If you have questions about any of this, please get in touch with me.  I'll be available throughout the weekend.

This is an online class, and I will construct the test to maximize the power of online learning. The test will have two sections. In the first, I’m going to ask you about some key terms we’ve dealt with so far this term, drawn from the readings and from the lectures. These are terms that you should have under control as we move through the rest of the course, and I will ask you not just to define them but to use them in a meaningful way.

In the second part of the test, I’m going to ask you to apply what we’ve been talking about. We’ve covered two very important periods in western throught, the Enlightenment and the Romantic era. I’ll present you with two fairly short pieces of writing from these periods and ask you to write essays about them. You can have until Monday night to get this done. I will distribute the exam by mid-afternoon today. There is no time limit, and it is open-book: you can use any sources you want. It is also dialogical: if you don’t understand a question or if I say something confusing, let me know and I’ll try to help. But the two big goals here are for you to:
 

a. dig around, using the web to build knowledge about what we’ve been covering
b. write some lucid essays

If you are still unsure of that long first sentence we had a discussion board on, review my comments on the discussion board. Try to get on top of this, then practice on a few more sentences. You can be sure I’ll ask you to "translate" something on the test, either from Locke or from someone you’ve not yet read. You may want to refer to the "Ways to Read Locke" item that I posted:

Who were the Whigs (in Locke’s period)? Whom and what did they oppose?

Can you describe how Locke uses the Bible?

Why is property so important for Locke?

How is political power different from paternal power?

Describe the state of nature. How is Locke’s state of nature different from Hobbes’?

Locke and Wordsworth both describe an early state of being, before the present day. I’ve used the adjective "Edenic" to describe both of these: but are they similar, or different? In what ways?

Describe the "law of nature"

How does the State of Nature differ from the State of War

How does Locke justify slavery?

In chapter 5, what big change takes place in the history of mankind, as Locke describes it? What are the effects of this change?
 
Why are "acorns" important for Locke?

What is Locke’s definition of tyranny?

When are men justified in seeking the "dissolution" of government, how is "dissolution" different from "revolution," and what makes dissolution a rare event?

In what ways was Locke influential on the early settlers of Philadelphia?

What are the key themes of enlightenment thought? Can you find examples of these themes in pre-enlightenment thinkers like the Greek Philosophers, Machiavelli, and Galileo?

Be prepared to comment on at least one thinker in the natural rights tradition following Locke.

You should be able not only to recite but to give examples of key "differences" between the Enlightenment and the Romantic era, as summarized very crudely at http://isc.temple.edu/pericles/chart.htm

And you should be able to state how some of the "romantic" features of this summary are exemplified in the poetry of the era, especially: Wordsworth, Keats, Whitman.

What does Blake object to in the world he sees around him?

Can you detect irony in The Chimney Sweeper? Where?

What does Wordsworth idealize in the Intimations Ode?

What features of the world around him does Whitman tie together in "When Lilacs Last…"?

In what ways is Whitman’s poem a celebration of all of America? What are the elements of this celebration­what contributes to it?