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Guided Reading Part I

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Guided Reading Part I

Guided Questions for the Readings: Part I

Directions and Some Words of Wisdom:

Read the selections carefully. You may choose to read the selections in their entirety (that would be great); however, you will be tested only on the excerpts.

I left this in a Word Document so that you could manipulate it easier.

Textualism: treat the text seriously. Writers deposit, construct things in a text, so others can find them later. A text lives on its own – words can have a life. A text is always new – read it as it was first written. A text tells us what it wants to say – it talks back to us in a manner of speaking. As you read these texts interpret the words in the spirit of the text.

Critical Thinking: don’t deconstruct. Read the original and determine what it means.

Newtonian Physics: for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.

Hegelian Dialectic: A (thesis) versus B (anti-thesis) equals C (synthesis).

Economics: Opportunity Cost – we all make choices, what we give up is the “opportunity cost”.

Print out and Answer the following questions.

You may discuss your insights (answers) with your fellow classmates, Ms. Imbrecht or Mr. Pauly (via e-mail), in fact we encourage you to do so – but, you may not copy answers from your classmates.

Your answers will be collected on the day of the quiz. See numbers 4, 5 and 6 above – some of you will make the choice not to complete the readings and/or the study guide – that is your option….but:

Quiz – Yes, there will be a quiz on these readings!

Enjoy…these are texts that you will encounter throughout this semester, and in your college career, and will return to during your life….we realize that there are a lot of questions, but these are difficult texts, and we are not there to help…

The Book of Deuteronomy
The selection is from the King James Bible (1611) because this is the version that would have been most familiar to the people in colonial America.
Key Concepts: The Ten Commandments (or Decalogue), Nature of a Covenant, Consequences of Breaking a Covenant, Written and Unwritten Laws, Kingship
Read: Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 17, 19, 29, 30-34
Chapter 4 – is a miniature of the whole book of Deuteronomy. Chapter 4: 1-8 is a Prologue. Chapter 4: 9-14 specifies how the parties came to make the covenant. Chapter 4: 19-29 are warnings that are issued. Chapter 4: 30-31 talks about the rewards. Chapter 4: 40 is a recital of the treaty or covenant.

Why do you think it is important for the people to be taught the statues and judgments? How does this relate to government today?
What is a “covenant”?
What are some synonyms for the word “covenant”?
What is implied in the Republican Contract with America (1994)? (http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/CONTRACT.html)
Chapter 4: 9-14 – who are the parties to the covenant? Where is the covenant contained? How is it conveyed to the people?
Chapter 4: 19-29 – What are the consequences for not following the covenant?
Chapter 4: 30-31 – What are the rewards for following the covenant?
Why do you think Chapter 4: 40 repeats the covenant?

Chapter 5 – is the Decalogue or Ten commandments

What are the Ten Commandments? (Be careful, use only the text at hand, the Ten Commandments differ slightly depending on the source.)
How were the Ten Commandments delivered?

Chapter 6 – Keeping the covenant

Now that the people of Israel have received the covenant, what is required of them? (See: Chapter 6: 5-25). Give some examples.

Chapter 7 – Benefits of following the covenant
1. Chapter 7: 12-26 – Give some examples of the benefits of following the covenant.
Chapter 8 – Consequences of breaking the covenant

Chapter 7: 18-20 – What will happen if the covenant is broken?

Chapter 17 – Transgressing the covenant, and kingship

Lines 2-8, what happens if one transgresses the covenant? What is the punishment? What criteria must be met before a person can be punished? Do you see any correlation to modern day justice? If so, explain.
Why might the Israelites want a king? What is required of the king? What do you think might happen to the king or queen if they did not follow the covenant? What does the rule of law imply? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_law)

Chapter 19 – “The Code of Hammurabi”

What similarities do you see between Chapter 19 and the Code of Hammurabi? (http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM)
What might explain the similarities?

