Please copy and paste the following questions into a text document. Many of your answers will need to be complete sentences or short paragraphs, but in other instances a few words will suffice. These are the sorts of questions that you should ask yourself when reading any set of sources; questions about the source's purpose, arguments, and assumptions. As with any short assignment, make sure that your responses are precise and specific. I would expect you to hand in a total of 3-4 word-processed pages (depending on font, spacing, etc.).
Name:
e-mail address:
Sign here to certify this is your own work:
1. According to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, what purpose does the declaration itself serve? (In other words: why was it necessary to write down and print these items?)
2. According to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, why do people have these rights? What is the source of these rights?
3. Which numbered point in the 1789 Declaration do you find the hardest to understand? Which one in the 1793 Declaration? WHY? [note: there is no right or wrong answer to this question, but I will grade you on how well you explain what you find difficult or confusing]
4. What concerns were addressed by either the Civil Constitution of the Clergy or the Le Chapelier Law?
5. On what did you base your answer to question 4? Cite specific and precise passages and explain how they support your answer. [Provide enough of the text to demonstrate its relevance and place it in quotation marks (“ ”) to indicate that it is not your own words. You may want to leave out bits of the text—if you do, remember to use an ellipsis (…) to indicate where you have omitted text. You may also want to restate part of the passage in your own words. Restating somebody else’s work in your own words is called paraphrasing, and you should indicate that you have done so by placing your own words in square brackets ([]) within the quoted text.]
6. Attitudes toward the past (the "old regime) are implicit (that is, unstated but present) in the Declarations, in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and in the Le Chapelier Law. What are these attitudes and what specific words do you find indicative of them?
7. Saint Just's writings on "republican institutions" cover a wide range of topics. To what extent are these same subjects addressed in political life today? How, if at all, do Saint Just's assumptions about the purpose of government differ from your own?
8. Most of this week's readings do not have named individuals as authors.
a.
Why is this?
b. What effect does their author-less-ness have? Do you think it has the same effect for you as it did for someone in the 1790s?
[extra credit]
c. Though no individuals are named, they must have been involved in producing the Declaration of the Rights of Man (both versions) and the decree on the civil constitution of the clergy. Pick one of these texts, and list at least three individuals involved in its production. How do you know?