The Enlightenment and Its Critics: 1700 to the Present

The era of the Enlightenment is widely regarded as a formative period in the history of the modern world. It is a period in which new ideas about nature, religion, politics and social order spread across Europe and its colonial worlds with profound effects. Today, the values and aspirations of that era are often treated as foundation stones for modern liberal-democratic societies or, alternatively, as ideals that have been betrayed and abandoned. Yet the Enlightenment has always had its critics. From the 1700s until today there have been those who regarded the Enlightenment as a threat to European or Christian civilisation, and those who have regarded it as a tool of conquest on behalf of that civilisation. There have been people who reject the ideals and aspirations of that era and those who re-invented or appropriated them to serve their own ends. This advanced course seeks to explore both the Enlightenment, in its historical context, and the debates it has spawned from the 1700s until the present. In doing so, students will be encouraged to investigate the original history of the Enlightenment in a critical relationship with the, sometimes distorting, representations of both its admirers and critics.