The Open UniversitySkip to content
 
Skip My preferences

My preferences

Skip Learning ToolsSkip Rate and Review

Rate and Review

Unit rating: 4.5 stars.
Rated by 4 user(s)
Skip Alternative FormatsSkip TagsSkip Share this unit with a friend

Share this unit with a friend

Help with sending a link to this unit (new window)
Permalink to this unit:
 

Topic outline

 

//www.flickr.com/photos/mezzoblue/92780275/

  • Time: 16 hours
    Level: Intermediate

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • The unit will examine the Enlightenment. To help understand the nature and scale of the cultural changes of the time, we offer a 'map' of the conceptual territory and the intellectual and cultural climate....
 

1 'The Enlightenment'

  • 1 'The Enlightenment' Resource
  • What a change there was between 1785 and 1824! There has probably never been such an abrupt revolution in habits, ideas and beliefs in the two thousand years since we have known the history of the world....
 

2 The Enlightenment and its mission

  • 2.1 Definitions Resource
  • ‘The Enlightenment’ is used to refer:
  • 2.2 The Encyclopédie Resource
  • The text that best exemplifies and embodies this outlook is the French Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers (Encyclopédia, or an Analytical Dictionary of the Sciences,...
  • 2.3 The pervasive influence of Enlightenment Resource
  • You will find in this unit in one form or another the pervasive influence of the Enlightenment. Sometimes this influence is buried in deeply ambiguous texts such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's (1756–91)...
 

3 Enlightenment, science and empiricism

  • 3 Enlightenment, science and empiricism Resource
  • The Enlightenment's dedication to reason and knowledge did not come out of the blue. After all, scholars had for centuries been adding to humanity's stock of knowledge. The new emphasis, however, was on...
 

4 Enlightenment, religion and morality

  • 4.1 Constant human nature Resource
  • Just as with other natural phenomena, Enlightenment thinkers came to the conclusion as a result of observation that human nature itself was a basic constant. In other words, it possessed common characteristics...
  • 4.2 Materialism Resource
  • Increasingly, particularly in late Enlightenment texts, this confidence in our ability to discover and apply clear moral distinctions came into conflict with an alternative view of human nature and morality...
  • 4.3 Responses to religion Resource
  • Reasoned responses to religion could take many forms. It was rare for writers to profess outright atheism; even in those cases where we may suspect authors of holding this view, censorship laws made their...
 

5 Enlightenment and the classics

  • 5 Enlightenment and the classics Resource
  • The civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome formed both a common background and a major source of inspiration to Enlightenment thinkers and artists (see Figure 4). The dominant culture of the Enlightenment...
 

6 The Enlightenment on art, genius and the sublime

 

7: The Enlightenment and nature

  • 7: The Enlightenment and nature Resource
  • The sublime was potentially subversive of the Enlightenment mindset, which focused mainly on the power of human intelligence to grasp and explain the natural world, and indeed to discover natural causes...
 

8 The forces of change: towards Romanticism

  • 8.1 The forces of change: towards Romanticism Resource
  • The relationship between the Enlightenment and the movement known as Romanticism, which dominated early nineteenth-century culture, is the subject of intense debate among scholars. There is no single correct...
  • 8.2 The increasing status of feeling Resource
  • Although the Enlightenment advocated the rigorous use of reason as the main means of achieving progress, some of its major thinkers also recognised the role of feeling or emotion, particularly in moral...
  • 8.3 Enlightenment, humanity and revolution Resource
  • We have seen from Diderot's article ‘Encyclopedia’ that the philosophes were convinced that their mission was for the benefit of their fellow human beings. For all of them, concern for humanity was the...
  • 8.4 The Enlightenment and modernity Resource
  • In its desire to replace outmoded, irrational ways of thinking by the rational, the sensible and the progressive, the Enlightenment was self-consciously modern. A manifestly scientific age and the visible...
 

9 Conclusion

 

References and Acknowledgements

Skip Log inSkip Related educational resources