Asst. Prof.

William Coker
Cultures, Civilizations and Ideas
Humanities 112
5 March 2019

First Part of the Course Project

Choose one of the following assignments and write at least 1000 words. The assignment
is due on March 15.

1.
Compare two productions of the same scene of “The Tempest” from two different theater
companies or films. You may find the scene either on YouTube or in the film section of the
library. Pay attention to differences in how characters interact and deliver certain lines, as
well as costumes and scenery. How do these differences amount to two different
interpretations of the play?

2.
Choose a scene of “The Tempest,” for example, Act 1 scene 2, or Act 2 scene 3. Imagine that
you are directing your own version of the play. Describe how you would present the play, in a
new setting or time period that you consider appropriate to what happens in the play. Discuss
details of how the characters should deliver specific lines or passages and explain at the end
how your version amounts to a specific interpretation of the play. You may not choose Act 1,
scene 1. Gimmicks like rain coming down from the ceiling of the theater or the audience’s
seats moving will not contribute to a good grade for this assignment; true creativity and
insight will.

3.
Explain in four steps how you might use Descartes’s method to solve a problem in your own
field of study (if you cannot think of an application of the method to your field, then choose
another topic).

4.
Choose three metaphorical passages in the Discourse on Method. Remember, “metaphorical”
means mecazi, figurative, not literal. One example may be the following:

…in this I would be imitating travelers who, finding themselves lost in some forest,
should not wander about turning this way and that, nor, worse, still, stop in one place,
but should always walk in as straight a line as they can in one direction and never
change it for feeble reasons…

What makes this passage metaphorical or figurative is that Descartes is not really concerned
with walking in a forest; rather, he is talking about the conduct of life in general, for which
walking in a forest serves as a metaphor.

Having chosen three metaphorical passages, explain what each one means—in literal
terms—and make connections between them, so that your paper as a whole tells me
something about Descartes’s larger argument. If the first three passages you find do not
connect to each other in any interesting ways, than find other passages to work with.