CVSP 202 Final, Spring 2001

CS 202 Final Examination Sections 21 & 25 (Kassab) June 6, 2001 Time: 2 hours Please write TWO essays: ONE from Part I and ONE from Part I (50% each) Part I: In this course you read a number of medieval texts dealing with faith and reason. Which conception of faith did you like best? Present it and compare with another one which liked less. Focus your presentation and your comparison around the relationship of faith with the following issues: human understanding, mystical experience, freedom, authority, _ tolerance, science and politics. Which one of the ideas concerning these relationships do you find pertinent for our Arab world today? Part I: Write an essay on ONE of the following topics 1 a) Present three of the central ideas in Martin Luther’s protest against the established Church of his time. Is any one or more of these ideas to be found in the other authors you read? b) Present three of Luther’s ideas that contributed to the development of modern Western culture. How do you evaluate this contribution? Explain fully. 2. Here are quotations from Ibn Khaldun (quoting in turn Tahir b. al- Husayn) and Machiavelli respectively: “God has been benevolent to you. He has made it obligatory for you to show kindness to those of His servants whom He has made your subjects. He has made it your duty to be just to them, to see to it that His rights and punishments are observed in connection with them, to defend them and protect their families and women, to prevent bloodshed, to make their roads safe, and to enable them to live in peace. God will punish you in connection with the duties He has placed upon you (if you do not take care of them properly). He will make them your concern and hold you responsible for them and reward you for (the good deeds) you have done or (the evil deeds you have) not done.” “But since my intention is to say something that will prove of practical use to the inquirer, I have thought it proper to represent things as they are in a real truth, rather than as they are imagined. Many have dreamed up republics and principalities which have never in truth been known to exist; the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done moves towards seif-destruction rather than self-preservation.” a) Compare and contrast the two philosophies of governing that are expressed in these quotations by Ibn Khaldun and Machiavelli by presenting three points of similarity and three points of difference between these philosophies. b) Evaluate these philosophies according to their efficiency and according the principles they are based upon.