History 4445/01: The Age of the Enlightenment Spring 2015 MW 8:00 – 9:15 AM, EB 170 Dr. Gerrit Voogt Office: SO 4106 Office hours: MW 10:00-11:30 AM, or by appointment Contact: by D2L Required Texts: Isaac Kramnick (ed.), The Portable Enlightenment Reader. Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN 0-14-024566-9 - henceforward indicated as PER Voltaire, Candide and Other Stories. Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-19-2807269 Montesquieu, Persian Letters. Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0140442812 Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. ISBN 978-0-312-46842-2 1. Course description: This course offers an examination of Enlightenment thought through a contextualized discussion of major developments in European thought during the eighteenth century. Topics include rationalism and the notion of the social applicability of science, the idea of progress, the critique of established religion, new economic theories, and epistemological interests as expressed in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert. The Enlightenment brought a major transformation in the intellectual history of Europe and its New World extensions, and this course will explore and analyze this change and the nature of the "new thinking" that ran counter to established traditions, chiefly through a close reading of primary texts. 2. Course requirements: 1. The students are expected to come to class prepared, i.e. you must be able (and, of course, eager) to discuss the assigned readings. Overall class participation plays a role in the determination of the final grade. You are allowed two absences; each additional unexcused absence from class causes an automatic reduction of the ten points for participation by one half point. 2. Most of the handouts for this course will be made available through D2L; it is the student’s responsibility to print and bring these materials to class, to keep up with the calendar and possible revisions of the syllabus posted on D2L. 3. There will be a midterm and a final exam on the collective readings and the topics discussed in class. Regular short quizzes will be given on the readings. You will write a research paper and make a short class presentation on your research (separate instructions will be posted). 1 4. Grading is as follows: Reading quizzes Midterm Paper Presentation Final Participation (Total) 10 20 20 10 30 10 100 Letter grades are assigned as follows: A=90-100; B=80-89; C=70-79; D=60-69; F=1-59. 5. Absence from an exam or class presentation will result in a zero grade. In case of a medical or other emergency, contact me before or on the day of the exam, and submit the proper documentation. 6. Arrive promptly; late arrivals will be counted as absent if over fifteen minutes late. If you have to leave class early, inform the instructor at the beginning of class. Use laptops only for class purposes. CELL PHONES MUST BE TURNED OFF DURING CLASS. Don’t annoy the class and embarrass yourself! In case of an anticipated emergency, please set phone to vibrate and inform the instructor. 7. Academic integrity: No student shall receive, attempt to receive, knowingly give or attempt to give unauthorized assistance in the preparation of any work required to be submitted for credit (including examinations, laboratory reports, essays, themes, term papers, etc.). Unless specifically authorized, the presence and/or use of electronic devices during an examination, quiz, or other class assignment is considered cheating. Engaging in any behavior which a professor prohibits as academic misconduct in the syllabus or in class discussion is cheating. When direct quotations are used, they should be indicated, and when the ideas, theories, data, figures, graphs, programs, electronic based information or illustrations of someone other than the student are incorporated into a paper or used in a project, they should be duly acknowledged. No student may submit the same, or substantially the same, paper or other assignment for credit in more than one class without the prior permission of the current professor(s). 3. Course schedule: readings and test/exam dates indicated in bold. January 7 Introduction--intellectual history; preliminary definitions PER 1-17 (Kant & D’Alembert) January 14 The Scientific Revolution and the January 12 Backgrounds: Europe 1500-1700 2 Enlightenment PER 26-41 (Condorcet & Bacon); PER 51-60 (Voltaire); PER 181185 (Descartes) January 21 The Enlightenment in brief; Travel literature as critique PER 265-274 (Diderot & Tahiti) Winks & Kaiser (D2L) January 19 MLK-day: no classes January 26 January 28 Travel and “science fiction”: “Micromégas” (in Candide); Montesquieu’s comparative critique (see tutorial) Montesquieu, Persian Letters February 4 Reason, humanity, and bienfaisance. PER 185-187, 222-228 (Locke); 242-256 (Mandeville, Fable of the Bees; Pope); 202-209 (La Mettrie) February 11 The philosophes & religion I: Deism & natural religion Porter, ch. 4; PER, 96101 (Newton); 115-134 (Voltaire); 160167 (Franklin, Jefferson); 174-180 (Thomas Paine). February 18 The philosophes & religion III: materialism and atheism PER 140-150 (D’Holbach). Fictional travel: Voltaire’s Candide. Voltaire, Candide (test) February 2 Montesquieu continued Montesquieu, Persian Letters February 9 Diderot, D'Alembert & the Encyclopédie. PER 17-21 (Diderot) – See http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/ February 16 The philosophes & religion II – skepticism & agnosticism PER 134-140 (Rousseau); 160-168 (Jefferson & Franklin); 75-81 (Bayle); 109-115 (David Hume). *Paper proposal due February 23 February 25 The philosophes & religious tolerance PER Conclusions; Review for Midterm 81-90 (Locke) March 2 March 4 Midterm exam (bring Blue/ Green Book) An Enlightenment for Women? PER 568579 (Rousseau); 591-601 (Macaulay’s rebuttal of Rousseau) March 9 An Enlightenment for Women? (cont’d) PER 609-618 (Olympe de Gouges); 618628 (Wollstonecraft) March 16 The Enlightenment and economics: Physiocrats, and Adam Smith. PER, 496- March 11 Discussion of the planned papers, research, citation, structure March 18 Jonathan Israel’s Radical Enlightenment – Spinoza (readings on D2L) 3 515 (Quesnay, Smith). March 23 The Radical Enlightenment continued (readings on D2L) March 25 Political ideas of the Enlightenment PER 395-415 (Locke; Montesquieu) Paper progress reports I March 30 Rousseau – Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality Paper progress reports II April 1 Rousseau –Discourse cont’d; The Social Contract PER 430-441 Paper progress reports III April 13 Political ideas of the Enlightenment: conclusions Writings TBA Paper progress reports IV April 15 Paper progress reports VI Reflections on the paper topics Paper progress reports V April 20 Research/writing day –professor available for consultation April 22 Enlightenment and Revolution D2L readings; PER 459-466 (Madison); 466-468 (Decl. of Rights of Man and Citizen); 469-472 (Paine, Rights of Man) April 29 Conclusions and review April 27 Enlightenment and Revolution continued Term papers due May 6 Final Exam 8:00-10:00 Bring Blue/Green Book 4