“The Arts
and Royalty; Philosophers Debate Politics”

Please respond to one (1) of the following, using
sources under the Explore heading as the basis of your response: 

CHOICE ONE — ART AND ROYALTY

In this week’s readings, a dispute in the French royal court is described
about whether Poussin or Rubens was the better painter. Take a painting by each,
either from our book or a Website below, and compare them and explain which you
prefer. There is another conflict between the playwright Moliere and a well-born
Parisian; Louis XIV stepped in.  Explain how Louis XIV used the various arts and
his motives for doing so. Identify one (1) example of a modern political leader
approaching the arts this way. What do you think the relationship of art to
government should be? Do these examples differe from what you think, if so, why?
How does social class influence art? What do think? 

RESOURCES FOR CHOICE ONE: 

The Arts and Royalty

• Chapter 23 (pp. 730-741); Rubens; Poussin; Moliere; royalty using the arts
   
• Rubens and Poussin at  http://www.visitmuseums.com/exhibition/from-baroque-to-classicism-rubens-poussin-and-17th-85 and http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/p/poussin/biograph.html 

CHOICE TWO — PHILOSOPHERS DEBATE POLITICS 

The philosophers Thomas
Hobbes and John Locke disagreed on the understanding of political authority,
with Locke taking what is commonly called the “liberal” view. Choose a side (be
brave perhaps; take a side you actually disagree with). Using the writings of
each given in our class text or at the Websites below, make your case for the
side you chose. Identify one (1) modern situation in the world where these
issues are significant. Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau
all were social contract theorists — they articulated their ideas on what
humanity’s relationship to nature and government should and could be and what
rights people had in rleation to the rules that governed them. These
ideas also become stepping-stones for the Romantics and Revolutionaries in years
to come. Read them over, how do you think the ideas
that these philosophers expressed might have sparked the revolutions that
changed our world? Is humanity good to start off and then corrupted by society
or is it the other way around?

RESOURCES FOR CHOICE TWO: 

Philosophers
Debate Politics

• This chart includes Rousseau:
  http://www.1215.org/lawnotes/work-in-progress/hlrcomparison/hlrcomparisongrid.htm. (I
  enjoy Rousseau’s writing and we will look at him a little next week)
• Chapter 24 (pp. 768-9)  
• Hobbes: text at  http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html;
  summary at  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hobbes-moral/
• Locke: text at http://www.thenagain.info/Classes/Sources/Locke-2ndTreatise.html;
  General background of the concept at http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/teachers/lesson_plans/pdfs/unit1_12.pdf
• COMPARISONS:http://www.iun.edu/~hisdcl/h114_2002/Locke%20and%20Hobbes.htm; http://jim.com/hobbes.htm