HIST 3222:
EUROPEAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY:
THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE PRESENT
Course Description:
This course will introduce students to significant texts, thinkers and the primary themes of Modern European Intellectual History. We will approach ideas as a reflection of specific historical contexts, rooting them in social, political, cultural, artistic and economic movements. Beginning with the roots of modern thought in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, we will trace the relationship between “Scientific Rationalism” and “anti-Rationalist” thought throughout the 19th and 20th centuries before ending with a discussion of major late 20th century intellectual movements.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:
UNIT ONE: ENLIGHTENMENT ROMANTICISM & REVOLUTION
Tuesday, July 8th: Introduction to the Course
Lecture on: The Scientific Revolution and the Age of Reason
Required Readings:
Pgs. 3-14: Introduction to Intellectual History, Methodology and Interpretation
Pgs. 249-257: On the Scientific Revolution
Optional readings:
Primary Sources:
Roger Cotes, Preface to Sir Isaac Newton’s “Principia” (pg. 237)
Rene Descartes, The Principles of Philosophy (pg. 315)
John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (pg. 329)
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Painting (pg. 381)
Wednesday, July 9th: The Fall of the Ancien Regime: Political Theory and Revolution
Readings:
Pgs. 357-363: On the Enlightenment
Primary Sources: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (pg. 337)
John Locke, Second Treatise on Government
Immanuel Kant: What is Enlightenment?
Baron de Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws (pg. 414)
Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (pg. 419)
Abbé de Sièyes, What is the Third Estate?
Thursday, July 10th: Romanticism
Readings:
Overview of Kant's Aesthetic Theory
Primary Sources:
Madame de Stäel, Germany (pg. 460)
William Blake, Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’ “Discourses” (pg. 474)
Johann Goethe: Faust (excerpts)
William Wordsworth: Tintern Abbey
Images of Romanticism in Painting
UNIT TWO: THE RATIONAL 19th CENTURY
Tuesday, July 15th: Industrial Change and 19th Century Political Ideologies
Readings:
Pgs. 451-460: On “The Century of Becoming”
Primary Sources:
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (pg. 433)
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (pg. 475)
Joseph DeMaistre, The Divine Origins of Constitutions
Jeremy Bentham, On the Principle of Utility (pg. 487)
Robert Owen, The New Moral Order (pg. 501)
Giusseppi Mazzini, On the Duties of Man (pg. 539)
Wednesday, July 16th: Hegel, Marx and the Idea of History
Readings:
Primary Sources:
GWF Hegel: The Dialectic of History
Karl Marx, On Man and History (pg. 528)
Friedrich Engels: The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844
Herr Eugen Dühring’s Revolution in Science (pg. 534)
Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Thursday, July 17th: The Idea of Progress: Positivism & Realism
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Samuel Smiles, Self-Help (pg. 494)
Herbert Spencer, Social Statics (pg. 499)
Auguste Comte, The Positive Philosophy (pg. 506)
A General View of Positivism
Claude Bernard, Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (pg. 514)
Emile Zola, The Experimental Novel (pg. 519)
The Paintings of Gustav Courbet
UNIT THREE: THE “IRRATIONAL” 19TH CENTURY
Tuesday, July 22nd: Imperialism, Nationalism & Social Darwinism
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man (pg. 546)
Karl Pearson, National Life from the Standpoint of Science (pg. 576)
Heinrich von Treitschke, Politics (pg. 580)
Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Foundations of the 19th Century (pg. 586)
Joseph Conrad: The Heart of Darkness
Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden
Pears Soap Advertisement I
Pears Soap Advertisement II
Pears Soap Advertisement III
Wednesday, July 23rd: The Crisis of Faith: Nietzsche & the “Death of God”
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Death of God (pg. 590)
The Gay Science
Thus Spake Zarathustra
The Genealogy of Morals
Ernst Haeckel, The Riddle of the Universe (pg. 563)
Wilhelm Dilthey, On Historical Relativism (pg. 595)
Alfred Fouillée, The Reaction Against Positivism (pg.598)
Thursday, July 24th: Mass Politics and 19th Century Sociology
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Gustave le Bon, The Crowd Man (pg. 603)
Graham Wallas, Nature in Politics (pg. 607)
Doestoevsky: Notes From Underground
Part I: Underground, chapter 1
Part II: A Propos of the Wet Snow, chapter 1
