Enlightenment Philosophy

(5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This module provides an introduction to central figures, works and ideas of the period of the European Enlightenment (roughly 1700-1800), beginning with an account of its historical background and ending with a review of its legacy. It will approach issues both thematically and through the writings of major thinkers, considering for example various contrasts: experience and reason, belief and scepticism, individual and society, nature and convention, equality and inequality and representation and revolution; and looking at the ideas of such figures as Locke, Hume, Kant, Smith, and Rousseau.