Please note: You
will not get feedback because this exam is being submitted at the very end of the semester. Do NOT email
asking how you did; wait until the official posting of grades, and if you then have
a question about your class grade or grade on the exam, get in touch with Prof.
Fantina, in July or August, through his FIU email:
richard.fantina@fiu.edu. If
there is some urgent and compelling reason to get in touch immediately after the
due date of the Final Exam, please of course do so however.
WHEN:
--The Synthesis Essay is due on June
20th, no later than the dawn of June 21st.
--Turn it in as a single-spaced WebCT attachment, with the title
YourlastnameYourfirstnameFinal.
WHO:
--You write it--no Wikipedia excerpts,
no snippets from a website here, a website there. You! No outside
sources are allowed; plagiarism will conclude in an "F" for the course.
--Do not string together paraphrases from the online lectures. Do not rely
upon the online lectures overly much; you will not succeed if you just mimic the
lectures.
HOW:
--The essay should be between two (full!)
and four pages SINGLE-SPACED. DO NOT PAD—this is a bad strategy.
Especially do not have an opening paragraph that spins-its-tires in abstract
profundity: "As long as humankind has endured, the ages have been witness
to...". Get to the point, so your orientation/focus is immediately known:
"As we move from non-technological society to highly technological,
job-specialized society, it is no surprise that xxxxx has been xxxx. Great
thinkers such as aaa, bbb, ccc, and ddd help us see that xxxx."
--You
should have several brief quotes from our texts to show that your ideas are
anchored in specific texts (showing us that you've read them!), not just a product of your
generalized memory of the
course's texts. Do not, however, use up too much
space quoting.
--Effective
organization, a decent style and clean grammar/punctuation, and lots and lots
of thoughtfulness are expected.
--About
organization: generally speaking, it is best to discuss each author/text in
turn (1st 5th devote to Locke, 2nd 5th
devoted to Equiano, 3rd 5th devoted to Wordsworth, etc.),
with comparative loop-backs (e.g., “unlike Equiano, Wordsworth does not define
himself in terms of economics; he instead is searching for…"). However, you also need to show you have
synthesized our readings/the issues … five separate mini-essays on five authors, strung
together, will not be highly rewarded.
WHAT: Choose one of the questions
below.
a) Concepts of the "self" or a
sense of "selfhood"--in respect to ethics, metaphysics, society, psychology, and
artistic production--are partially or largely dependent on historical/cultural
context. This course is called "History of Ideas..." but it could also be
called "A History of Selfhood..." or "The Rise of Individualism...." Discuss, using at least four of
our main authors/texts.
b) Western culture, from the time of the
Renaissance, could be said to have increasingly worked towards the development
and protection of individuality or liberty broadly conceived. Discuss, using at
least four of our main authors/texts.
c) The course is called: “History of
Ideas: From the Age of Enlightenment to the Age of Anxiety”. Explore, using at
least four of our main authors/texts, how we get from “Enlightenment” to
“Anxiety”.