Reason and Revolution: The Enlightenment.

Undergraduate

The Enlightenment ushers in a new era in modern philosophy whose tenets are the autonomy of reason in the face of prejudice, individual dignity as the foundation for social justice, moral progress through human perfectibility, and the scientific explanation of the world of nature. This course explores the emergence and development of these ideas in the work of prominent representatives of the Scottish, French and German Enlightenment such as Hume, Smith, Reid, Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, D’Alembert, Lessing, Kant, Wollstonecraft, and Herder. (At least third semester standing, and one philosophy course with a middle digit of seven, or permission of the instructor.)