Dan, Mike, and I took a class, "The Pathos of Enlightenment". It is an excellent class. The teacher, Josef Chytry, is quite knowledgeable. He encourages the class to talk, and also expresses his own opinions or gives information about what others have said. He allows the discussion to wander, but tries to keep it in a certain general direction.
Introductory lecture on the state of literature after the Glorious Revolution. The meaning of the Augustan Age. Brief account of Pope's career. Discussion of _An Essay on Man_: "optimism," the use of poetry to define man's nature and God's justice, poetry as conversation, the intelligence manifested in the visible. Consideration of the reception of Pope's work. Pope as "classical" representative of the Enlightenment.
Lecture on the development of British Empiricism: Locke, Berkeley, Hume. Contrast to the Continental Rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza, Liebniz. Consideration of Hume's radical epistemology. Brief comparison of his _Treatise on Human Nature_ and the _Enquiries_. Discussion of Hume's concept of Ideas and Impressions. The role of probability. Consideration of Hume's theory of necessary connection (causality) and its implications for subsequent philosophy.
Continuation of discussion of Hume's epistemology. Discussion on Hume's views of liberty and necessity. Hume on scepticism and the role of miracles and providence. Hume's atheism. Overall consideration of Humean Reason and its importance for the evolution of the European Enlightenment.
Lecture on the state of British moral theory prior to Hume: Locke, Shaftesbury and the Scottish school. Discussion of Hume's concept of morals. The role of sympathy, benevolence and utility. Brief account of Hume's view of politics. Overview of the state of British thought after Hume: Adam Smith and the Scottish school, Bentham and utilitarianism. Brief lecture on the differences between the English Enlightenment and the later eighteenth centery: the origins of the industrial revolution.
Lecture on the state of French society at the end of Louis XIV's reign and the Regency interregnum. The rise of the concept of "Western civilization." Account of Voltaire's early career and visit to England: the Anglo-French rapprochement. Discussion of _Candide_ and its relation to the debate on optimism and theodicy. On _Candide_ as the oeuvre of a _philosophe_. On _Candide_ as a genre of literature and philosophy: the picaresque and the parodic. Discussion on the radical implications in Voltaire's dictum to "cultivate one's garden." Voltaire's later career: "ecrasez l'infame."
Author
Muffy Barkocy
(muffy@things.org)
Last updated: May 24, 1995