This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Translations*
Archived Versions

Readings

Required Readings

Amazon logo Hunt, Lynn, et. al. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. Vol. B: 1320-1830. Boston, MA: Bedford/Saint Martin's, 2000. ISBN: 9780312183707.

Amazon logo Jacob, Margaret. Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780195082197.

Descartes, René. Discourse on Method. (Download Discourse on Method, a version is available from Project Gutenberg.)

Amazon logo Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim. Nathan the Wise. Edited by Ronald Schechter. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004. ISBN: 9780312401528.

Amazon logo Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. Edited by John E. Toews. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. ISBN: 9780312157111.

 

SES # Topics READINGS
Week One
1 Introduction: Reason in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance  
2 Demography, Geography, Agriculture, Global Trade, 1600-1850

Amazon logo Hatfield, Gary. "Reason." In The Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Vol. 3. Edited by Charles Alan Kors. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 404-9. ISBN: 9780195104332.

The Making of the West. pp. 597-605, and 665-80.

Week Two
3 Galileo and the Roman Catholic Church

The Making of the West. pp. 606-18.

Jacob. Scientific Culture. pp. 15-33.

Galileo. "The Starry Messenger." In Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. Edited by Stillman Drake. Port Moody, BC: Anchor, 1957. pp. 21-58.

———. Excerpt from Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. [A version of Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is available from Calendars through the Ages.]

Amazon logo Finocchiaro, Maurice A.The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989, pp. 276-9. ISBN: 9780520063600.

The Galileo Project

4 The Cartesian Method

Descartes, René. The Discourse on Method. (All)

Jacob. Scientific Culture. pp. 34-50.

Week Three
5 The Trial of Charles I, King of England (1649)

The Making of the West. pp. 636-44.

Amazon logo Lagomarsino, David, and Charles J. Wood, eds. The Trial of Charles I. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth University Press, 1989. pp. 1-16, 58-82, and 102-29. ISBN: 9780874514995.

Jacob. Scientific Culture. pp. 51-72.

6 Louis XIV and the Court at Versailles

The Making of the West. pp. 621-36.

Château de Versailles

Week Four
7 Writing Workshop  
Week Five
8 The Radical Enlightenment

The Making of the West. pp. 695-702.

Amazon logo Spinoza, Baruch. "The God of Man's Making," and "Ideas, Things, and the Human Mind." In The Ethics of Spinoza: The Road to Inner Freedom. Edited by Dagobert Runes. New York, NY: Citadel, 2000, pp. 171-94. ISBN: 9780806505367.

Amazon logo Jacob, Margaret, ed. "The Treatise of the Three Impostors." In The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St Martins, 2000, pp. 94-114. ISBN: 9780312237011.

Locke, John."Excerpt from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." In Early Modern Europe: A Book of Source Readings. Edited by Herbert H. Rowen, and Carl J. Ekberg. Itasca, IL: Peacock Publishers, 1973, pp. 274-8.

9 The Newtonian Moment

Amazon logo Newton, Isaac. "Principia Mathematica." In University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization. Vol. 6. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987. pp. 587-92. ISBN: 9780226069487.

Amazon logo Voltaire. "On Locke," "On Descartes and Newton," and "On the System of Gravitation." In Letters on England. New York, NY: Penguin ed. 1980, pp. 62-81. ISBN: 9780140443868.

Jacob. Scientific Culture. pp. 73-115.

The Newton Project

Week Six
10 The Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert

The Making of the West. pp. 707-29.

d'Alembert, Jean le Rond. "Preliminary Discourse." In Denis Diderot's The Encyclopedia: Selections. Edited by Stephen J. Gendzier. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1967, pp. 1-12, and 35-43.

English Translations of Encyclopedia Articles. (Read "Philosopher," and "Sunday.")

The ARTFL Project. (Be sure to look at the engravings for "chirurgie" and "imprimerie.")

11 Cosmopolitanism and the Jews in the Eighteenth Century

Encyclopedia article on "Jew".

Lessing. Nathan the Wise. pp. 1-115.

Week Seven
12 France in the Age of Democratic Revolution The Making of the West. pp. 733-52.
13 Revolution in France

The Making of the West. pp.752-73.

Browse Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. (Specific assignments to be given in class.)

Week Eight
14 The Trial of Louis XVI  
Week Nine
15 After The King's Trial: Terror, Napoleon, Restoration  
16 Conservatism Created: A Response to Reason and Revolution

The Making of the West. pp. 773-6.

Amazon logo Burke, Edmund. "Reflections on the Revolution in France." Excerpted in The University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization. Vol. 7, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, edited by Keith Michael Baker. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 428-45. ISBN: 9780226069500.

Amazon logo Boffa, Massimo. "Counter-Revolution." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet, and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 640-8. ISBN: 9780674177284.

Amazon logo ———. "Maistre." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Edited by François Furet, and Mona Ozouf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, pp. 965-71. ISBN: 9780674177284.

de Maistre, Joseph. "Evenings in St. Petersburg." Excerpted in Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 106-13.

Week Ten
17 Hegel: History, Reason, and the State Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. "Introduction to the Philosophy of History." Excerpted in Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 124-47.
18 Romanticism in Literature, Art, and Music The Making of the West. pp. 815-9.
Week Eleven
19 The Industrial Revolution and the Movement to Abolish Slavery  
Week Twelve
20 A Cultural Interpretation of Industrialization

The Making of the West. pp. 810-1, and 829-40.

Jacob. Scientific Culture. pp. 131-207.

21 Nineteenth-Century Liberalism

The Making of the West. pp. 840-58.

Amazon logo Constant, Benjamin. "Ancient and Modern Liberty Compared." Excerpted in The University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization. Vol. 7, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, edited by Keith Michael Baker. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 452-61. ISBN: 9780226069500.

Mill, John Stuart."On Liberty." Excerpted in Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 592-619.

Week Thirteen
22 Utopian Socialist Experiments

Amazon logo Heilbroner, Robert L. "The Visions of the Utopian Socialists." In The Worldly Philosophers. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1972, pp. 102-30. ISBN: 9780671213251.

Owen, Robert. "Report to the County of Lanarck," and "The Economist." Excerpted in Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 661-79.

23 The Revolutions of 1848 and The Communist Manifesto

The Making of the West. pp. 849-69.

Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. (All)

Week Fourteen
24 Darwin and Christian Theology (or, Galileo Revisited)

Darwin, Charles. "On the Origin of Species." Excerpted in Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 813-32.

Amazon logo Ellegard, Alvar. Darwin and the General Reader: The Reception of Darwin's Theory of Evolution in the British Periodical Press, 1859-72. 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990, pp. 12-38. ISBN: 9780226204871.

25 Conclusion