Lesson Plan
Lesson Preview | Objectives
Lesson Preview
Each of us has a belief system about what is
right and what is wrong. We also have a sense of what justice entails. We have a
certain understanding of logic and reason, and we think of certain things as
duties and responsibilities.
The system of law in Western civilization did not just evolve over the last few
hundred years. Instead, this system is rooted in cultures that thrived thousands
of years ago: namely, the Greek and Roman cultures. In the same way, our beliefs
in right and wrong, duty, and responsibility, are based in the Judeo-Christian
ethic. In this lesson, we will learn about the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian
influences on law and beliefs in the Western World.
When you have completed this lesson, you will be able to
describe the similarities and differences in Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman views of law, reason, faith, and duty,
show the development of the Western political ideas of the rule of law and illegitimacy of tyranny, using selections from Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics, and
compare the major ideas of
philosophers and their effects on the democratic revolutions in England, the
United States, France, and Latin America.
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B. J. Subbiondo © 2004