Spring 2011

CH 202: The Modern World

Midterm Exam
Handout for Review

1. José Bové: the Anti-Globalization Campaigner [Explain + examples].

Amin Maalouf, In the Name of Identity:
Maalouf: “identity is the sum total of our allegiances”

2. Christopher Columbus, “Letter”

The context of Columbus‟ “Letter” [What was the context?]
Columbus: a. A great explorer? b. Ruthless and responsible for the oppression of native
peoples?

3. Michel de Montaigne, Essays.

Montaigne: A cultural relativist. All things are relative and impermanent. The truth is a
cultural thing.

4. The Scientific Revolution

Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton: Challenging traditional views.
Galileo Galilei: Undermining the Old View. Truth about both nature and God could be
found in abstract reasoning and be best expressed by mathematics: “in discussions of
physical problems we ought to begin not from the authority of scriptural passages, but
from sense-experiences and necessary demonstrations.”

Impact of the Scientific Revolution / Early Modern Thought

5. René Descartes, Discourse on Method; Francis Bacon, Novum Organum; John Locke,
“An Essay on Human Understanding,” & “Of Civil Government.”
Rationalism: Descartes: Rejected all knowledge based on custom; Doubt everything that
can be doubted;
• “Cogito ergo sum”=“Je pense, donc je suis”=“I think, therefore I am.”

Empiricism: Bacon and Locke

Locke: he rejects the doctrine of innate ideas. At birth, our mind is a blank slate. We are
entirely formed by experience (nurture).

6. The Enlightenment: What is it?

Kant, “What Is the Enlightenment?” // Public Reason / Private reason
Questioning the Enlightenment:
Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal” and the use of irony;
Olaudah Equiano & Ignatius Sancho: the notion of “hybrid identity”

7. Political Theory
Machiavelli, The Prince: It is also possible to construct a prince (ruler): i.e. to make the
prince more efficient.
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
Rousseau, Discourse: Examines the character and condition of man in the hypothetical
“State of nature.”
Rousseau, The Social Contract: rejects the idea of the authority coming from God. The
General Will is the foundation of all politics.

8. The French Revolution

Emmanuel Sieyès, “What is the Third Estate?”; Response to this question?
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Principles)

The French Revolution: Legacies, Debates and Reactions:

Burke, “Reflections on the Revolution In France”; Toussaint L‟Ouverture.

9. Gender and Race In The Age Of The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment Culture and Women: Rousseau, etc.
Olympe de Gouges, Declaration of the Rights of Women.
Mary Wollestonecraft, “A Vindication of the Rights Of Woman”
Claire de Duras, Ourika [Gender and race in early 19th century France]

10. Enlightenment Knowledge and Romanticism

Shelley, Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus
Wordsworth, „The Tables Turned‟
William Blake

11. The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution // The Social Consequences of Industrialization
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776).
Andrew Ure, “The Philosophy of Manufactures.”
Mrs. Smart, Mrs. Britton, & Mary Hunt, “Reports of Special Assistant Poor Law
Commissioners on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture (1843).”

Critique of Capitalism
Friedrich Engels (from “The Condition of the Working Class in England”): Critique of
Capitalism
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto: Critique of Capitalism

12. Condition of Women in the 19th Century

Sarah Stickney Ellis (from “The Women of England: Their Duties and Domestic
Habits”).