Essay topic:

Galileo is about to be put on trial for heresy. You will be the Church's prosecutor, Fra Diavolo. Your job is to prepare the most convincing opening speech you can, as Galileo's beliefs are not only wrong, but incredibly dangerous for the people and their church. Explain why Galileo is on trial -- you'll want to include information as where the earth-centric idea of the universe comes from, how it works, what Galileo's ideas are and how ideas like Galileo's upset people's understanding of how the Great Chain of Being works and therefore threaten basic belief.

Essay topic 2:

You are a philosophe with a great idea: what about bringing together all of the world's knowledge into a series of volumes, with essays on all sorts of current topics and lots of really high-quality illustrations? But how will you sell it? Create the script for an infomercial in which you set up a dialogue between a speaker (you) and a listener/responder/enthusiastic customer-to-be (who knows? Maybe even Rousseau, or Louis XV), to demonstrate how knowledge helps Reason (think of inductive and deductive reasoning here and how you could use one or both in your demonstration). Then explain how your plan for a series of books will be the best possible way to encourage Reason. (And don't forget to talk about just how much knowledge is out there and what you plan to include).