Syllabus: B384 (C344-3CR)

European Intellectual History II (Spring 2002):

"The Long Revolution of the Enlightenment:

Hegel to Foucault"

TR 1:00-2:15 CA221 (Subject to Change)

Professor Kevin Cramer Cavanaugh 504B

317-278-7744 Tues/Th: 2:30-4:00

kcramer@iupui.edu and by appointment

Required Texts

1. Jan Goldstein and John W. Boyer, eds., Readings in Western Civilization, Vol. 8: Nineteenth-Century Europe (Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1988).

2. John W. Boyer and Jan Goldstein, eds., Readings in Western Civilization, Vol. 9: Twentieth-Century Europe (Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 1987.

3. Roland N. Stromberg, European Intellectual History Since 1789 (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1994).

Course Description

The intellectual history of the industrialized West has at its core the enduring conflict of modernity: the clash between the Enlightenment and its critics. This course examines this two-hundred year old conflict from the perspective of a wide variety of thinkers, from Hegel to Marx, through Weber and Freud, to Sartre, Arendt, and Foucault. On the assumption that ideas motivate men, this course is designed as a history of those ideas that have had the most profound impact on social, political, and economic organization in the West. It begins with the bright promise of early nineteenth century liberalism to emancipate the individual, continues through socialism's attack on the failure to deliver on that promise, the disillusionment with the claims of reason following World War I, totalitarianism's promise to liberate the individual from the obligations of freedom, and concludes with the re-assessment of the Enlightenment's legacy following the cataclysm of World War II. This course will hopefully help us come to a better understanding of the major problem of our age, as defined by one of the thinkers we will study: "The contradiction between an apparently contented society and a deep current of discontent emerging mainly in irrational and ugly ways is our immediate and inescapable challenge."

Course Objectives

The aim of this course is to go beyond an introduction to the most influential ideas of our time to delve more deeply into these ideas in a seminar format based on lively discussion and debate, textual analysis, and written argument. Lectures and exams will introduce you to facts, concepts, themes, and terms that will allow you to explain and contextualize the importance of these ideas while applying this knowledge to a better understanding of how your society and world works. The writing assignments, based on close readings of the texts, will enable you to develop your reflective, critical, and analytical abilities. As this course is a seminar, in-class participation and discussion will push you to sharpen your communication skills as well as your capability to efficiently and spontaneously summarize, categorize, interpret, and evaluate information. This aspect of the course also allows you to make a vital and necessary contribution to how topics and issues are brought into focus in each class. The course is designed to provide more comprehensive exposure to the skills mandated by the university's "Principles of Undergraduate Learning" (please see the department web site for further information on the "PUL").

Course Requirements

1. Two exams (30%).

2. Two ten-page papers (30%).

3. Take-home final exam (25%).

4. Participation and weekly response papers (15%).

Grading System

This course will use the grading system and numerical equivalencies established by the Registrar, e.g., A (4), A- (3.7), B+ (3.3) and so on.

Course Policies

Written assignments will be docked 1/2 grade for every day late past the due date. Without mitigating circumstances and prior approval work more than two days late will not be accepted. Make up exams will only be offered in cases of documented dire emergency. As participation in seminar discussions is part of your final grade, attendance is important. Keep me informed well in advance (if possible) of circumstances that will force you to miss class. Lecture outlines, writing assignments, exam reviews, and other important information and course material will be posted on Oncourse, so check it regularly. All assignments must be turned in.

Plagiarism is the deliberate theft of someone else's work and passing it off as your own. But inattention, ignorance of citation conventions, and sloppy note taking can also result in plagiarism, even if it is unintentional. Please consult the IUPUI Campus Bulletin (2001-2002) for further guidelines and information on plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct. Internet sources and references can only be used in written assignments with my approval.

Class Schedule

I. The Nineteenth Century: Reason and Revolution

Week One

1. Introduction (T1/8): "Goals, Objectives, Syllabus"

2. Lecture 1 (Th 1/10): "Enlightened Social Engineering: Liberalism and Socialism"

Readings: Stromberg, chapters 2-3.

Week Two

3. Seminar 1 (T 1/15): G.W.F. Hegel

4. Seminar 2 (Th 1/17): J.S. Mill

Readings: "G.W.F. Hegel on the Family, Civil Society, and the State" (Readings, vol. 8, 129-154); J.S. Mill and Harriet Taylor, "Essays on Marriage and Divorce" (Readings, vol. 8, 106-121).

