SCHOOL OF DIVINITY, HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
ACADEMIC SESSION 2016-17
HI4003 - SPECIAL SUBJECT
The Enlightenment in Comparison: Scotland, Ireland and
Central Europe
11 weeks - 30 credits
PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY:
The full set of school regulations and procedures is contained in the
Undergraduate Student Handbook which is available online at
your MyAberdeen Organisation page. Students are expected to familiarise
themselves not only with the contents of this leaflet but also with the contents
of the Handbook. Therefore, ignorance of the contents of the Handbook will
not excuse the breach of any School regulation or procedure.
You must familiarise yourself with this important information at the earliest
opportunity.
COURSE CO-ORDINATOR/COURSE TEAM
Professor Karin Friedrich, [email protected], office hours Monday 10-11
and by appointment
Discipline Administration:
Mrs Barbara McGillivray/Mrs Gillian Brown
50-52 College Bounds
Room CBLG01
01224 272199/272454
[email protected]
TIMETABLE
For time and place of classes, please see MyAberdeen
Course Document - | 2015-2016
Students can also view their university timetable
at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/infohub/study/timetables-550.php
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines the emergence and the variations of Enlightenment
thinking in Scotland and Central Europe (with particular emphasis on the
German and East Central European Enlightenment, to which the Scottish
Enlightenment had strong historical links). It emphasises the varieties of the
European Enlightenment, against the traditional assumption that the
Enlightenment was exclusively 'located' in France. It looks at the definition and
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the shaping of Enlightenment thought and practice (learned societies, reading
clubs, social reform movements, education, freemasonry etc) at the
'peripheries' of an allegedly French-dominated Enlightenment culture (reaffirmed by Robert Darnton) by comparing and contrasting various theoretical
and practical strands. It invites students to think critically about
historiographical debates and to develop skills in using, speaking and writing
about theoretical concepts in a clear, comprehensible manner. Seminar topics
will focus on major figures and personalities of the Scottish and European
Enlightenments, on the religious, social and political aspects of Enlightenment
culture, the issue of Enlightenment as secularisation, the 'rise of the public
sphere', and other themes.
INTENDED AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this course students will be able to:
• Demonstrate advanced understanding of the diversity and change in
approaches to the Enlightenment across Europe, studied through specific
case studies and examples
• Employ and communicate the meaning of theoretical concepts in a clear,
comprehensible manner
• Appreciate the ways in which academic debate advances the knowledge of
the varieties of the Scottish and central European Enlightenment
• Evaluate the strength of an argument
• Formulate viable research questions
• Articulate a convincing argument based on use of evidence
Seminars
Course Document - | 2015-2016
Seminars will be held twice a week. Attendance at seminars is compulsory (and
will be monitored). Students are expected to give at least one presentation,
and to help to guide the subsequent discussion, but the success of seminars
depends not only on a well prepared and stimulating introduction, but also
upon the willingness of every student to complete the individually assigned
reading in both primary and secondary sources for each meeting and to
contribute to the discussion. Students will be asked to provide a brief overview
and analytical critique of the main idea(s) presented in the reading. Much of the
discussion will focus also on the analysis of primary sources and their
contextualisation. Although students can specialise on areas of their particular
interest, the comparative element (Scotland/Ireland – Central Europe) means
that all students will engage in comparing sources of more than one national
and geographic origin.
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LECTURE/SEMINAR PROGRAMME
Please consult the week-to-week reading guide on MyAberdeen
Week 1
Session 1
Session 2
I.
Week 2
Session 1
Session 2
Week 3
Session 1
Session 2
II.
The Religious Enlightenment
Toland and the Newtonian Heresy
Christian Thomasius and the Origins of the German
Protestant Enlightenment
The Enlightened Traveller: Jonathan Swift
The Enlightened Traveller: Bernard Connor
Social Enlightenment:
William Robertson: Empire and History
Gottfried Wilhelm Herder: The Character of Nations
Week 5
Session 1
Session 2
Francis Hutcheson: Polite Society and Manners
David Hume: Relativism of Morals
Week 6
Session 1
Session 2
Class Meeting and Gobbet Exercise due
Adam Smith: Economics of Enlightenment
Cameralism in the German Lands
Course Document - | 2015-2016
Week 4
Session 1
Session 2
III.
Week 7
Session 1
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Registration. Aims & Objectives. Problems and Challenges
of the Special Subject. Introduction to the Varieties of the
European Enlightenment(s)
Topic: How did the Scottish, Irish and Central European
Enlightenment differ from the development in France?
