To foster critical understanding of some of the major names, ideas and events that shaped early Western modernity, and to enable students to develop a conceptual ‘map’ of those ‘landmarks’.
To foster critical understanding of some of the philosophical, political, and cultural dimensions of Enlightenment thought, of its impact, and of critical responses to it.
To facilitate a critical engagement with the relation between influential ideas and the historical and social conditions of their emergence.
To use intellectual historical material to illuminate contemporary cultural, political and philosophical concerns.
To place intellectual historical material in critical dialogue with contemporary concerns.
To provide a broad basis of knowledge able to support students’ further work at level five and their subsequent work at level six.
To deliver research-led teaching, and to facilitate students’ own research skills.
To e nable the development of skills in the oral communication and discussion of course material.

(LO1) Students will be able to demonstrate a critical understanding of the implications of, and of challenges that have been directed towards, key elements of the Enlightenment.

(LO2) Students will be able to contextualise ideas introduced and discussed on the course by placing them in relation to the historical contexts in which they emerged.

(LO3) Students will evidence an ability to critically assess material introduced on the course by discussing and responding to set seminar questions.

(LO4) Students will demonstrate an ability to place the course’s intellectual-historical material in relation to contemporary concerns in both written and oral work.

(LO5) Students will demonstrate an ability to grasp and summarise the salient features of topics presented on the course.

(S1) Students will improve their familiarity with the intellectual history of the time-periods and contexts addressed on the course.

(S2) Students will enhance their ability to conduct interdisciplinary work.

(S3) Students will enhance their abilities in reading, understanding, and critically assessing texts.

(S4) Students will enhance their ability to marshal arguments and present them orally.

(S5) Students will enhance their ability to marshal arguments and present them in writing.

(S6) Students will develop their oral and written communication skills and their capacities to debate ideas in seminar discussions.

(S7) Students will gain knowledge able to facilitate their further study of philosophy and of the humanities more broadly.

(S8) Students will develop their ability to work both independently and collectively.

(S9) Students will enhance their capacity to participate, in a respectful manner, in debates about controversial and socially important matters.

This syllabus may shift year to year, depending on the interests and specialisms of the members of staff who deliver this module. The course’s content may, however, include topics such as the following:

•What is ‘modernity’?
•The reformation and the scientific revolution (e.g. Bacon, Newton)
•Civil war: sovereignty and rebellion (e.g. Hobbes, Milton)
•Rationalism vis a vis religion (e.g. Descartes, Spinoza)
•What was the Enlightenment?
•Kant’s critical philosophy
•Property, the individual and colonialism (Locke)
•The French Revolution
•Reactions to Revolution (e.g. Burke, Paine, Wollstonecraft)
•Romanticism
•Hegel (Hegel as a philosopher of modernity)

Material such as the items indicated above will be presented and framed as elements of a module-long narrative that works in conjunction with, but which can function in the abse nce of, the corresponding narrative employed in the second part of this course (PHIL236: Modernity and Critical Thought 2: Modernity and its Discontents). These narratives may change depending on the interests of the staff who deliver these modules, but an indicative example for PHIL235 would be an account of the development, throughout this period, of notions of critique and ‘demystification’. Focus would fall on the ways in which these ideas a) facilitated influential claims regarding emancipation, equality, etc., b) may serve to illuminate present concerns, but also c) may themselves need to be critically assessed in the light of such concerns (e.g. to what extent are classic Enlightenment claims for universality and equality undermined by the racisms of their primary proponents?). A central theme may be the ‘Promethean’ promise, and possible hubris, of Enlightenment ideals (thus laying a basis for topics discussed in PHIL236, which addresses the disaster s and dissatisfactions of late modernity).

Teaching Method 1 - Lecture 
Description: Lectures are tutor-led activities, offering a map of the syllabus and a framework for independent enquiry-led research. Students are encouraged to engage actively with lectures through, for example: (i) taking opportunities to ask questions during the session; (ii) reflecting on and responding to questions posed to them; (iii) producing questions and notes on issues for subsequent group discussion in seminars.

Lectures may take place online if required. Lectures will be recorded.

Attendance Recorded: No 
 
Teaching Method 2 - Seminar 
Description: Seminars are formative spaces of applied and enquiry-led learning based on pre-set readings and facilitated by the tutor. Seminars thus offer opportunities for students to respond to tutor- and peer-set questions, deepen understanding, apply ideas, develop arguments and build confidence through group discussion. Support and guidance is pr ovided throughout the course to enable students to develop and employ skills in oral and group work.

Seminars may take place online if required.

Attendance Recorded: Yes