Deirdre McCaffrey

Mr. Pacia
Civics
28 May 2018
Theses Reflection
The main idea of our Hobbes and Leviathan was developing a thesis. This is a task I

personally have never found to be easy. In others’ works, I find it easier to recognize a thesis.

The Machiavelli reading recognizes the thesis of the philosopher it covers. The thesis of the

reading was that It is better to be feared than loved, for fear provokes people to wonder less and

act upon instinct more. Machiavelli wanted to instill that in order to gain the people’s attention,

you need to be a feared leader.

Identifying the thesis in Hobbes and Leviathan was not a difficult task, as we had already

spent time working with Hobbes, and the assignment was summarization and evaluating the

information. It was simple to find the thesis as we had already picked apart the assignment. In

the Machiavelli reading, I had to do the same thing that I did in the Hobbes and Leviathan. I

described the purpose, central idea, and bias of the document, thus leading to my discovery of

the thesis. When I did this in class, I was able to figure out the meaning behind the document. I

feel that I did well in this. In the Machiavelli reading I also had to write a thesis statement of my

own. I did in fact do this. I feel as though I did an okay job in developing this thesis. I

completed the necessary task and was able to develop this thesis after reading the works of

Machiavelli. I chose it for the portfolio because it was one of the only times that I wrote my

own thesis in this course.

Overall, I feel comfortable writing and recognizing theses. Overtime, it is a skill that is

built upon and acquired. The Hobbes and Leviathan and Machiavelli assignments were selected
for the thesis portion because they all contain a thesis and supporting details for that thesis. They

were sufficient in completing the required tasks. I believe this was one of the stronger portions of

my civics work this semester. I hope to improve on this skill in the future.