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Lesson Title: Analyzing The Enlightenment Thinkers (4th lesson)
Length of lesson (days): 1 day
Standards (State and National Standards)National C3 Standards
D2.His.3.9-12: Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significant of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context.
D2.His.6.9-12: Analyze the ways in which the perspectives of those writing history shaped the history that they produced.
D2.His.11.9-12: Critique the usefulness of historical sources for a specific historical inquiry based on their maker, date, place of origin, intended audience, and purpose.
Illinois
SS.H.3.9-12: Evaluate the methods utilized by people and institutions to promote change.
SS.H.4.9-12: Analyze how people and institutions have reacted to environmental, scientific, and technological challenges.
SS.H.7.9-12: Identify the role of individuals, groups, and institutions in people’s struggle for safety, freedom, equality, and justice.
Enduring Understandings
EU 2: Philosophers of the Enlightenment thought of nuanced ideas that changed the way people view government, economics, gender roles, and religion. / Essential Questions
EQ 2:Why were the arguments of various Enlightenment thinkers profound and new-fangled?
EQ 3: In what way did women contribute to the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution?
Knowledge and Skill Objectives
Students will be able to:
KSO 8: Distinguish between the various philosophers of the Enlightenment and their contributions towards society.
KSO 10: Analyze how the spread of nuanced ideas throughout Europe impacted the social classes.
a) Women’s Rights
b) Social Contract
c) Natural Rights
d) Separation of Powers
e) Age of Reason
f) Scientific Method
g) Separation of Church & State
KSO 15: Use primary sources to analyze the impact people made during the 16th through 18th century in Europe.
KSO 18: Define various vocabulary about people, places, events, and ideas dealing with the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment eras.
Lesson Preparation:
-Print off primary source readings for each station
-Create worksheets and print them off for each student
-Make up groups
Lesson Technique:
1)For today’s lesson, groups of students will be analyzing famous writings from prominent Enlightenment philosophers in stations. The objective of this lesson is have students exposed to the writings of the Enlightenment thinkers and critically thinking about the ideas that were spread across Europe at the time. The teacher will decide which students are in which group. (Students should be with different people than they were with during the past couple group activities).
2)At each station there will be a copy of the primary source reading for each student. Students should bring a pen or pencil and highlighter to each station. Students will get roughly 10-12 minutes at each station to read the document, discuss with their group the purpose of the writing/its importance/etc, and to fill out the worksheet for each station. When students read, they should be annotating in the margins, highlighting words they do not know the meaning of, and underlining important information. (The worksheet packet and the documents will be collected from the students so the teacher can check to see if the student completed the work and how well they are analyzing the document as they are reading). The purpose of the worksheet packet for each station is so students can note of words they do not know, questions they have, important information that the document reveals, and summary of what the philosopher is arguing. **Remind students to start on the page that correlates with which station they are at. (i.e. If they are at station 5, they should turn to the last page in their packet). These packets should be given out at the beginning of class. Students at a station will rotate clockwise to the next station at the end of the 10-12 minutes. (i.e. if a group is at station 3, they will go to station 4). Remind the students that they can write on a separate sheet of paper if they would like to have more room to write. Have them attach it to the packet when they have finished. **Announce all of the directions for the activity THEN state the group names, and have the students move to their respected groups. Each station will have the primary source for each student to have their own copy.
3)Station 1: Mary Wollstencraft- A Vindication of the Rights Of Woman (1792) Chapter 4 (EXCERPT)
Station 2: Voltaire- Candide (1759) Chapters 1 & 6
Station 3: Adam Smith-Wealth of Nations (1776) Chapter 1
Station 4: Jean Jacques Rousseau- The Social Contract (1763) (EXCERPT)
Station 5: John Locke- First Treatise of Government (1691) (EXCERPT)
4) The teacher should be walking around to each group to make sure students are filling out the packet, present to answer questions, give any clarification on the directions, and available to answer questions about the text. Have the students discuss it as a group first. If they still are unclear, assist them in comprehending the meaning or language of the writing.
5) At the end of the class, if students have not answered all the questions on their packet, they need to take it home and finish for homework. They will return it to class next time with all of their readings from the stations hops as well. Students will also do a quick write about their favorite primary source. The format for that is as follows:stating which they philosopher and their work they favor the most and why, the specific reasons why they like this reading based upon the evidence in the reading, the importance of those reasons to that time in history or to the real world, and a conclusion. (About 1 page in length)
Homework:
-Students will read chapter 17, section 3 and take notes
-If students did not complete the entirety of their packet, they need to finish it for homework and turn it in next class.
