Condorcet's Progress of the Human Mind (extra credit)

I summarized for you Condorcet's Progress of the Human Mind in class.  You will get a somewhat better feel for Condorcet is you read the essay for yourself.  Please read through this abridged version.  What do you see here that adds to or modifies the impressions of Condorcet you got from lecture? 

The French Encyclopedia (extra credit)

Reading the articles in Diderot's Encyclopedia is one of the best ways to understand the French Enlightenment. It shows the attitudes of the philosophes toward everything from Islam to Women to Intolerance to History. While the online translation of the Encyclopedia articles does not include the wonderful illustrations of the original, you will probably still find much of interest.

Browse to an article on a topic of interest to you. Comment on what you found particularly interesting in that article.

Rousseau's Ribbon Story (extra credit)

As part of my introduction to Rousseau, I retell his "ribbon story."  I have to shorten things up quite a bit, and my cartoon version may be a bit misleading.  Please read the original version of the ribbon story and
compare it to the version of the story I told in class.  How does reading the original version of the story add to your impressions of Rousseau?  Do you find yourself more sympathetic to him or less sympathetic to him?  Does the version of the story I told you in class seem close enough to the original, or do you think that students definitely should read the original version and draw their own conclusions?

Get Involved!

I like to encourage my students to participate in extra-curricular events whenever they have time. I especially like to encourage to get involved with fine arts events on campus, and I occasionally give an extra credit point or two to students who participate in these vents.

I'd like to particularly encourage you to participate in the Constitution Day events on Wednesday, September 17.  You can get extra credit for attending either Dr. Schaff''s presentation at noon in the NSU library or Lt. Col. Christopher Lindberg;ss presentation at 8:00 p.m. in Krikac Auditorium.

Dr. Schaff's talk is titled, "Our Once and Future Constitution. "Lt. Col. Lindberg's title is "Calling Forth the Militia: The Constitution and the Armed Services."  Both talks should be of interest to Northern students, and they are relevant to some of the themes we will be talking about in History 122.

I'd also like to encourage you to attend the faculty recital on Thursday, September 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Krikac recital hall. NSU has an amazing music faculty, and, for music lovers, getting a chance to hear them perform is an opportunity not to be missed.

To get extra credit for any of the above events, just click on the comment button below and share your impressions of the presentation.  What did you learn?  What did you particularly enjoy? 
 

Welcome!

Congratulations! You have successfully navigated to Inherently Interesting Fall 2014, the most wonderful, most interesting, and most important blog at this particular URL. Your comments and questions on this blog will help make the class even more wonderful and interesting--and occasionally earn you a bit of extra credit!

 To add your comments, click on the "comments" link immediately below. You may leave your comments as an "anonymous" blogger so that you don't have to set up an account. On extra credit assignments, be sure to include your name at the end of the post so I know who to give credit to.

To get started, here's a test of the History 122 extra credit system. Click the "comments" link below and give me your honest answer: what's the first thing that comes into your head when you here the word history?