Answer any following questions, choosing as you like. Write 5-7 double-spaced pages total(not per question), using 12-point font; do not type the questions into your exam, just answer them.
Write clear and complete responses, and apply philosophical critical thinking tools and things you have learned from this semester and from your own research and experience. CITE YOUR TEXTS.
Quote enough from the readings of the syllabus to establish that you have done the work, but not so much that you are “padding” your response with quotes that are too long.
Work the material smoothly into your responses, and cite the reference in an endnote, no particularly formatting style is required.
Compare and contrast the two different versions of social contract theory one finds in Hobbes and Rousseau, noting how their different views on human nature led to different political visions.
How do 19th/20th century anarchists build on classical Greek notions of democracy? How can their theories (e.g., direct democracy) be used to improve greater democracy, freedom, and rights for women, people of color, and others still largely marginalized in current US society?
Apply the key ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X to the recent police killing of George Floyd and the resulting social unrest.
Apply one or two of the theories of justice you learned about this semester to a critical analysis of current racial and economic inequalities in the US.
What similarities can you find between Nietzsche and Freud’s critique of civilization? How do they or the primitivists disagree with Marx?
In what ways does Marx buy into and advance, rather than critical deconstruct, the narrative of social progress through the development of science, technology, and command over nature?
What are some of the varied alternative proposals to civilization? Which model – pro- or anti-civilization – do you find more attractive and/or plausible, and why?
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