8/12/2019 Exam 1 Sample Successful Answers

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Exam 1 Sample Successful Answers

Question 1: One of the areas of thought in the Enlightenment was the nature of the state, andhow people relate to it. Discuss this, based on course readings.

Example 1The enlightenment introduced new ways of thinking about almost everything related to politics. One ofthe main issues discussed was the nature of the state. Before the enlightenment, the state was a paternal

structure that established the king and the church as the absolute authority over the people. Theenlightenment called into question the structure of the state by challenging existing notions ofsovereignty. As Rousseau explained in The Social Contract, changes in notions of sovereignty following

popular revolutions led many to study public affairs so as to be informed political participants andeventually, voters. The previous notion that sovereignty is derived from strength instead of right was

impossible to sustain as people across the continent began to see that force alone could not guaranteeorder. Enlightenment thinkers began to construct what came to be called the social contract. The idea of

the social contract is that individuals voluntarily entered into a bond with all other individuals in a societyin order to establish order, liberty, and justice for all. In entering into the social contract, each individual

is required to surrender some of their individual liberty and, in return, is promised the benefits of stateprotection and political participation. This notion, essentially establishes the citizenry as the source ofsovereign power. This new sovereign body is imbued with certain responsibilities that require the body to

stay true to the original philosophy of popular sovereignty, essentially requiring any democracy tomaintain the equality of all citizens. This idea removed the traditional rights assured to the aristocracy andclergy under systems like the Estates in France. The idea of equality also requires that civil association be

a voluntary act. If someone opposes the social contract, their opposition does not invalidate the contractbut excludes them from participation in it. The constant will of members of the State, by virtue of their

popular sovereignty, is the general will and this general will becomes the will of the state. Theenlightenment essentially changed the state from an institution embodied by a monarch to one dependentupon the will and participation of each member of the state.

Example 2

During the enlightenment era, perceptions of the nature of the state transitionedfrom a relationship ofsubservience to equality. They believed that the nature of the stateshould be built upon a social contract

in which citizens have an obligation to serve theircommunity in exchange for the benefits offered by thestate. The social contract wasnecessary to answer the question of why man, who is born free in nature,would allow astate to limit his liberty. A citizen benefits from the social contract in various ways.Locke

believed a citizen needs a state to protect his property, while Rousseau believed heneeds the unity of acommunity. The most enduring perspective is the view thatbelonging to a state benefits the citizen

because a state exists to serve the needs of itspeople. Robespierre demonstrates the effects theenlightenment had during the FrenchRevolution with his belief that the end of a government is universalhappiness. The second part of the social contract describes the states role in this symbioticrelationship.

In order to create an effective state, its people have an obligation to serve thecommunity. A majorcomponent of Rousseaus piece is his belief that every citizenworries not for his own well-being, but the

well-being of the community. A difficultaspect of this is the belief that not every person can benefit thecommunity to the samedegree. A component of enlightened discussion centers around the idea thatcitizenshipshould be based on how a person relates to the state. For example, a slave or female cannotfully benefit the state because they lack the ability to learn how and are thusexcluded from the socialcontract.The final piece to the social contract as described by enlightenment thinkers is thelegitimization

of the state and thus, the legitimization of the social contract itself. Both Lock and Rousseau believed (tovarying degrees) that the will of the people shouldinfluence state proceedings. Rousseau believes thatforce does not equal rights,meaning that arbitrary power cannot be legitimate because it uses force.

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Voltairessupport of religious toleration is important in its argument that the state does not have the authority to act on the basis of religion. The social contract demonstrates the emergingidea that the

relationship between citizen and state was one of equal benefit.

Question 2: Discuss ideas of the natures and roles of men and women based on course readings.