Chapter 29 – Posterity

Line 14 – explain this passage. (Note: look at line 29 for a clue)
Why is this concept expressed in line 14 so important?
In what part of the Constitution of the United States of America do we see this same concept? Why do you think James Madison felt this was important to include in the Constitution?

Chapter 30 – a covenant for all to see

Look at lines 11-14. Where is the covenant to be placed? Why?
Where is the U. S. Constitution displayed? Why? Are there any similarities between a “covenant” and a “constitution”?
Explain why a people need to have access to such things as a covenant or constitution?
Lines 11-14, run counter to Scipio’s Dream by Cicero. Explain. (This is a tough question – it will require you to read Scipio’s Dream and to think about what Cicero is saying here about where laws are housed and why they are housed there.)
Look at lines 15-20. Who are the witnesses called upon to witness the covenant?
These lines also talk about dualities: life and death, good and evil, blessing and cursing. What message is this giving to the people? How might this relate to the time period of the Articles of Confederation? (http://www.answers.com/topic/articles-of-confederation)

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah
As you read Isaiah look for qualities of shift in the text – it is talking about “light” and “darkness”. It is a replica of the reality it is attempting to portray – as the world itself is composed of light and darkness, so too is this text. Here the “light” equates with justice and good government, the keeping of the covenant; whereas the “dark” equates with injustice and bad government, and the breaking of the covenant. Isaiah contains images of reconstructing the universe, it is about doing justice and having knowledge, it also mentions the possibility of massive failure. Isaiah runs in two directions: horizontally – the relationship of man to man; and vertically – heaven and earth.
Madison is not a social compact theorist (like Locke and Jefferson), he believes in a covenant. Madison sees the covenant, as a whole new thing, an act of creating or of “reconstructing the universe”. Lincoln (See his House Divided Speech), Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., and possibly Obama, also follow this idea of a covenant that binds us a nation.

Compare Chapter 1, lines 2 -8 and lines 9-19. Which lines do you think represent the “light” and the “dark”? Explain your reasoning.
Chapter 43: 18-21 – do you see anything here that relates to the Constitution? Why was the Constitution written? What was the purpose of the Constitution?
Look at the painting by Edward Hicks – “Peaceable Kingdom” (See link on summer Assignment Page) – how does this painting relate to Isaiah(Note: see Isaiah 11:6-9)? To the Constitution?
Chapter 11: 9-12 – For Madison how might this passage justify immigration to the colonies?
Here is the last paragraph of Madison’s Federalist # 14. Which lines do you think represent the “light” and the “dark”? Explain your reasoning. (Hint: Highlight the “light” and “dark” using different colors – make a key.)

I submit to you, my fellow-citizens, these considerations, in full confidence that the good sense which has so often marked your decisions will allow them their due weight and effect; and that you will never suffer difficulties, however formidable in appearance, or however fashionable the error on which they may be founded, to drive you into the gloomy and perilous scene into which the advocates for disunion would conduct you. Hearken not to the unnatural voice which tells you that the people of America, knit together as they are by so many cords of affection, can no longer live together as members of the same family; can no longer continue the mutual guardians of their mutual happiness; can no longer be fellow citizens of one great, respectable, and flourishing empire. Hearken not to the voice which petulantly tells you that the form of government recommended for your adoption is a novelty in the political world; that it has never yet had a place in the theories of the wildest projectors; that it rashly attempts what it is impossible to accomplish. No, my countrymen, shut your ears against this unhallowed language. Shut your hearts against the poison which it conveys; the kindred blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled blood which they have shed in defense of their sacred rights, consecrate their Union, and excite horror at the idea of their becoming aliens, rivals, enemies. And if novelties are to be shunned, believe me, the most alarming of all novelties, the most wild of all projects, the most rash of all attempts, is that of rendering us in pieces, in order to preserve our liberties and promote our happiness. But why is the experiment of an extended republic to be rejected, merely because it may comprise what is new? Is it not the glory of the people of America, that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example, of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights and public happiness. Had no important step been taken by the leaders of the Revolution for which a precedent could not be discovered, no government established of which an exact model did not present itself, the people of the United States might, at this moment have been numbered among the melancholy victims of misguided councils, must at best have been laboring under the weight of some of those forms which have crushed the liberties of the rest of mankind. Happily for America, happily, we trust, for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society. They reared the fabrics of governments which have no model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a great Confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate. If their works betray imperfections, we wonder at the fewness of them. If they erred most in the structure of the Union, this was the work most difficult to be executed; this is the work which has been new modelled by the act of your convention, and it is that act on which you are now to deliberate and to decide.

