Assignment
1. Compare the strengths and weaknesses of these two worldviews:
Western, experimental, scientific
Religious, mythical, or magical
2. One of our themes this semester is that before several transformations, people looked to the past in order to make sense of their universe; people lived in a world with little change; people were not particularly optimistic. All of this changed, however, over the course of several centuries. In the readings this semester, where do you see people beginning to look to other sources than an authority from the past; beginning to experience and expect more and more change in their lives; and beginning to expect the future to be better than the present? You may gain insight by looking at your own or your classmates' responses there.