Your mid-term will have two sections.  Section I will be comprised of short answer, identification essay questions.  In the second section, you will choose 2 out of 5-6 long, critical/explanatory essay questions.

1.  What is Plato's tripartite division of the soul and the state?  What does it have to do with human equality?
2.  What is Aristotle's conception of equality?
3.  The distinction in Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes and Paine between Democracy, Oligarchy, and Aristocracy.
4.  The resolutive-compositive method in Hobbes's political thought
5. Rousseau's "historical" account of mutual valuation and how it is related to his conception of the role of government.
6.  Marx's concept of the "negation of the negation" and its relationship to alienation.
7.  Iris Young's discussion of the insufficiency of principles of distribution and social atomism.
8.  Paine's distinction between natural rights and civil rights
9.  Mill's Harm Principle/Tyranny of the Majority
10. Berlin's concepts of positive and negative freedom

II.
1.  How do the conceptions of human equality in the views of Hobbes and Rousseau differ?  What, in your considered view, is the influence of their conceptions of equality on their moral and political thought?

2.  Among the conceptions of human equality in the works of Tawney, Von Hayek, Rawls, Nozick, and Dworkin, which one, in your considered view, is most credible?  Why is this the case?  What is wrong with at least one of the others that you did not hold to be strongest?

3.  In your considered view, does Rawls' proposal of two patterned principles of justice solve the problems of fairness and equality in society?  How do you think Paine would have replied to Rawls's system of thought regarding principles of justice?  Why is this the case?

4.  What is Marx's position regarding human equality and human good?  How do you suppose Marx would have replied to Nozick's entitlement theory?  Why?

5.  What are Paine's primary arguments against hereditary rule?  How does he justify the claim that society is produced by our wants and desires, but government is produced by our wickedness?

6.  In your view, and considering the commentary of Isaiah Berlin, is Mill's view of the celebration of human individuality consistent with his elitism?  What is the status, according to Berlin, of Mill's argumentation concerning liberty?

7.  How do Hobbes and Paine differ in their conceptions of sovereignty?  Justify your answer.