Prompt
Arguably, Bacon and Descartes represent two responses to the perceived stagnation of the scholastic method of reasoning. What was wrong with scholasticism in their views? How do the responses of Bacon and Descartes differ? Compare and contrast these two responses - in your assessment, which response is more successful? Are their views incompatible with each other? Use specific examples.
Sources: Feel free to use additional sources. However, you must cite all your sources! You should specify where you use ideas from external sources even when you don't literally cite them. Listing sources you used at the end would never be sufficient. If I cannot locate the source of your claim from your citations, then you have failed to cite correctly. If you make substantive interpretive or historical claims which do not appear in lectures and are not backed up with citations, you will be penalized a full letter grade! A good starting place for sources is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Also, you may want to practice using Stanford's library resources and databases (e.g. jstor.org) as you will need to use them later in the semester. Remember to treat your sources critically - try and cross check claims; try and assess the reliability of your source. In addition, always make sure to appeal to concrete examples to help explain key concepts and illustrate your arguments.