Consider the value of curiosity and knowledge: do they liberate or endanger human beings? Is our ambition to learn as much as possible about as many things as possible a positive or a negative (moral) force? Are there questions we should leave unanswered, or is the universe the limit?

Your support PPT includes a longish quotation from Roger Shattuck’s 1996 study Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography. Shattuck’s ideas may be a sufficient prompt for your J2 post; you may agree or disagree with him. Alternatively, you may use Shattuck as a way launch your response and then address (a) one or more of the literary works included Unit 2 (Milton’s Paradise Lost_Ch 15, Goethe’s Faust_Ch 17, Shelley’s Frankenstein_Ch 17) or (b) one of the themes suggested by the remaining images in your PPT. Da Vinci, Vesalius, and Rembrandt point toward the study of anatomy specifically, and medicine in general, but you may also consider a more contemporary scientific field such as genetic engineering, nuclear physics, or space exploration. (250-350 words, single-spaced; writing rubric applies. Set to allow editing.)

Input: your knowledge of the Renaissance in general (WH Ch 11 -13); WH Ch 15_Paradise Lost; Ch 16_Scientific Revolution; Ch 17_Faust; Ch 17_Frankenstein; and the J1_support PPT in the Journal PPT folder. *Be reminded that you do not need to read any of the literary works in full to discuss to their general themes. Use your Western Humanities textbook as a guide.