Political Enlightenment
Adam Ferguson on Civil Society
Session 2
The Scottish Enlightenment in Secondary Literature
Week 8
Session 1
Session 2
Christian Wolff: Enlightened Absolutism German style
Catherine the Great's Nakaz or Instruction
Week 9
Session 1
Session 2
Immanuel Kant: What is Enlightenment?
The Rise of the Public Sphere
Week 10
Reading Week
Week 11
Session 1
Session 2
Rousseau's Constitution for Poland
The Age of Partition and Revolution
Week 12
Exam preparation (28 November and 1 December 2016, EW Ann 05)
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Selected works on the Enlightenment (most recommended with *), but
please consult the seminar reading list on MyAberdeen for weekly
readings
Course Document - | 2015-2016
*Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (2013 3rd ed.) only for short introduction
Derek Beales, Enlightenment and reform in eighteenth-century Europe
(London, 2005)
*Thomas Munck, The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History, 1721
1794
*H. Scott, B. Simms (eds), Cultures of Power in Europe during the Long
Eighteenth Century (Cambridge 2007), articles by Thompson, Whaley,
Swann, Doyle.
Dorinda Outram, Panorama of the Enlightenment (London, 2007)
Louis Dupré, The Enlightenment and the Intellectual Foundations of Modern
Culture (New Haven, 2004)
*Fania Oz-Salzberger, Translating the Enlightenment : Scottish civic discourse
in eighteenth-century Germany (Oxford, 1995) an adherent of the outdated
German ‘Sonderweg’ school
Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich (eds.), The Enlightenment in National Context
(London, 1981)
Larry Wolff and Marco Cipolloni (eds), The Anthropology of the Enlightenment
(Stanford, 2007), articles by Marouby, Hargraves, Germana, Kempe.
*L. Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the
Enlightenment (Stanford, CA, 1994).
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Course Document - | 2015-2016
*Alexander Broadie, The Scottish Enlightenment: The Historical Age of the
Historical Nation (Edinburgh, 2001)
Michael Printy, Enlightenment and the creation of German Catholicism
(Cambridge, 2009)
*John Robertson, The Case for the Enlightenment: Scotland and Naples,
1680-1760 (Cambridge, 2007)
*Richard Butterwick, et al. (eds.), Peripheries of the Enlightenment (SVEC
2008), articles by Butterwick (introduction), Gargett, Brown, Burrows, Gillen
and Reill.
C. B. A. Behrens, Society, Government and the Enlightenment: The
Experiences of Eighteenth-Century France and Prussia (London, 1985).
*H. M. Scott (ed.), Enlightened Absolutism: Reform and Reformers in Later
Eighteenth-Century Europe (Basingstoke,1990), articles by Beales, Scott,
Munck, Maxwell and Blanning. On the topic of enl. absolutism!
*J. Brewer and E. Hellmuth (eds), Rethinking Leviathan. The eighteenthcentury state in Britain and Germany (Oxford, 1999) Introduction.
*Margaret Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and
Republicans (London, 1981)
H.B. Nisbet, 'Was ist Aufklärung?: the concept of Enlightenment in eighteenthcentury Germany', Journal of European Studies 12 (1982)
T. C. W. Blanning, The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture - Old
Regime Europe 1660-1789 (2003)
Ulrich Im Hof, The Enlightenment, translated from the German by William E.
Yuill (Oxford, Blackwell 1994)
R. Koselleck, Critique and crisis. Enlightenment and the pathogenesis of
modern society (Oxford, 1988)
F.C. Beiser, Enlightenment, revolution and romanticism: the genesis of
modern German political thought 1790-1800 (1992)
Heiner F. Klemme, The reception of the Scottish Enlightenment in Germany :
six significant translations, 1755-1782 (Bristol 2000)
Graham Gargett and Geraldine Sheridan, Ireland and the French
Enlightenment (Basingstoke, 1999)
*E. Hellmuth (ed.), The Transformation of Political Culture. England and
Germany in the late Eighteenth Century (1990).
