The Enlightenment

Catalog description

This course examines the main themes of the European Enlightenment, the conceptual and cultural revolution that transformed Europe between 1680 and 1800. Among the results of this upheaval are the birth of modern science, the development of representative democracy, a series of wars, and the birth of modern commercial society. The Scottish Enlightenment and eighteenth-century America will receive special attention. The principal objective is to understand the birth of the modern mind in the dilemmas and debates of this remarkable era. HA