Overview
Write an essay (900-1500 words) in which you articulate and defend a thesis on the topic of the Social Contract. In this paper you should engage at least one thinker from the following two groups:
A. Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau B. Mills, Baldwin, The Combahee River Collective
A thesis is a claim that is arguable--—it is not obviously true, not obviously false, and not a matter of opinion, but instead an original (i.e. your own) statement that you will support with appropriate evidence and arguments. See the links below for further guidance on thesis statements.
You cannot say everything there is to say about a topic in one short paper. Indeed, entire books have been written on the theory of the Social Contract. You don’t need to read those books, and you don’t need to say everything on the topic: you do need to select one argument that you find it important to make about it.
For the purpose of this course, quotations from your readings constitute appropriate evidence. Include a parenthetical citation (page number is sufficient) for each quotation as demonstrated below.
For example, you might write something like this: “Socrates emphasized that good citizens must sometimes annoy and even disturb their fellow citizens in order to spur them to become better, going so far as to claim in the Apology that he ‘was attached to this city by the god—though it seems a ridiculous thing to say—as upon a great and noble horse which was somewhat sluggish because of its size and needed to be stirred up by a kind of gadfly’ (page 35).” (Of course, you wouldn't be citing Plato/Socrates, but this is how you would use a quotation from one of your sources.)
For the purpose of this course, arguments will take the form of interpreting, comparing, and assessing our assigned readings (and where appropriate, films).
Your first paragraph should contain an introduction and a single sentence summarizing your thesis.
Underline your thesis sentence.
Your last paragraph should contain a conclusion that consolidates your thesis.
Each of your intermediate paragraphs should contain at least one quotation providing evidence for your thesis, and appropriate argumentation demonstrating how the quotation supports your thesis. You should use at least two short quotations from each author you engage.
You should take the kinds of discussions we have in class, and the ways in which we use quotations and scrutinize readings there as a guide for the kind of thinking you are expected to employ in writing this essay.