*J. Israel, Radical Enlightenment. Philosophy and the Making of Modernity
1650-1750 (Oxford 2001)
*Jonathan Israel, Enlightenment Contested. Philosophy, Modernity, and the
Emancipation of Man 1670-1752 (OUP 2006)
Martin Fitzpatrick et al (eds), The Enlightenment World (Routlegde 2004)
Jonathan Knudsen, Justus Moser and the German Enlightenment (Cambridge
1985)
P. Stillman, ‘ Hegel and Civil Society’, Polity 12/4 (1980), pp. 622-46.
Alan Patten, Hegel’s Idea of Freedom (Oxford, 1999)
Ritchie Robertson, Lessing and the German Enlightenment (Oxford, 2013)
*Benjamin W. Redekop, Enlightenment and community Lessing, Abbt, Herder
and the quest for a German public (Montreal, 2000)
GENERAL SOURCEBOOKS:
Olga Gomez, F. Greensides, Paul Hyland (eds), The Enlightenment. A
Sourcebook and Reader (Routledge 2003)
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Isaiah Berlin, The Age of Enlightenment. The 18th Century Philosophers (New
York 1956)
Margaret C. Jacob (ed.), The Enlightenment : a brief history with documents
(Boston 2001)
Heiner F. Klemme, The reception of the Scottish Enlightenment in Germany :
six significant translations, 1755-1782 (Bristol 2000)
See ECCO and EEBO through the library database website and the website
of the German Historical Institute WDC
ASSESSMENT
1. One three-hour written final examination: 100 % of overall assessment,
consisting of analysis of source texts (gobbets) and essay questions
2. Formative: Gobbet exercise of 2000-2500 words. The gobbet exercise
in compulsory but does not count towards the overall mark.
3. Formative: Handouts: one week before each presentation is due.
Handouts are compulsory but do not count towards the overall mark.
4. Formative and optional: Essay of 2000-2500 words: You are also a
invited to submit a formative essay in preparation of the exam! Please
discuss this with me individually.
To view the CGS Descriptors please go to MyAberdeen – Organisations Divinity, History, & Philosophy Student Information or Undergraduates. The
link to the CGS Descriptors is on the left hand menu.
FORMATIVE ESSAYS AND GOBBET EXERCISE
Course Document - | 2015-2016
• If you decide to submit a formative essay, it should be between 2500 and
3000 words long. Footnotes and bibliography do not count towards the
word limit. The essay is not compulsory but helps your exam preparation.
• For the gobbet exercise, please agree the selection of two primary source
texts (ideally from different ‘national Enlightenment’, for comparison. NB:
The gobbet exercise is compulsory and non-completion will exclude you
from the final exam.
• Late submission has to be authorised by the course tutor prior to the
deadline via a form which can be downloaded from MyAberdeen. You
should consult the School’s handbook for more information
on MyAberdeen.
ASSESSMENT DEADLINES
The Gobbet Exercise is due in Week 6, Thursday at 3.00pm. Formative
essays can be submitted at any time before Monday 3.00pm of week 11, and
handouts need to be submitted a week before the presentation (with the
exception of week 2)
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SUBMISSION ARRANGEMENTS (for gobbet exercise and handouts only)
Please submit by the deadline ONE paper copy (cover sheet required) PLUS,
ONE official electronic copy (no cover sheet required) as follows:
Hard Copy:
One hard copy typed and double spaced, together with an
Assessment cover sheet – this should have your ID
number CLEARLY written on the cover sheet, with NO
name and NO signature but EVERYTHING ELSE filled in –
and should be delivered to the History Admin Office
[Drop-off boxes located in CB008, 50-52 College
Bounds].
Electronic Copy:
One copy submitted through Turnitin via MyAberdeen.
(For instructions please
see http://www.abdn.ac.uk/eLearning/turnitinuk/student
s/) Students are asked to retain the Turnitin receipt so
they are able to provide proof of submission at a later
date if required.
In advance of uploading, please save the assignment with your student ID
number listed in the filename, i.e. 59999999 Viking Essay 1.
When asked to enter a title for the assignment, please enter a title identical to
the name of your saved assignment, i.e. 59999999 Viking Essay 1.
Both copies to be submitted by 3.00pm on the due date
Please note: Failure to submit both an electronic copy to Turnitin and a hard
copy to the school office, by the stated deadline, will result in a zero mark.
N.B Turnitin doesn’t accept Mac documents in Pages. If using a Mac please
go to File and export work as a Word document.
Course Document - | 2015-2016
EXAMINATION
There will be a revision session preparing you for the exam during the lecture
course in week 12 (date and room tba). Past exam papers can be viewed
at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/learning-and-teaching/for-students/exampapers/.
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