Rubric
Our task as readers is to:
1) Understand the philosophical, cultural and political concepts represented in each text, especially in relation to concepts of “civilization”, "the individual in relation to society", “man”, “woman” "rights", "freedom", "truth", "morality" and “justice”.
2) Understand each of the texts in relation to one another.
3) Understand the relationship of the texts to their respective historical, cultural and political contexts.
4) Understand how these specific texts – and the ideas they represent – have influenced and shaped current Western culture – current philosophical, cultural and political beliefs, assumptions, etc. concerning concepts of "civilization", "the individual in relation to society" and so on.
5) Analyze and evaluate the positions forwarded in each text in relation to our own personal and civic lives – our own philosophical, cultural and political beliefs, assumptions, etc. concerning concepts of "civilization", "the individual in relation to society" and so on.
Basically, our task is to better understand the worldviews that created these texts, better understand the world the texts created and, most importantly, better understand our own worldviews in relationship to the texts and the worldviews that created them.