What Is the Enlightenment?

Sapere aude, or dare to know! That is what Immanuel Kant identified as the spirit of the Enlightenment. But dare to know what? And to what end? The quarrel about the meaning of the Enlightenment began in the eighteenth century. It continues today among both historians and those who want to claim the legacy of the Enlightenment for their own ends. This course is an attempt to understand these debates and possibly even resolve them (in our own minds, at least). Among other things, we look at how European ideas changed in the eighteenth century on topics that include religion, the pre-modern world, science, politics, and women's rights. We also look at critics who thought the reign of reason inevitably led to tyranny.