Assignment for Wednesday (Group #2)

This assignment asks you to write about Silver, using concepts drawn from Kant (the reading due for next Wednesday) or Marcuse (the reading we discussed in class on Friday). Here's how.

1) You want to first identify a concept or idea at work in Marcuse or Kant -- for instance, the concept of enlightenment (Kant) or the concept of the pacification of nature (Marcuse). Briefly sketch out that idea/argument, then briefly discuss your own relationship to it; you might advocate or resist the idea of enlightenment, or of the pacification of nature, for instance.

2) Make an argument for or against Silver (focusing on some specific section or idea, using at least one passage) using Marcuse or Kant.

This probably sounds more complicated than it is. For instance: "X is the fundamental problem I have with the idea of enlightenment. Silver's book - which he presents as being part of the Enlightenment tradition - is flawed because he, too, has this problem."

Ideally you should be able to make this into an essay. Because of the difficulty of the texts, though, I don't necessarily expect finished, polished essays. If you show a sharp understanding of the texts and raise some good questions, that will be an accomplishment in itself.