Current course offerings

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Course description

Modern liberal society claims adherence, amongst other things, to three simple aspirations: it is better to cooperate than to wage war, it is better to acknowledge human rights than to deny them, and, perhaps most of all, it is better to be fair and rational than to be partial and prejudicial. These notions - as much as we take them for granted now - were consolidated in a movement we now call the "Enlightenment". Through the critical reading of selected texts, this course examines the commitments that emerged from these notions in European thought and history and asks whether it is now more accurate to speak of various, differently premised and expressed, enlightenments. It considers the impact of enlightenment ideas in the philosophy, art, politics and societies they helped create. The course also considers objections that have been raised against some of these ideas and what we think of these objections today.

Archived offerings