Essay Questions

Question 1

What were the advantages and disadvantages of agriculturalist and of domestication on rudimentary human societies?

Answer 1

Advantage
•Less transient lives - humans began to settle more permanently, which eliminated uncertainties about future locations and led to cities
•Controllable, dependably food supply
•Can create food surplus to sustain larger populations, healthier humans
•Eventually connected settlements through trade
•Facilitated innovation

Disadvantage
•Agriculturalists had to radically change landscapes
•Increased consumerism. = increase in harm to planet, such as deforestation and damming
•Domestication required requires herding
Aren’t that many animals which can be domesticated

Neutral
•Affected kinship systems, political organization, and social relations

Question 2

What factors created a common cultural outlook among Muslim communities in Afro-Eurasia during this era?

Answer 2

•Trade links and mutual cooperate as a result
•Constitutional stipulations, first in Medina, that emphasized equality and loyalty to (umma) community
•A belief in and submission to one God
•A unified moral code to regulate every day life
Worship that centred on the kaaba, which was encourage particularly through the hajj
•A focus on social justice that created a sense of mutual responsibility

Question 3

If we consider the freedoms of the Western world today (freedom of speech, expression, assembly, conscience/religion, egalitarianism and equality, free market economies, democracy, etc.), how do you think the Reformation might have contributed to the escalation and refinement of such freedoms?
What impact did the Enlightenment have on 18th-century European society?

Answer 3

• The doctrine of sola scritura encourages individualistic and unilateral decision-making on matters of faith, which a nascent form of freedom of speech/expression
• The teaching of “priesthood of all believers” encourages equality in decisions on faith and theology that had equal merit, which also had a democratic quality
• The Gutenberg press helped increase literacy to encourage freer, quicker, and more wide-spread intellectual activity, decision-making, and debate
• “Localiszing” revenue in the form of tithes suggests decreased regulation by hierarchal institutions and freer, more privatized economic activity as a result, which anticipates rise of capitalism
• Read for yourself = think for yourself

Question 4

What impact did the Enlightenment have on 18th-century European society?

Answer 4

• Produced greater egalitarian consciousness - more emphasis on equality
• Voltaire’s and Diderot’s alphabetical listing vs. previously hierarchies of categories
• Well-being was more holistic than just financial -included health, employment, freedom
• Greater sense of one’s responsibility to participate in and work towards progress in society,
• Happiness for greatest amount rather than the few
• More sentimental consciousness that became more attuned to human suffering, which led to reduction in causes of suffering (ex. harsh punishments)
• Reason + intellect was at the heart of material and moral progress, which bred a newfound optimism and emphasis on utility
• Determining right from wrong (moral progress) was done by interpreting what gave greatest happiness to greatest number of people
• Common sense emphasized through public debate and freedom to refine ideas and hear common interests in the open