Civilization and Its Discontents write a 2- to 3-paragraph blog post in which you respond to Freud’s premise that any form of government is, ultimately, repressive of human nature. Be a minimum of 300 words (no maximum)
The final writing assignment for the course is a summary integration paper. Here, you are asked to develop your own personal integration statement, guided by our course readings. You should to begin with the Johnson chapter on “Integration: the 5 views” and the handout titled, “Integration-worldviews”, adding in any ideas and concepts from our other […]
1. What is the character of human nature? 2. What is the relation of humankind to nature? 3. What is the orientation toward time? 4. What is the value placed on activity? 5. What is the relationship of people to each other
In a short paragraph, identify at least one metaphor in our required reading from the Book of Mencius in which Mencius uses this metaphor to describe his concept of human nature. 1. How does Mencius disagree with the philosopher, Gaozi (Kao-tzu), in this discussion? 2. That is, what is the distinction between Gaozi’s and Mencius’s […]
What is Martin Gardner’s argument for the objectivist view of art? Do you agree? Why or why not? Use Vaughn’s textbook to help you explain Gardner’s theory and its strengths and weaknesses. Choose an object, performance, or piece of writing as an example, and explain whether Gardner’s theory would classify the object as Art. Do […]
Book: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Topic: What is one of the universal messages the novel conveys? In other words, what is the central idea, which is unified around the characters and the plot? Theme is not a topic nor Hallmark card; it should be expressed as a sentence about human nature.
Questions: Hobbes describes what he calls the “natural condition” of human beings living amongst one another. Explain what you think he means by this expression. What does this “condition” include and not include in terms of the relationship of those in it to the natural world and to each other? What does he mean when […]
Participant Observation and Understanding “Human Nature” Summarize the readings, what brings them together, and what have you learned from discussions.
So Human, So Chimp Description The goal of this activity is to reflect on human nature, what makes human similar and/or different from other species, and the role of culture in evolution. Step 1. Watch the video (16 min) “So Human, So Chimp” It is a segment of a three-part PBS series titled “What is […]
TOPIC: Based on your studies during the semester in this class, what have you learned about human nature? In other words, based on a consideration of the topics covered this semester (from Old Regime to Totalitarianism), what generalizations can you make about what motivates human beings (what do we love, what do we fear, what […]
