Part I:
Expectations of Citizens
Document 1
| Writing about the early Renaissance: "The individual's chief concern was to increase his standard of living within his class, whether noble, bourgeois, churchman, or peasant-proprietor" (Hale 176). |
Document 2
| Written by Cicero, a Roman philosopher: "The private citizen ought to live on fair and equal terms with his fellow citizens, with a spirit neither servile and abject nor yet domineering" (qtd. in Kohl and Witt 125). |
Document 3
| On the magnificence of Renaissance Florence in 1403: ". . . I should really be talking about the people . . . and the virtue, industry, and kindness of the citizen-body, which is Florence's greatest treasure and among the first things that ought to come to mind" (Bruni 149). |
Questions to discuss:
- In Document 1, how is the "chief concern" of a Renaissance citizen different from that of a contemporary American? How is the "chief concern" similar?
- Can Document 2 be said to be true today in America? Why or why not?
- In what ways would "Florence's greatest treasure" be its people?
- Of the three qualities listed in Document 3, which do you consider the most important to good citizenship? Why?
- Can it be said that American society is in general virtuous, industrious, and kind? Give specific examples of Americans who embody each of these characteristics, and Americans who do not demonstrate these characteristics.
- Do the Americans who are not virtuous, industrious, or kind do any harm to society by reason of their negative characteristics?
Please re-evaluate your questions and answers about the good citizen. Add new thoughts and cross off any ideas that no longer seem correct.
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