Intellect and Liberation: Reading for the Future from Bacon to Black Mirror

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

“Have the courage to use your reason!” Immanuel Kant’s motto would have run into great difficulties in the age of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT. For early modern and Enlightenment writers, the cultivation of reason, individual freedom, and the pursuit of secular methods of inquiry were key frameworks through which to envision a future for human society. These ideals—and the literary, cultural movements through which they were propagated— have left a complex legacy that continues to be explored in modern literature and media. Enlightenment ideals are viewed now by scholars both as the harbingers of modernity and as implicated in the realities of slavery, colonialism, and empire. Now, when we confront our own uncertain future— in a moment of war, impending climate catastrophe, and sweeping technological changes— this class proposes an engagement with the futures of the past. We’ll collectively develop strategies to “read for the future,” paying attention to issues such as the scope and limits of “human” intelligence and the relationship between humans and the natural world. The class will especially foreground historically marginalized perspectives such as those of women and people of color; readings will include works by Margaret Cavendish, Mary Shelley, Olaudah Equiano, Joseph Conrad as well as texts such as sci-fi films and episodes from the TV-series Black Mirror.