Humanities 110

Paper Topics | Fall 2021 | Paper 4

Due Saturday, December 4, 5:00 p.m., in your conference leader’s Eliot Hall mailbox.

Target length: 1,800-2,000 words

Choose one of the following topics:

1. To what extent is Thucydides’ work an evaluation of the effectiveness of democratic government that takes Athens as a test case? How far does Thucydides blame Athens’ failures or credit its successes to the fact that it was a democracy, rather than to other factors? You might consider one or more of the speeches that assess the city’s capacity (the Corinthians at 1.68-71, Pericles at 1.140-4, 2.35-46 or 2.64), the internal debates that we see on Mytilene (3.36-49) or Sicily (6.8-26), or the way Thucydides presents the city’s foreign policy decisions and actions in the Melian dialogue (5.84-116) or the Sicilian expedition (6.1-7.87).

2. How is human difference constructed in either the Parthenon, including its metopes, or the first two books of Thucydides’ history? What, if anything, do these conceptualizations of difference have in common with racial thinking? If race does not seem to characterize the relevant forms of human difference, how would you describe the form(s) of difference that are pertinent? 

3. What problem or problems with Athenian society, identity, and/or politics are articulated or suggested by Aristophanes’ Lysistrata? What kind of resolution(s) does the play offer? Does the resolution focus on some issues to the exclusion of others?

4. In the Apology Socrates says, “Men of Athens, . . . I shall obey the god rather than you” (29c-d). In the Crito, on the other hand, it seems that Socrates refuses to escape in order to obey Athens and its laws. Does Socrates reject his initial position, or to what extent is the text of the Crito commensurate with that of the Apology? Present your argument, entertain the best objection to your position, then offer a reply to that objection.

5. While the Republic compares the good doctor to the good ruler, for example at 342d-e, the text also warns that comparing technical to political skill is problematic. Identify the ways in which the comparison is proper and improper, the context in which these points arise in the text, and their implications for his account of politics.

In addition to consulting with your conference leader, you can get help with all stages of the writing process from peer tutors at the Writing Center. You can find links to the Writing Center hours on the Drop-in Tutoring Schedule website. Extra tutoring help will be available in the week leading up to paper due dates.