HIS 8225-001 Prof. Jeffrey Johnson
Age of Enlightenment St. Aug. Ctr. 440
Spring 2002 Tel. (610) 519-7404
Wed. 5:20-7:20 Hrs.: MW 1-2:30pm & by appt.
SAC 401 (Rofinot Seminar Room) Jeffrey.Johnson@villanova.edu
Instructor's website: http://www11.homepage.villanova.edu/jeffrey.johnson/
AIM: This graduate course will examine some of the principal interactions between society, politics, and culture that characterized the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment, which arose out of the Scientific Revolution of the preceding century and in turn helped to shape the ideology of the American and French Revolutions that began during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. We will examine the ideas of the "enlightened" thinkers within their cultural, scientific, political and socioeconomic context. We will also consider their linkage to problems of class, gender, and ethnic relations. Special topics can be explored according to the interests of participants.
BOOKS: The following required paperbacks are available at the Villanova Bookstore.
Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (Cambridge U. Press, 1995)
Isaac Kramnick, Enlightenment Reader (Penguin, 1995)
Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution (Doubleday, 1955)
Voltaire,
Candide (Penguin)
Denis Diderot, Rameau's Nephew & d'Alembert's Dream (Penguin)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract & Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (Washington Square Press)
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Norton Critical Ed.)
WORK AND EVALUATION: The class work will primarily involve discussions based on the common readings and a couple of short oral reports each week to highlight significant issues and analyze additional readings on special subjects. Oral participation will be graded (20 % of total grade, including 10 % for two oral reports). Written work will include two short review essays (about 5-7 pages, 20% each, based on your oral-report topics; papers to be submitted a week after the oral report is due & may be revised for regrading) plus a medium-length analytical/bibliographical paper (about 10-15 pages) on a topic to be chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor (first draft: 10 %; final revision: 30%).
Late work and plagiarism: The
following warnings are included for the record.
If you do not complete your written work when it is due, and if you do not have an adequate excuse (such as illness), your maximum possible grade will be reduced by one letter grade after each week the assignment is overdue.
The instructor will not tolerate plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty; students handing in work which is demonstrably not their own, or which involves dishonest manipulation or misrepresentation of sources, can expect to be disciplined according to standard university procedures. The penalty for first offenders in graduate courses is a failing grade in the course.
OUTLINE AND READING SCHEDULE:
Week 1 (1/15) Introduction
Week 2 (1/22) Historical origins of the Enlightenment: the "Old Regime"
Read: Outram, ch. 1; Tocqueville, Pts. I, II, and chs. 1-3 of Pt. III.
Week 3 (1/29) The Enlightenment in context: a "Republic of Letters" and its kings
Read: Outram, chs. 2, 7; Kramnick, pp. 1-38, 452-459
Oral reports: To be assigned
Week 4 (2/5) Science and religion
Read: Outram, chs. 3-4; Kramnick, pp. 39-180
Oral reports: TBA
Week 5 (2/12) The search for a rational humanity and an ideal education
Read: Kramnick, pp. 181-202, 209-242; Voltaire, Candide (entire)
Oral reports: TBA
Week 6 (2/19) The ideal of progress; applying reason to social and political reform
Read: Kramnick, pp. 351-424, 473-480; Rousseau, "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality"
Oral reports: TBA
Week 7 (2/26) A scientific view of life?
Read: Diderot, "D'Alembert's Dream"; Kramnick, pp. 202-209 (LaMettrie)
Oral reports: TBA
(3/5) No class - Spring Break
Week 8 (3/12) Manners, morals, and art
Read: Kramnick, pp. 242-256, 264-349; Diderot, "Rameau's Nephew"
Oral reports: TBA
Week 9 (3/19) The implications of Rousseau's General Will
Read: Rousseau, "The Social Contract"
Oral reports: TBA
Week 10 (3/26) Enlightened economics and justice
Read: Kramnick, pp. 480-546
Oral reports: TBA
Week 11 (4/2) From Enlightenment to revolution
Read: Outram, ch. 8; Kramnick, pp. 442-452, 459-472; Tocqueville, Pt. III, chs. 4-8
Oral reports: TBA
Week 12 (4/9) Unresolved problems of liberty, equality, and "brotherhood": gender and race
Read: Outram, chs. 5-6; Kramnick, pp. 560-618, 629-669; Wollstonecraft (pp. TBA)
Oral reports: TBA
Week 13 (4/16) No class; complete analytical essay first drafts & email to class)
Week 14 (4/23) Discuss first set of analytical essays
Week 15 (4/30) Discuss second set of analytical essays
ESSAYS RETURNED FOR REVISION
REVISIONS WILL BE DUE 5/9: Final paper drafts should be emailed to instructor or mailed/dropped off to arrive by 1 pm on Friday, May 9, at Department of History, St. Augustine Ctr. 401, Villanova Univ., 800 Lancaster Ave., Villanova, PA 19085-1699