Georg Simmel: The Metropolis and Mental Life
Emil Durkheim: The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Introduction)
Max Weber: TBA
UNIT FOUR: MODERNISM
Tuesday, July 29th: Psychology and the Modern Consciousness
Readings:
Pgs. 623-634: On “The Age of Anxiety”
Primary Sources:
Sigmund Freud, Various Selections (pg. 690)
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (pg. 695)
Carl Jung, On the Collective Unconscious, (pg. 698)
Philipp Frank, On The Crisis and Science and Logical Positivism (pg. 664)
Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis, chapter 1
Bertrand Russell: Philosophic Consequences of Relativity
Wednesday, July 30th: The First World War, Modernism & the Arts
Readings:
Primary Sources:
F.T. Marinetti: The Futurist Manifesto
Wassily Kandinsky: Concerning the Spiritual in Art, conclusion
A Surrealist Manifesto: The Declaration of January 27, 1925
Siegfried Sassoon: Attack
T.S. Eliot: The Wasteland
Ernst Friedrich: War Against War (look through images)
WWI Poster
Thursday, July 31st: Politics in the Interwar Era
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Vladimir Lenin: What is to be Done? (pg. 705)
Vladimir Lenin: On Socialism and Religion and On Ethics (pg. 709-710)
Alfredo Rocco: On the Political Doctrine of Fascism (pg. 718)
Benito Mussolini: The Doctrine of Fascism (pg. 724)
Adolph Hitler: Mein Kampf (pg. 728)
Alfred Rosenberg: The Myth of the 20th Century (pg. 729)
UNIT FIVE: WORLD WAR II & THE POSTWAR WORLD
Tuesday, August 5th: Existentialism and Cultural Pessimism
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Jean Paul Sartre: Existentialism (pg. 657)
Søren Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling
Karl Jaspers: Way to Wisdom (pg. 661)
C. Virgil Gheorghiu: The Twenty-Fifth Hour (pg. 760)
Martin Heidegger: Existence and Being
Albert Camus: The Absurd Man
Wednesday, August 6th: Postwar Politics and Ethics
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Judge Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr.: Nuremberg in Retrospect
Hannah Arendt: The Origins of Totalitarianism
The UNESCO Questionnaire on Ideological Conflicts Concerning Democracy T(pg. 732)
Winston Churchill: On the Congress of Europe (pg. 737)
Thursday, August 7th: De-Colonization and Revolution
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Black Skin, White Masks (handout)
Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized (handout)
Arthur Koestler: Conversion to Communism (pg. 743)
Jean Paul Sartre: Materialism and Revolution (pg. 746)
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
Leon Trotsky, The Permanent Revolution
UNIT SIX: POSTMODERN THOUGHT
Tuesday, August 12th: What is Post-modernism?
Readings: TBA
Wednesday, August 13th: Post-structuralism & Critical Theory
Readings: TBA
Thursday, August 14th: FINAL EXAM
EUROPEAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY:
THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE PRESENT
Course Description:
This course will introduce students to significant texts, thinkers and the primary themes of Modern European Intellectual History. We will approach ideas as a reflection of specific historical contexts, rooting them in social, political, cultural, artistic and economic movements. Beginning with the roots of modern thought in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, we will trace the relationship between “Scientific Rationalism” and “anti-Rationalist” thought throughout the 19th and 20th centuries before ending with a discussion of major late 20th century intellectual movements.
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:
UNIT ONE: ENLIGHTENMENT ROMANTICISM & REVOLUTION
Tuesday, July 8th: Introduction to the Course
Lecture on: The Scientific Revolution and the Age of Reason
Required Readings:
Pgs. 3-14: Introduction to Intellectual History, Methodology and Interpretation
Pgs. 249-257: On the Scientific Revolution
Optional readings:
Primary Sources:
Roger Cotes, Preface to Sir Isaac Newton’s “Principia” (pg. 237)
Rene Descartes, The Principles of Philosophy (pg. 315)
John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (pg. 329)
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Painting (pg. 381)
Wednesday, July 9th: The Fall of the Ancien Regime: Political Theory and Revolution
Readings:
Pgs. 357-363: On the Enlightenment
Primary Sources: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (pg. 337)
John Locke, Second Treatise on Government
Immanuel Kant: What is Enlightenment?
Baron de Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws (pg. 414)
Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (pg. 419)
Abbé de Sièyes, What is the Third Estate?