Example 1Nature itself consists of symbiotic relationships with purposeful differences between each species. Thisconcept supports the idea that each weakness in one gender is a power in the other. What mostenlightenment thinkers from Rousseau to De Gouge agreed on was the idea that the differences between

men and women serve a purpose. Disagreements emerge however, as one contemplates how extensivethese differences are and whether females truly constitute an inferior species. Rousseau believes thestrength of women exists not for its own purpose, but as a response exclusively to the weaknesses of men.The shining flaw in men is their inability to resist the charms of women. He believes women are endowedwith more power to stimulate a mans desire than he is able to satisfy. Observing the sexual dominance

of males in nature could support his belief. Rousseau considers this observation to demonstrate a powerwomen have over men due to their lack of virtue. Wollstonecraft counters this argument with the idea that

the virtue of men and women could not be different unless one is to admit virtue is relative idea. While

an observation of nature could support Rousseaus belief, Wollstonecrafts argument is effective indemonstrating the lack of natural evidence for cultural concepts such as virtue. One would assume that if

enlightenment thinkers were right to draw evidence from nature, the act of marriage would effectivelydemonstrate the necessity of gender differences. Both De Gouge and Wollstonecraft argue however, that

women are so inferior in marriage as to be better off in the state of nature. Despite the purpose ofmarriage being for each partner to care for the other, marriages of this era consisted of women foreverconstrained by childlike needs. As De Gouge states, marriage is the tomb of trust and love because itencouraged and later forced women to remain content in a subservient state. A flaw in the argument offemale inferiority is perhaps the lack of cultural variety and humanistic study of the female mind. These

authors both provide varying perspectives on the roles of men and women based on what can be observedin nature, as well as varying cultural perspectives.

Question 3: During the French Revolution, French people were divided. Describe what groups of

people were engaged in politics during the Revolution, and what those groups wanted.

Example 1During the course of the French Revolution, numerous divisions in French society manifested themselvesin the political sphere. The first and, initially most powerful group of French people consisted of the

powerful and wealthy merchants and aristocrats who oversaw the first phase of the revolution. This groupsought the dissolution of church power and property and the power of the monarch, which they saw as anarbitrary check on their growing economic power. This group also found the system of purchasing

positions and titles that had flourished under the Bourbon monarchs. The new economic elite advocatedfor a system whereby economic power was more important than title or social station at birth. The second

group consisted of the poor urban members of the Third Estate who sought to overthrow the AncienRegime. This group had been given the worst deal under the previous system and sought both politicalrepresentation and economic opportunity. This was the group that was responsible for the popular

uprisings in cities like Paris and Orleans and would eventually populate then new National Assembly.The third group was a coalition of the First Estate, consisting of the clergy, and the rural and

predominantly catholic members of the Third Estate, who had benefited from the wealth and stability

provided by the bishoprics around which rural France was organized. This group advocated for a return tothe monarchy and the patronage system that had been the political reality for most of Frances history.

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Question 4: Discuss ideas about nature and religion.

Example 1The enlightenment engendered multiple new ideas about religion and nature. Many enlightenmentthinkers celebrated what Voltaire termed the superstitions of religion that preceded the ageof reason.

Religion at the time of the enlightenment was without a doubt the most powerful institution bothpolitically and culturally in Europe. The Catholic Church held enormous power over the politics ofcountries like France that was challenged by the emergence of ideas like popular sovereignty and thesocial contract. These ideas, coupled with the bloody history of the inquisition and crusades made it easyfor many enlightenment thinkers to paint the church as out dated and barbaric. Many enlightenment

thinkers turned to nature for inspiration. They regarded nature as a source of knowledge and morality thatcould serve to essentially replace church doctrine. Many enlightenment writers were fascinated withanalyzing the cultures that were being discovered in the new world and considered the way societyevolved from these primitive people and sought wisdom from what they considered a more natural wayof life. Because of their disillusionment with what they saw as the decadence of European life, many

enlightenment thinkers sought to understand the similarities and differences between themselves and thenatives they discovered instead of simply writing them off as heathens. Writers like Rousseau focused on

nature as a classroom, and emphasized the importance of spending time in nature.