-After doing each primary source reading, students will do a quick write for homework on their favorite primary source. In this quick write, students will be asked to write a small paragraph on why a particular primary document is their most favorite. They have to use evidence from the document to support why they favor a particular Enlightenment thinker’s essay/argument.
Name/Class______
STATION #1
Mary Wollstonecraft- A Vindication of the Rights Of Woman (1792) Chapter 4 (EXCERPT)
What is the main argument the author is conveying?
List the evidence the philosopher gives to support the argument he/she makes:
Why is this primary source critical to this time in history?
Do you agree with the message the Enlightenment thinker is claiming? Why or why not? Explain your answer.
What are some questions you still have after reading this document?
Words I do not know the meaning to? (Try to use your context clues and guess the definition):
STATION #2
Voltaire- Candide (1759) Chapter 1 & 6
What is the main argument the author is conveying?
List the evidence the philosopher gives to support the argument he/she makes:
Why is this primary source critical to this time in history?
Do you agree with the message the Enlightenment thinker is claiming? Why or why not? Explain your answer.
What are some questions you still have after reading this document?
Words I do not know the meaning to? (Try to use your context clues and guess the definition):
STATION #3
Adam Smith-Wealth of Nations (1776) Chapter 1
What is the main argument the author is conveying?
List the evidence the philosopher gives to support the argument he/she makes:
Why is this primary source critical to this time in history?
Do you agree with the message the Enlightenment thinker is claiming? Why or why not? Explain your answer.
What are some questions you still have after reading this document?
Words I do not know the meaning to? (Try to use your context clues and guess the definition):
STATION #4
Jean Jacques Rousseau- The Social Contract (1763) (EXCERPT)
What is the main argument the author is conveying?
List the evidence the philosopher gives to support the argument he/she makes:
Why is this primary source critical to this time in history?
Do you agree with the message the Enlightenment thinker is claiming? Why or why not? Explain your answer.
What are some questions you still have after reading this document?
Words I do not know the meaning to? (Try to use your context clues and guess the definition):
STATION #5
John Locke- First Treatise of Government (1691) (EXCERPT)
What is the main argument the author is conveying?
List the evidence the philosopher gives to support the argument he/she makes:
Why is this primary source critical to this time in history?
Do you agree with the message the Enlightenment thinker is claiming? Why or why not? Explain your answer.
What are some questions you still have after reading this document?
Words I do not know the meaning to? (Try to use your context clues and guess the definition):
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797). A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 1792.
Chap. IV. Observations on the State of Degradation to Which Woman Is Reduced by Various Causes.
THAT woman is naturally weak, or degraded by a concurrence of circumstances, is, I think, clear. But this position I shall simply contrast with a conclusion, which I have frequently heard fall from sensible men in favour of an aristocracy: that the mass of mankind cannot be any thing, or the obsequious slaves, who patiently allow themselves to be penned up, would feel their own consequence, and spurn their chains. Men, they further observe, submit every where to oppression, when they have only to lift up their heads to throw off the yoke; yet, instead of asserting their birthright, they quietly lick the dust, and say, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Women, I argue from analogy, are degraded by the same propensity to enjoy the present moment; and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain. But I must be more explicit.
With respect to the culture of the heart, it is unanimously allowed that sex is out of the question; but the line of subordination in the mental powers is never to be passed over. 1 Only 'absolute in loveliness,' the portion of rationality granted to woman, is indeed very scanty; for, denying her genius and judgment, it is scarcely possible to divine what remains to characterize intellect.
