Description

From Immanuel Kant's answer to this question in 1784 to Michel Foucault's engagement with the same question and answer in 1984, two centuries had passed and a lot of water had flown under the bridge. From the inception of its ideals in the Anglo-Saxon world in the seventeenth century at the hands of Spinoza, John Locke and Isaac Newton, to its development in France in the eighteenth century by Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau and culmination with the writings of Immanuel Kant, the Enlightenment developed into an important intellectual movement which helped shape modernity and its repercussions in the contemporary world. This course will trace the history of Enlightenment in primary sources, enriched by a collection of secondary readings, and will explore contemporary reflections on Enlightenment from various schools of thought ranging from Marxism to feminism and from postmodernism to conservatism. The course will address the themes of reason and rationality, science and knowledge, religion and religious institutions, tolerance and intolerance, ethics and morality.

Enrollment Limited: No
Open to BTI Students: No
Jointly offered as History of Science 166

Course website

Scheduling

0.50 credits
Fall 2012
Tues 2pm-4pm
FAS Science Center Room 252

Relationship to Program Requirements

Program Requirement	Area / Category / Art / Designation
MTS Area(s) of Focus	Philosophy of Religion Religion and the Social Sciences
MDiv Distribution Category/ies	Non-Tradition Specific
MDiv Art(s) of Ministry	None
Language Course Designation(s)	None