Workbook
This is a students' workbook to accompany
'Thinking Through Ideas'
Thomas Hobbes
What would life be like if there was no higher authority than ourselves; if we were totally free to do whatever we liked, whenever we wanted?
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Go to Glossary for the meanings of words provided - http://www.rlfielding.com/glossaryforthinking.htm
Niccolo Machiavelli
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Why do you think people respect strong leaders? What kind of leader would you
respect most? Give reasons and examples in your answer.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Is it ever right to take someone else’s property without their consent? In what
circumstances?
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Thomas Jefferson
Write 500 words on the following topic.
What does the word ‘democracy’ mean? Do you think your own country is
democratic?
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Hannah Arendt
Write 500 words on the following topic.
How would you define ‘the human spirit’? Why would anyone want to crush it?
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Justice
Aristotle
Write 500 words on the following topic.
What is ‘justice’? Could you define it? Do you think your society is a just one or not?
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Frederick Douglass
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Do you think it is always right to treat people in different ways? Why do you think that?
Do you think you are fairly typical in the way you deal with other people?
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Henry David Thoreau
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Is government necessary? Why/Why not? What does a government do that cannot be done by individuals?
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In what sense can a particular person be said to be better than another?
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Martin Luther King Jr.
Write 500 words on the following topic.
What should people do if they are denied the right to protest over an ijustice? What should be the proper limit of protest?
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Wealth and Poverty
Adam Smith
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Is economic activity increased by competition? Are there any exceptions?
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Karl Marx
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Should the labour of man be treated as if it were any other factor of production such as land, plant and capital?
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John Kenneth Galbraith
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Is a certain amount of 'relative poverty' inevitable in a free and fair society? How could it be removed and would it be desirable to do so?
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Milton & Rose Friedman
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Is freedom of opportunity sufficient for everyone to be free? Is freedom of opportunity possible, and if not, what prevents it from being so?
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Robert B. Reich
Write 500 words on the following topic.
What is implied by the phrase, producing at the lowest cost'? Which variables would you include under costs?
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John Paul Getty
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Am I always free to spend my money how I wish? Do you think there are ever any exceptions, and if so, what are they?
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The Mind
Plato
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Which is the most vital of the five senses, or are they of equal importance to us? Could you rank them in importance and then give your reasons for choosing which is the most important and which the least?
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Sigmund Freud
Write 500 words on the following topic.
What part, if any, do you think your sub-conscious plays in your life? Can you provide examples?
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Carl Jung
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Do you think we are born with a certain amount of knowledge? If so, what sort of knowledge would that consist of? Does civilization add to or subtract from that stock of knowledge as we get older?
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Karen Horney
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Do you think there is a part of us that cannot be shared with anyone else - that belongs solely to each individual? If so, of what does it consist?
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Howard Gardner
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Of the 7 types of intelligence Howard Gardner proposes, which do you think is the most useful to us and why?
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Francis Crick
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Is it possible to describe what we see in words alone? Can we really say what a certain colur looks like without comparing it with something of the same colour?
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Nature
Francis Bacon
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Can we really be sure of anything? Is there such a thing as truth?
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Charles Darwin
Write 500 words on the following topic.
What are we implying when we place man at the top of the evolutionary pyramid? Why do we choose to think of ourselves as being at the top?
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Stephen Jay Gould
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Are animals capable of cruelty? Is man capable of cruelty? In what basic ways to we differ from beasts?
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Law and Order
Socrates
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Is living within the law a rational thing to do? Why? Why n ot?
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Robert Peel
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Who should control the police force? Should the police force be answerable to anyone, and if so, to whom?
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Rights
Alexis de Tocqueville
Write 500 words on the following topic.
What are the benefits of being free? What are the benefits of feeling free? Is there a difference between being free and feeling free?
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Mary Wollstonecraft
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Is equality between people possible? If it is not possible, shoulod we try to make it so? By what means?
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G.K. Chesterton
Write 500 words on the following topic.
If one person's rights clash with another's, who shaould decide whose rights are upheld?
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Carol Gilligan
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Do men and women need to be different to build society? Can they do each other's work equally well?
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Averting catastrophe
Aldo Leopold
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Is land ever worthless? Why is some land worth more? Are we right in deciding which land is wodrth more and which less?
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Donnella Meadows
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Why should we respect the Earth? Are there ever any circumstances when we should not respect it?
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Rachel Carson
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Do we have the right to use land and natural resources as we alone see fit? How can we limit our hunger for natural resources?
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William Wordsworth
Write 500 words on the following topic.
Is too much importance attached to commerce and trade? Is there another way to organize our lives, or is living by trading the only way?
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D. H. Lawrence
Write 500 words on the following topic.
What is the real value of the natural world to the individual? What price do we pay when we destroy it?
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