Avi Lifschitz (UCL)

You can choose to study the module as a whole for the entire year, or opt to study the material covered in either the first or second semester as freestanding modules.

The German Enlightenment (Aufklärung) has been portrayed as a tame and conservative affair in comparison to the philosophical developments across the Rhine, in France. By contrast to this traditional image, the course re-examines the originality, significance, and aims of major (and lesser known) German thinkers in the 18th century by focusing on their theories of politics, religion, art, and mind in the context of changing socio-political circumstances. Most thinkers confronted the first commercial and globalized age by moulding new notions of citizenship, while redefining the interrelations between the individual, civil society, and the state. We shall read works by Kant, Lessing, Mendelssohn, and Herder (among others) and discuss German debates over human nature, education, Jewish emancipation, and the French Revolution.