Thursday, July 10th: Romanticism
Readings:
Overview of Kant's Aesthetic Theory
Primary Sources:
Madame de Stäel, Germany (pg. 460)
William Blake, Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’ “Discourses” (pg. 474)
Johann Goethe: Faust (excerpts)
William Wordsworth: Tintern Abbey
Images of Romanticism in Painting
UNIT TWO: THE RATIONAL 19th CENTURY
Tuesday, July 15th: Industrial Change and 19th Century Political Ideologies
Readings:
Pgs. 451-460: On “The Century of Becoming”
Primary Sources:
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (pg. 433)
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (pg. 475)
Joseph DeMaistre, The Divine Origins of Constitutions
Jeremy Bentham, On the Principle of Utility (pg. 487)
Robert Owen, The New Moral Order (pg. 501)
Giusseppi Mazzini, On the Duties of Man (pg. 539)
Wednesday, July 16th: Hegel, Marx and the Idea of History
Readings:
Primary Sources:
GWF Hegel: The Dialectic of History
Karl Marx, On Man and History (pg. 528)
Friedrich Engels: The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844
Herr Eugen Dühring’s Revolution in Science (pg. 534)
Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Thursday, July 17th: The Idea of Progress: Positivism & Realism
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Samuel Smiles, Self-Help (pg. 494)
Herbert Spencer, Social Statics (pg. 499)
Auguste Comte, The Positive Philosophy (pg. 506)
A General View of Positivism
Claude Bernard, Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (pg. 514)
Emile Zola, The Experimental Novel (pg. 519)
The Paintings of Gustav Courbet
UNIT THREE: THE “IRRATIONAL” 19TH CENTURY
Tuesday, July 22nd: Imperialism, Nationalism & Social Darwinism
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man (pg. 546)
Karl Pearson, National Life from the Standpoint of Science (pg. 576)
Heinrich von Treitschke, Politics (pg. 580)
Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Foundations of the 19th Century (pg. 586)
Joseph Conrad: The Heart of Darkness
Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden
Pears Soap Advertisement I
Pears Soap Advertisement II
Pears Soap Advertisement III
Wednesday, July 23rd: The Crisis of Faith: Nietzsche & the “Death of God”
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Death of God (pg. 590)
The Gay Science
Thus Spake Zarathustra
The Genealogy of Morals
Ernst Haeckel, The Riddle of the Universe (pg. 563)
Wilhelm Dilthey, On Historical Relativism (pg. 595)
Alfred Fouillée, The Reaction Against Positivism (pg.598)
Thursday, July 24th: Mass Politics and 19th Century Sociology
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Gustave le Bon, The Crowd Man (pg. 603)
Graham Wallas, Nature in Politics (pg. 607)
Doestoevsky: Notes From Underground
Part I: Underground, chapter 1
Part II: A Propos of the Wet Snow, chapter 1
Georg Simmel: The Metropolis and Mental Life
Emil Durkheim: The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Introduction)
Max Weber: TBA
UNIT FOUR: MODERNISM
Tuesday, July 29th: Psychology and the Modern Consciousness
Readings:
Pgs. 623-634: On “The Age of Anxiety”
Primary Sources:
Sigmund Freud, Various Selections (pg. 690)
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (pg. 695)
Carl Jung, On the Collective Unconscious, (pg. 698)
Philipp Frank, On The Crisis and Science and Logical Positivism (pg. 664)
Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis, chapter 1
Bertrand Russell: Philosophic Consequences of Relativity
Wednesday, July 30th: The First World War, Modernism & the Arts
Readings:
Primary Sources:
F.T. Marinetti: The Futurist Manifesto
Wassily Kandinsky: Concerning the Spiritual in Art, conclusion
A Surrealist Manifesto: The Declaration of January 27, 1925
Siegfried Sassoon: Attack
T.S. Eliot: The Wasteland
Ernst Friedrich: War Against War (look through images)
WWI Poster
Thursday, July 31st: Politics in the Interwar Era
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Vladimir Lenin: What is to be Done? (pg. 705)
Vladimir Lenin: On Socialism and Religion and On Ethics (pg. 709-710)
Alfredo Rocco: On the Political Doctrine of Fascism (pg. 718)
Benito Mussolini: The Doctrine of Fascism (pg. 724)
Adolph Hitler: Mein Kampf (pg. 728)
Alfred Rosenberg: The Myth of the 20th Century (pg. 729)
UNIT FIVE: WORLD WAR II & THE POSTWAR WORLD
Tuesday, August 5th: Existentialism and Cultural Pessimism
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Jean Paul Sartre: Existentialism (pg. 657)
Søren Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling
Karl Jaspers: Way to Wisdom (pg. 661)
C. Virgil Gheorghiu: The Twenty-Fifth Hour (pg. 760)
Martin Heidegger: Existence and Being
Albert Camus: The Absurd Man
Wednesday, August 6th: Postwar Politics and Ethics
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Judge Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr.: Nuremberg in Retrospect
Hannah Arendt: The Origins of Totalitarianism
The UNESCO Questionnaire on Ideological Conflicts Concerning Democracy T(pg. 732)
Winston Churchill: On the Congress of Europe (pg. 737)
Thursday, August 7th: De-Colonization and Revolution
Readings:
Primary Sources:
Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Black Skin, White Masks (handout)
Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized (handout)
Arthur Koestler: Conversion to Communism (pg. 743)
Jean Paul Sartre: Materialism and Revolution (pg. 746)
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
Leon Trotsky, The Permanent Revolution
UNIT SIX: POSTMODERN THOUGHT
Tuesday, August 12th: What is Post-modernism?
Readings: TBA
Wednesday, August 13th: Post-structuralism & Critical Theory
Readings: TBA
Thursday, August 14th: FINAL EXAM
No comments:
Post a Comment