Week Three

5. Seminar 3 (T 1/22): Alexis de Tocqueville

6. Seminar 4 (Th 1/24): Karl Marx

Readings: Alexis de Tocqueville, "Recollections" (Readings, vol. 8, 220-241); Karl Marx, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" (Readings, vol. 8, 242-266).

Week Four

7. Seminar 5 (T 1/29): Friedrich Schleiermacher and Ludwig Feuerbach

8. Seminar 6 (Th 1/31): Ernest Renan

Readings: Friedrich Schleiermacher, "On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers" (Readings, vol. 8, 288-297) and Ludwig Feuerbach, "The Essence of Christianity" (Readings, vol. 8, 322-336); Ernst Renan, "The Life of Jesus" (Readings, vol. 8, 336-351). Stromberg, chapters 4-5.

Week Five

9. Seminar 7 ((T 2/5): Friedrich Nietzsche

10. Paper Discussion 1 (Th 2/7)

Readings: Friedrich Nietzsche, "The Gay Science" (Readings, vol. 8, 405-408).

Week Six

11. Lecture 2 (T 2/12): "Whither Progress?"

12. Seminar 8 (Th 2/14): Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Readings: Marx and Engels, "Four Letters on the Materialist Interpretations of History" (Readings, vol. 8, 470-477). Stromberg, chapter 6.

Week Seven

13. Seminar 9 (T 2/19): Eduard Bernstein and Rosa Luxemburg.

14. Exam One (Th 2/21)

Readings: Eduard Bernstein, "Evolutionary Socialism" (Readings, vol. 8, 501-518) and Rosa Luxemburg, "Mass Strike, Party, and Trade Unions" (Readings, vol. 8, 519-538).

II. The Twentieth Century: Ideology and Violence

Week Eight

15. Seminar 10 (T 2/26): The Futurists and Friedrich von Bernhardi. Paper One due.

16. Seminar 11 (Th 2/28): Max Weber and Sigmund Freud

Readings: "The Futurist Manifestos" (Readings, vol. 9, 6-16) and Friedrich von Bernhardi, "Germany and the Next War" (Readings, vol. 9, 55-69). Stromberg, chapter 7.

Week Nine

17. Seminar 12 (T 3/5): Rudolf Hilferding and Walther Rathenau

18. Lecture 3 (Th 3/7): "Totalitarianism: The Flight from Freedom"

Readings: Rudolf Hilferding, "A Co-Partnership of Classes?" (Readings, vol. 9, 87-102) and Walther Rathenau, "Germany's Provisions for Raw Materials" (Readings, vol. 9, 117-132). Stromberg, chapter 8.

Monday, March 11 to Sunday, March 17: Spring Recess

Week Ten

19. Seminar 13 (T 3/19): Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini

20. Seminar 14 (Th 3/21): Joseph Stalin

Readings: Adolf Hitler, "Mein Kampf" (Readings, vol. 9, 191-218) and Benito Mussolini, "The Doctrine of Fascism" (Readings, vol. 9, 219-232).

Week Eleven

21. Seminar 15 (T 3/26): Antonio Gramsci, Julien Benda, Arthur Koestler

22. Seminar 16 (Th 3/28): Friedrich von Hayek

Readings: Antonio Gramsci, "The Prison Notebooks" (Readings, vol. 9, 318-333), Julien Benda, "The Betrayal of the Intellectuals" (Readings, vol. 9, 333-341) and Arthur Koestler, "The God That Failed" (Readings, vol. 9, 352-367. Stromberg, chapter 9.

Week Twelve

23. Exam 2 (T 4/2)

24. Paper Discussion 2 (Th 4/4)

Week Thirteen

25. Lecture 4 (T 4/9): "Failure of the Enlightenment Project?"

26. Seminar 17 (Th 4/11): Jean-Paul Sartre

Readings: Jean-Paul Sartre, "Existentialism is Humanism" (Readings, vol. 9, 482-503).

Week Fourteen

27. Seminar 18 (T 4/16): Hannah Arendt.

28. Seminar 19 (Th 4/18): Michel Foucault and Raymond Williams. Paper Two due.

Readings: Hannah Arendt, "On Humanity in Dark Times: Thoughts about Lessing" (Readings, vol. 9, 560-583); Michel Foucault, "The Subject and Power" (Readings, vol. 9, 583-592) and Raymond Williams, "The Long Revolution" (Readings, vol. 9, 592-624. Stromberg, chapter 10-11.

Week Fifteen

29. Seminar 20 (T 4/23): Big Questions. Take-home Final Exam given out.

30. Final Exam Review (Th 4/25)

Take-home Final Exam due at 4PM, Tuesday, April 30 in my office