The stamina of immortality, if I may be allowed the phrase is the perfectibility of human reason: for, was man created perfect, or did a flood of knowledge break in upon him, when he arrived at maturity, that precluded error, I should doubt whether his existence would be continued after the dissolution of the body. But, in the present state of things, every difficulty in morals that escapes from human discussion, and equally baffles the investigation of profound thinking, and the lightning glance of genius, is an argument on which I build my belief of the immortality of the soul. Reason is, consequentially, the simple power of improvement; or, more properly speaking, of discerning truth. Every individual is in this respect a world in itself. More or less may be conspicuous in one being than another; but the nature of reason must be the same in all, if it be an emanation of divinity, the tie that connects the creature with the Creator; for, can that soul be stamped with the heavenly image, that is not perfected by the exercise of its own reason? 2 Yet outwardly ornamented with elaborate care, and so adorned to delight man, 'that with honour he may love,' 3 the soul of woman is not allowed to have this distinction, and man, ever placed between her and reason, she is always represented as only created to see through a gross medium, and to take things on trust. But, dismissing these fanciful theories, and considering woman as a whole, let it be what it will, instead of a part of man, the inquiry is whether she has reason or not. If she has, which, for a moment, I will take for granted, she was not created merely to be the solace of man, and the sexual should not destroy the human character. 3
Into this error men have, probably, been led by viewing education in a false light; not considering it as the first step to form a being advancing gradually towards perfection; 4 but only as a preparation for life. On this sensual error, for I must call it so, has the false system of female manners been reared, which robs the whole sex of its dignity, and classes the brown and fair with the smiling flowers that only adorns the land. This has ever been the language of men, and the fear of departing from a supposed sexual character, has made even women of superior sense adopt the same sentiments. 5 Thus understanding, strictly speaking, has been denied to woman; and instinct, sublimated into wit and cunning, for the purposes of life, has been substituted in its stead.
The power of generalizing ideas, of drawing comprehensive conclusions from individual observations, is the only acquirement, for an immortal being, that really deserves the name of knowledge. Merely to observe, without endeavouring to account for any thing, may (in a very incomplete manner) serve as the common sense of life; but where is the store laid up that is to clothe the soul when it leaves the body?
This power has not only been denied to women; but writers have insisted that it is inconsistent, with a few exceptions, with their sexual character. Let men prove this, and I shall grant that woman only exists for man. I must, however, previously remark, that the power of generalizing ideas, to any great extent, is not very common amongst men or women. But this exercise is the true cultivation of the understanding; and every thing conspires to render the cultivation of the understanding more difficult in the female than the male world.
I am naturally led by this assertion to the main subject of the present chapter, and shall now attempt to point out some of the causes that degrade the sex, and prevent women from generalizing their observations.
Voltaire
Candide
[1759]
CHAPTER 1
How Candide Was Brought Up in a Magnificent Castle and How He Was Driven Thence
In the country of Westphalia, in the castle of the most noble Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, lived a youth whom Nature had endowed with a most sweet disposition. His face was the true index of his mind. He had a solid judgment joined to the most unaffected simplicity; and hence, I presume, he had his name of Candide. The old servants of the house suspected him to have been the son of the Baron's sister, by a very good sort of a gentleman of the neighborhood, whom that young lady refused to marry, because he could produce no more than threescore and eleven quarterings in his arms; the rest of the genealogical tree belonging to the family having been lost through the injuries of time.
The Baron was one of the most powerful lords in Westphalia, for his castle had not only a gate, but even windows, and his great hall was hung with tapestry. He used to hunt with his mastiffs and spaniels instead of greyhounds; his groom served him for huntsman; and the parson of the parish officiated as his grand almoner. He was called "My Lord" by all his people, and he never told a story but everyone laughed at it.
My Lady Baroness, who weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, consequently was a person of no small consideration; and then she did the honors of the house with a dignity that commanded universal respect. Her daughter was about seventeen years of age, fresh-colored, comely, plump, and desirable. The Baron's son seemed to be a youth in every respect worthy of the father he sprung from. Pangloss, the preceptor, was the oracle of the family, and little Candide listened to his instructions with all the simplicity natural to his age and disposition.
Master Pangloss taught the metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology. He could prove to admiration that there is no effect without a cause; and, that in this best of all possible worlds, the Baron's castle was the most magnificent of all castles, and My Lady the best of all possible baronesses.
"It is demonstrable," said he, "that things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things have been created for some end, they must necessarily be created for the best end. Observe, for instance, the nose is formed for spectacles, therefore we wear spectacles. The legs are visibly designed for stockings, accordingly we wear stockings. Stones were made to be hewn and to construct castles, therefore My Lord has a magnificent castle; for the greatest baron in the province ought to be the best lodged. Swine were intended to be eaten, therefore we eat pork all the year round: and they, who assert that everything is right, do not express themselves correctly; they should say that everything is best."