Prompt
Select one philosopher or school of philosophy from Column A and one philosopher or school of philosophy from Column B, and respond to the following question:
In our first class session we examined the concept of “political legitimacy” as an issue that is addressed implicitly or explicitly in the thought of every political philosopher, as Socrates illustrated through his notion of the “noble lie.” We have observed that a philosopher’s estimation of the nature of “men” (human nature) plays an important role in the noble myth he offers to legitimate the body politic. Describe, compare, and contrast the views of human nature proffered by one theorist or philosophical school in Column A and another theorist or school of thought in Column B. What are the consequences of each thinker/school’s assessment of human nature for the ideal polity each thinker prescribed? Conclude your essay by describing briefly the consequences of this assessment for each school’s/thinker’s view of the legitimacy of revolutionary political change.
Column B
1. Xunzi
2. Han Feizi
3. The Daoists (Laozi & Zhuangzi)
Each student must write a paper in response to one of the paper topics listed below. Your
paper should be 5 to 7 typewritten (using Times Roman 12-point characters and margins of 1” on
all four sides) double-spaced pages long (not counting the cover sheet), 1 and will be due no later
than 11:59 p.m. PST on Sunday, February 19, 2023 by submission via the Assignments tab.
Be sure that your paper responds to the question and contains copious references to readings
assigned for the course. All direct quotations from the texts used in the course should be placed
in quotation marks and cited using the short form of the short form of author’s last name and
page number in parentheses (e.g., Chan, p. xx.) and not footnotes at the bottom of the page.
Paraphrased material or ideas other than your own taken from the texts or from lectures must
also be cited. Lectures notes should be cited as “Lecture, [January 9], 2023,” and handouts should
be cited by the title of the handout.) Since you may not use or cite sources not assigned for this
class, endnotes or footnotes must not be used. Do not append a Works Cited Page. If you do,
your paper will be penalized 5 points.
1 Please number your pages, numbering the cover page “0”). Any pages beyond page 7 will be ignored.
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