Aristotle - Politics

In Book I of Aristotle’s Politics he mentions that all things “come into being for the sake of some good.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain.
Explain what Aristotle means by the statement – “man by nature is a political animal”?
In Book III, Aristotle spends a great deal of time describing the criteria for how a “citizen” should be determined. Why does he feel that “virtue of residence” is not enough to make one a citizen? Do you agree? Why or why not? [See: Federalist # 37 & 39; Langston Hughes – “Let America Be America Again”]
What does Aristotle believe makes a “citizen”? Why is that criteria important? What are the criteria in the United States? How has this changed over time in the United States? What Amendment addresses this topic? What if you are “foreign” born? (http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=2de5bece24e7b110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=2de5bece24e7b110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD)
In Book III, Chapter 6 he talks about the civic body, the constitution and the sovereign. Make a mathematical equation that shows what Aristotle is saying.
In Book III, Chapter 7 he talks about the One, Few, Many, and the types of government they represent. Fill in the chart.

	ONE	FEW	MANY
GOOD
BAD

Look carefully at Book III, Chapter 11. According to Aristotle what benefit derives from the “Many”? Where do you see this thinking in the government of the United States?
In Book IV, Chapter 4 what does he mean by the statement that “laws should be sovereign”?
What are the three elements found in every constitution according to Aristotle? What are their correlations in the Constitution of the United States?
What does Aristotle say about “factions”? What does Madison say about “factions” in Federalist # 10?
Why does he feel that democracy would work better in a “pastoral” society? Do you think this is why Thomas Jefferson believed that America should remain a “pastoral” society?
Why is Aristotle afraid of the “masses”? [Hint - see: Iran and the current presidential elections; The Revolt of the Masses by Ortega y Gassett.]

Cicero – The Republic and The Laws
Scipio’s Dream is a view of the world from the heavens. Aristotle, in contrast to Cicero, felt that you see the world by walking around on the surface of the earth (The Anti-Federalists). Cicero sees the world from looking down from above (The Federalists). In Scipio’s Dream he goes into a deep sleep – thus “seeing” things from a new angle. Scipio’s Dream is Cicero’s attempt to put his mind around the universe. In the Dream Scipio sees his place in the world; his life on earth – Rome, Roman Republic, and now life in heaven; by serving his country he earns a place in heaven (See: Deuteronomy 30-34 – what happens to Moses?). Cicero believes that our home is in the heavens and on earth; to understand the heavens is to understand life on earth. Scipio’s Dream is also about the “music of the spheres.” If the spheres are out of whack, the world will collapse [See: Isaiah, Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, and Lincoln – “House divided Speech”.]

According to Cicero in Scipio’s Dream what happens to those individuals that look to the well being of their country? How might the Founders of our country felt about this?
According to Cicero where do “rulers and saviours” come from? To whence do they return?
Explain why human beings were born according to Cicero. What is their purpose?
Explain what he means by the passage – “Respect justice and do your duty.” In the United States today what are some ways people can fulfill the sentiments expressed in this statement.
“Everything is joined together by nine circles or rather spheres” – this is the standard Platonic and Aristotelian view of the earth – what planet is at the “bottom” or lowest rung of the sphere?
Explain what Scipio hears. Why are some people deaf to this noise? Why can some people still hear it?
How does Africanus describe the earth to Scipio? Today, would Africanus be able to give the same description of the earth? Why or why not?
In the last three paragraphs Cicero talks about the “soul” and “immortality.” What does say men are? Explain how he rationalizes this.
What will happen to those men who pursue “bodily pleasures”?

Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes lived through the period of the English Civil Wars, whose dangers and political fears formed the background against which he developed his theories of man and society. In his study of Thucydides, Hobbes came to the realization that democracy was not a bad, but an inefficient type of sovereign power. Hobbes’s most famous work in English is: LEVIATHAN, or The Matter, Forme, & power of a COMMON-WEALTH ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVILL (1651). Hobbes had a fundamentally pessimistic view of human nature which had a powerful influence on the framers of the Constitution. During the early years of the Revolutionary period, American leaders found Locke's revolutionary compact ideas more useful than Hobbes' view of the unlimited authority of the state. But as the political and social experience of the 1780s seemed to bear out Hobbes's pessimistic view that men are essentially self-interested, the Hobbesian outlook became more relevant. Hobbes's conclusion that an individual should, unless his life is threatened, submit to the State, because any government is better than anarchy was an important factor for Madison.
It is important to take a look at the cover of Leviathan, which was designed by Hobbes himself (See: Background on Hobbes – on Summer Assignment page). What do you see? Look closely, what makes up the shirt of the sovereign? What is the sovereign holding in his hands? What is in the foreground just beneath the sovereign? Look at the columns on the left and right side of the page, what do they represent? What is Hobbes trying to tell us?
An earlier work by Hobbes is De Cive, where he sketchedout some of the ideas that he later incorporates into Leviathan. The passage below is from De Cive (The Citizen):
“…I demonstrate in the first place, that the state of men without civill society (which state we may properly call the state of nature) is nothing else but a meere warre of all against all; and in that warre all men have equall right unto all things; Next, that all men as soone as they arrive to understanding of this hatefull condition, doe desire (even nature it selfe compelling them) to be freed from this misery. But that this cannot be done except by compact, they all quitt that right which they have unto all things. Furthermore I declare, and confirme what the nature of compacts is; how and by what meanes the right of one might be transfer'd unto another to make their compacts valid; also what rights, and to whom they must necessarily be granted for the establishing of peace, I meane what those dictates of reason are, which may properly be term'd the Lawes of nature…” (Hobbes, De Cive, Preface, http://www.constitution.org/th/decive00.htm)

How does Hobbes, in De Cive, describe the “state of nature”?

How does man escape this “state of nature”?

Leviathan (Note: the Roman numerals refer to the Chapter, and the Arabic numerals refer to paragraphs):
Chapter XIII

Chapter XIII: 1-5. How does Hobbes define “men”?
Chapter XIII: 6-7. What are the “three principal causes of quarrel” among men? How do men apply these principals?
Chapter XIII: 8. According to Hobbes what is needed to keep men under control? Without this control men are in a state of war – How does he describe “war’?
Chapter XIII: 9. Look at the last few lines of this famous passage that describes live in a state of nature for Hobbes – “…which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger and violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Chapter XIII: 13. In this sate of nature why is there no justice or injustice? Why no “mine” and “thine”?
Chapter XIII: 14. What are the three passions that incline men to peace?

Chapter XIV
This is a key chapter of Leviathan. Just a few questions for now, and we will cover this chapter in more detail in class.

Chapter XIV: 1. Explain what Hobbes means by the term – “jus natural”.
Chapter XIV: 2. Explain what Hobbes means by the term – “LIBERTY”.
Chapter XIV: 3. Explain what Hobbes means by the term – “LAW OF NATURE”.
Chapter XIV: 4-9. Read these paragraphs carefully. Don’t worry if you don’t understand them – we will cover this part in detail in class. Try putting paragraphs Chapter XIV: 4-9 in your own words.