Remember that the assignments for this course exist with the provision that the lowest of the grades (there is a total of three assignments, including this one) is dropped.  So if you have grades with which you are satisfied on the first two assignments, you need not do this one unless you wish to do so.

If you are submitting this assignment, it is due on December 3rd.  You may submit it by e-mail as an attachment or turn it in by the traditional paper method.  I prefer the former method of submission, but if you can't do it that way for whatever reason, turning it in on paper is certainly acceptable.

For this last paper, the assignment is the following.  Give a brief but clear account of what political rationalism is, and what Michael Oakeshott thinks is wrong with rationalism in politics.  Then, using this general theme, explain the way in which you believe the rationalist method is used in some other particular realm where you believe it ought not to be used, or in which some other method of knowing would serve better, or even in a realm in which you believe it is appropriately used, and why you hold this position.  You know, for example, that Oakeshott himself applies the notion of the inapplicability or inappropriateness of rationalist method to education.  In what other realm (business, industry, a profession of some sort, or some other example of human activity) is rationalist method applied?  Is it appropriately applied?  Why or why not?  Defend your position.

This paper should be 4-5 pages in length, double-spaced, and CHECKED FOR ERRORS.  

Thank you all for a very enjoyable semester in a course that has been, for all of us, quite a challenge in many ways.