L3: Liberalism
Yellow Block
Agenda
Objective:
1.
To understand the key tenets of
liberal thought.
2.
To understand and reflect
meaningfully about how these
key ideas are rooted in liberals’
conception of liberty, equality,
and government.
3.
To apply these tenets to
understand how liberals might
view other issues.
Schedule:
1.
Opening activity
2.
Small group work on Liberalism
3.
Whole class discussion
4.
Checking for understanding
5.
Application of liberalism to
economics
Opening Activity:
1. How do you define
freedom/liberty?
2. How do you define equality?
3. What is the purpose of
government?
**You will also need to take
notes on a separate piece of
paper today!
Homework:
1. Work on Paragraphs
Teacher Review: L5 (Thurs
10/13)
Peer Review: L6 (Fri 10/14)
Self Review: L10 (Mon 10/24)
Final Revised: L13 (Fri 10/28)
L13: Revolutionary Changes in Political
Life: Liberalism
Agenda
Objective:
1.To understand the key tenets of liberal
thought.
2.To understand and reflect meaningfully
about how these key ideas are rooted in
liberals’ conception of liberty, equality, and
government.
3.To apply these tenets to understand how
liberals might view other issues.
Schedule:
1.What Do You Think?
2.Small group work on Liberalism
3.Whole class discussion
4.Application of liberalism to economics
Homework:
1. Consult unit
schedule.
REMINDER:
1.Conservatism
Reading
Due Thurs
2. All HW
Due Fri
3. Test on Fri!
What Do You Think?
• How do you define freedom/liberty?
• How do you define equality?
• What do you believe is the purpose of
government?
Introduction/ Historical
Context
Political Life Called Into Question After the
End of the Dual Revolutions (1815)
Industrial Revolution
~ Emergence of new
socioeconomic structure
French Revolution
~ Collapse of traditional
aristocracy
~ Emergence of ideals of
liberty, equality, and
fraternity
How would you describe life in 1815?
The Dual Revolutions Lead to the Development
of New Political Philosophies
• Political Philosophy
– Branch of philosophy that
deals with fundamental questions
about politics such as:
• What is freedom/liberty? Is it
important?
• What is equality? Is it important?
• What is the purpose of
government?
• Over the next two classes we
will look at two political
philosophies that emerged in
the wake of the dual
revolutions:
– Liberalism
– Conservatism
Liberalism
• Today we will explore the political
philosophy of liberalism.
• We will arrive at an
understanding of its key
beliefs/principles by exploring
how liberals understand the
concepts of liberty and equality
and what they see as the
purpose of government.
• To guide us in the process we will
engage with a classic liberal text,
On Liberty, written by John Stuart
Mill in 1859.
The Tenets of Liberalism
Developing & Refining Our Understanding
of Liberalism
• Group Work
– Read the excerpts from On Liberty.
– Discuss the following questions with your group:
• How does Mill define liberty?
• Why does Mill think freedom of
speech is so important? What does
this suggest about why he thinks
liberty is important?
• Given your understanding of how
Mill views liberty, how do you think
he understands equality?
• What does Mill think is the
purpose of government?
• Whole Class Discussion
Summarizing Liberalism
Develop a slogan
for liberalism!
Applying What We Have
Learned
Enrichment Discussion
• We have learned about
the development of two
economic systems in
the wake of the
Industrial Revolution:
capitalism and
communism. Which
economic system do
you think a classical
liberal would endorse:
capitalism or
communism. Why?