Enlightenment and the Modern World

Catalog description

HUMN541 provides an overview of major works of the Enlightenment, and offers a detailed study of its primary thinkers. Issues include the birth of rationalism, skepticism, individual liberation and emergent secularism. Questions address the inherent tensions between intellectual tradition and change, and the increasing dominance of the sphere of science. Readings for this course include: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women; Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; Rousseau's Confessions; Thomas Paine's Common Sense and other Political Writings; and Ekaterina Dashkova's Memoirs.