, 1790
Olympe de Gouge, Declaration of the Rights of Women, 1791
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792
The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Conference, 1848

Jenifer D. Clark, Women in the French Revolution, 1991 (an essay at the Concord Review)

 

III. Essay on any of the thinkers listed above (4-6 pages, typed, one-and-a-half spaced)