Hey Guys sorry for the late post, I originally posted my outline and thesis statement yesterday, but for some reason it did not load on to our blog. So here is my second attempt, I will just give you guys my brief outline and thesis/intro and will give a more elaborate draft on my paper on my blog posting day when it is due! But for now here are my basic outline thoughts:
Thesis: While many believe censorship to be a necessity in certain contexts, the concept of censorship is intrinsically at fault in its attempt to control and thus halt the advance of knowledge, as seen evident in the censorship of Enlightenment thinkers after the creation of the printing press in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Outline: 1. Introduce censorship methods in antiquity
2. Discuss invention of printing press and its implications of censorship
3. Discuss enlightenment thinkers and how censorship limited their transmitting of knowledge
4. Discuss origin of censorship (laws, etc)
5. Refute opposition
6. Conclude
and here is my first draft intro paragraph:
The concept of censorship in its true essence is control. Censorship is created as a direct result of an authority that has a set system of beliefs or morals, weighing knowledge and information with that moral system. These authorities have historically been organized religions, governments, and leaders of civilizations. If these authorities believe a certain work of knowledge to be contradictory to their set principles or laws then they use censorship as a way to control that knowledge so as to avoid corruption and dissent. In antiquity, the form of censorship was usually simple: arrest, destroy, silence, kill, or threaten the voice that is acting against the established belief system. But a man named Johannes Gutenberg unknowingly created a paradigm shift in the history of censorship with the invention of the printing press. The ability to spread knowledge through the form of text and print suddenly was available to the public. This new process of communicating knowledge so seamlessly posed new and much more complex issues to authorities in the control of knowledge that was contrary to their systems of belief. While the censorship of certain controversial works and texts are considered a necessity, the censorship of such works is still a halt to the free communication of knowledge, the consequences of this limitation of knowledge has historically been negative and proves the intrinsic fault in the method of censorship.
Your argument and outline sound great, Andrew. I like the line with "arrest, destroy, silence..." Very attention grabbing. You might change the wording of your thesis a little by changing "as seen evident" to "evident" or "as evidenced by".
ReplyDeleteGreat input, thanks Jenna. Yeah I was trying to be a little dramatic there and your right the thesis is a little wordy. I'll definitely make some revisions to it.
ReplyDeleteI like the dramatic effect, haha.
ReplyDeleteAs we learned, the printing press really did contribute significantly to the production of materials for the general public, thus inciting them to action. However, this became the unfortunate result of the Enlightenment. As soon as the State and Church stepped in, the printing press itself was in danger of getting thrown out.
We definitely found something interesting here!
Indeed we did Ted. It was great working with you and thanks for the tips on the Korean Keyboard cover!
ReplyDeleteWow! I think you really chose a challenging topic to deal with. Well, this would certainly with thesis help for other people who are also writing academic composition on the same topic of yours. Anyway, did you already finish your paper?
ReplyDeletei have indeed
DeleteStumble across this in the process writing a paper on censorship and it's importance,absolutely loved it, almost made me change my mind about it, wondering how the rest of the paper turned out, would love to look at counter arguments on the subject
ReplyDelete