About class tomorrow

I'm not going to be there, but Mr. Holland will be in his room and you can go there and work - either continuing to write your exam responses or work on your book review. Your book review will be due on Monday.

Also, please email me at lianne.raymond@sd71.bc.ca so I can compile your emails for a discussion list. And let's think about our next movie night.

Cheers!

ps - you can also email me if you have any questions about your book review or your exam.

Final Exam

1. Have you become cosmopolitan? This is the most important question on the whole exam. Answer the questions at the end of this quotation thoroughly before spending too much time on any other questions.

Asked where he came from, the ancient Greek Cynic philosopher Diogenes replied, "I am a citizen of the world." He meant by this, it appears, that he refused to be defined by his local origins and local group memberships, so central to the self-image of a conventional Greek male; he insisted on defining himself in terms of more universal aspirations and concerns. The Stoics who followed his lead developed his image of the kosmou politês or world citizen more fully, arguing that each of us dwells, in effect, in two communities -- the local community of our birth, and the community of human argument and aspiration that "is truly great and truly common, in which we look neither to this corner nor to that, but measure the boundaries of our nation by the sun" (Seneca, De Otio). It is this community that is, most fundamentally, the source of our moral obligations. With respect to the most basic moral values such as justice, "we should regard all human beings as our fellow citizens and neighbors" (Plutarch, On the Fortunes of Alexander). We should regard our deliberations as, first and foremost, deliberations about human problems of people in particular concrete situations, not problems growing out of a national identity that is altogether unlike that of others. Diogenes knew that the invitation to think as a world citizen was, in a sense, an invitation to be an exile from the comfort of patriotism and its easy sentiments, to see our own ways of life from the point of view of justice and the good. The accident of where one is born is just that, an accident; any human being might have been born in any nation. Recognizing this, his Stoic successors held, we should not allow differences of nationality or class or ethnic membership or even gender to erect barriers between us and our fellow human beings. We should recognize humanity wherever it occurs, and give its fundamental ingredients, reason and moral capacity, our first allegiance and respect.
This clearly did not mean that the Stoics were proposing the abolition of local and national forms of political organization and the creation of a world state. The point was more radical still: that we should give our first allegiance to no mere form of government, no temporal power, but to the moral community made up by the humanity of all human beings. The idea of the world citizen is in this way the ancestor and source of Kant's idea of the "kingdom of ends," and has a similar function in inspiring and regulating moral and political conduct. One should always behave so as to treat with equal respect the dignity of reason and moral choice in every human being.

Stoics who hold that good civic education is education for world citizenship recommend this attitude on three grounds. First, they hold that the study of humanity as it is realized in the whole world is valuable for self-knowledge: we see ourselves more clearly when we see our ways in relation to those of other reasonable people. (Martha Nussbaum)

How do you see yourself more clearly then you did at the start of this course? Has the "study of humanity as it is realized in the whole world" helped you to know your self better? Has it made you more cosmopolitan? How?


2. What 3 people you would invite to dinner and why.

3. Civilization has been a grand experiment. In your opinion, has it been a successful one?

4. Choose one of the quotes below and explain what it means:

Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock. - Sigmund Freud

We know next to nothing about virtually everything. It is not necessary to know the origin of the universe it is necessary to want to know. Civilization depends not on any particular knowledge, but on the disposition to crave knowledge. - George Will

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
-Ayn Rand

Ice is civilization. - Allie Fox

I Ching

http://www.homebrew.net/ching/

People of China

Research the ethnic group I've assigned you in the list below and make a minimum of three power point slides about your group which include the following (and anything else you find interesting):

-Map showing location of group within present day China
-Where they live besides China (in a significant number)
-Picture of some people in the ethnic group - traditional dress is a bonus
-Percentage of Chinese Population and total population #
-Language spoken
-Religion
-Note any unique cultural features (what distinguishes them from the rest of the Chinese population?)

Han - Renee and Sam
Zhuang - Eric and Richard
Manchu - Andrew and Ryan
Uyghurs - Tim and Tyler
Tibetan - Michael and Brady
Hui - Jeff and Megan
Miao/Hmong - Alesha and Chloe

Save your slides - on Monday we will put them all together into a group slideshow.

Listen Up - On the Road in China

Listen to this series of short reports from a reporter on the road in China.

Compare what you learn in these reports to what you know about The Silk Road in ancient times.

Also - read some excerpts from Marco Polo's diary from when he traveled the Silk Road.

SILK ROAD ASSIGNMENT

Hi kids! Sorry I am away today - trust that I am cozied up in my bed drinking Neo-Citron as you read this. So your mission, should you choose to accept it (actually, you have no choice) is to pick one of the cities along the Silk Road and find out everything you can about it - but particularly about the people/culture of the area (religion, food, language, etc). There are more than enough cities that everyone can pick a different one - no duplicating! Here is a list of them (select only from the Continental Silk Road). Nobody gets Constantinople/Istanbul - off limits!

This website has a ton of fabulous info about the Silk Road:

Silk Road Seattle

Islam

An Overview