1 History 4445/01: The Age of the Enlightenment Spring 2015

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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).
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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
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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)
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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
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