Course Description
European thought from 1815-1914, with emphasis on the relationship between ideas and their political and social context.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Additional research and paper(s) normally required for graduate level work.
Athena Title
EUR INTEL 1815-1914
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course aims to acquaint the student with the basic issues of nineteenth-century European intellectual history, emphasizing above all works of philosophy, political and social theory, and aesthetic commentary. The work of each thinker will be set against a variety of different contextual materials, including documents from the period, literary sources, images, and works by intellectual historians. Students will learn how to apply critical skills in interpreting these sources, and they will be required to pursue an independent research project on a related topic of their own choosing. A principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
Rationalism and Empiricism The Enlightenment Classicism Romanticism Early Liberal Thought and Practice The Social Question Religion and Liberal Culture The Triumph of Science Theorists of Nationalism The Critique of Modernity