The Enlightenment Discussion Questions 2012-13

Autumn Term

Possible questions for discussion in class

  • Week 2 - Introduction to the Enlightenment (Cathy Crawford)
    1. What is meant by the word "medieval"?
    2. What is meant by the word "modern"?
    3. What were the most important features of the transition from the medieval to the modern?
    4. Why was the transition so gradual?  

 

  • Week 3 - Before the Enlightenment: the Aristotelian World View (David McNeill)
    1.  What would you characterise as the central ideas of the Aristotelian world view?
    2.  Which of these seem most different from modern beliefs?
    3.  Do you agree with the description of Aristotelianism as a 'common sense' philosophy of nature, at least in the context of the time?  Why was it accepted so widely?
    4.  Can Aristotelianism explain things which we no longer can/do not try to explain?
    5.  What was the Great Chain of Being?  Why was it theologically important?  Why was it significant in terms of medieval society and politics?
    6. Can you think of examples of plants or animals that were (or would have been) of particular interest to medieval thinkers based upon your knowledge of the Chain?
    7.  What was the doctrine of signatures?

 

  • Week 4 - Print, Censorship and the History of Reading (James Raven)

 

  • Week 5 -  Descartes’ Discourse on Method (Alan Cardew)
    1. When Descartes reviews the subjects that he was taught at school in Part I of the Discourse why does he say he liked mathematics, and why does he say he had doubts about "philosophy". What do you think he meant by "philosophy"?
    2. What would count as following each of the four rules of Descartes' method. (See Part II of the Discourse)? Try to explain or illustrate what each rule involves in your own words.
    3. (Part IV of the Discourse. What does Descartes identify as "the first principle of the philosophy I was seeking?"
    4. (Part IV of the Discourse) People think that it's difficult to know the nature of the soul of God. Descartes thinks it isn't difficult. How does he explain the impression that it is difficult?
    5. Are monkeys similar to, or very different from, human beings, according to Descartes? (Part V).

 

  • Week 6 - The English Revolution (Amanda Flather) 
    1.  Why was monarchy regarded as the best form of government in Tudor and early Stuart England? 2.  In what ways was Christianity linked to this idea?
    3.  What were the tradeoffs between order and freedom?
    4.  What arguments today seem similar to this line of argument?
    5.  What was the importance of property to notions of democracy?

 

  • Week 7 - Hobbes:  Human Nature and the State (David McNeill)
    1. What does Hobbes mean by the state of nature?
    2. What does Hobbes mean by "war"? What is ordinarily meant by "war"?
    3. Does Hobbes need to assume that human beings are all naturally selfish in order to show that in the state of nature life would be "nasty, brutish and short"?
    4. What is the right of nature?
    5. Is Hobbes right to say that people who ride armed agree that human beings are naturally warlike?

 

  • Week 8 - Locke: In the beginning all the world was America (Colin Samson)
    1. How do Locke’s ideas about the ‘state of nature’ differ from those of Thomas Hobbes? What difference do these ideas make to how we look at society?
    2. According to Locke, how is the right to govern and to exercise authority established in society?
    3. What gives people a right to private property?

 

  • Week 9 - Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (Susan Oliver)

 

  • Week 10 - The Conquest of Disease and the Enlightening of Charity (Cathy Crawford)


  • Week 11 - Voltaire, Candide (Susan Oliver)
    Voltaire, Candide, or Optimism (1759)  
    Chapters to be discussed:  
    1. Chapter 1: How Candide was brought up in a beautiful country house, and how he was driven away.
    2. Chapter 3: How Candide escaped from the Bulgars, and what happened to him afterwards.
    3. Chapter 5: Tempest, ship, and earthquake, and what happened to Dr. Pangloss, Candide, and James the Anabaptist.
    4. Chapter 18: What they saw in Eldorado

 

Spring Term

  • Week 16 - Crime and Punishment  (Cathy Crawford)  
    1. What is meant by 'natural law' and 'the law of nature'?
    2.  According to Locke, who has the right to punish? What is the basis of that right?
    3. Are the cannibals in Robinson Crusoe committing a crime? Is Crusoe justified in punishing them?
    4. One of the demands of the French revolutionaries was for trial by jury instead of trial by judge. What would you say are the political implications of each method of adjudication? Would you rather be tried by a jury or a judge?
    5. What was 'enlightened' about the invention of the penitentiary?
    6. What do you think of Foucault's comparison of the penitentiary with barracks and schools? Are there similarities between the rehabilitation of criminals and techniques used in education?

 

  • Week 17 - The Scottish Enlightenment (Alan Cardew)

 

  • Week 18 - Language and Human Rights in the Enlightenment (Peter Patrick)
    Locke's 'Essay Concerning Human Understanding.'
    1.How was language related to study, science and knowledge before Bacon? What was Bacon’s contribution?
    2. What characterizes the modern view of language introduced by Locke?


  • Week 19 - Religion in the Enlightenment (Tony Clohesy)

 

  • Week 20 - Hogarth: Marriage a la Mode (Lisa Wade)

 

  • Week 21 -  Rousseau: Investigating Inequality (David McNeill)
    1. What does Rousseau mean by the "state of nature"? How does his account of the state of nature differ from Hobbes' and Locke's?
    2. Why does Rousseau argue against Aristotle's claim that human beings are by nature social or political animals?
    3. What does Rousseau mean by "perfectibility"?
    4. How does Rousseau define "natural law"?
    5. What is the significance of private property for Rousseau?
    6. How should one tackle inequality? 7. What is significance of the distinction between "vanity" (amour-propre) and "self-love" (amour de soi)?

 

  • Week 22 - Jefferson: The American Declaration of Independence (Colin Samson)

    1. We normally don’t think of American presidents as Enlightenment thinkers. What makes Jefferson as a person, a writer and a politician qualify as such?

    2. Jefferson composed most of the Declaration of Independence. What makes this one of the first enunciations of human rights and good government?
    3. How does the understanding of nature figure in Jefferson’s thought? In what ways does Jefferson articulate a specifically Enlightenment concept of nature, and especially control over nature?
    4. Regarding slavery, Jefferson said that it was like ‘holding a wolf by the ears.’ What did he mean by this.
    5. Jefferson was a slaveholder and did nothing to abolish it despite his high position. Can slavery and the racial thought that justifies it be an integral part of the Enlightenment?
    6. Taking Locke’s views on private property together with Jefferson’s embracing of slavery, can we say that the Enlightenment justified European/white supremacy?

 

  • Week 23 - Gender, Race and Citizenship : the French and Haitian Revolutions (Jane Hindley)

 

  • Week 24 - Burke and Paine  (Michael Freeman) 

    1. Burke believed that revolution was the opposite of reform because revolution caused chaos leading to tyranny. Was he right?  
    2. Burke criticised the French revolutionary ideology of `the Rights of Man' because it was `abstract' and did not take account of national history and culture. The modern concept of `human rights' is similar to that of `the Rights of Man'. Is Burke's critique of `the Rights of Man' applicable to our concept of `human rights'?  
    3. Burke believed that `prejudice', by which he meant inherited ideas, was often a more useful guide to political decision-making than the `reason' of such political philosophers as Rousseau and Thomas Paine. Was Burke right to suggest that practical common sense was more reliable than rational political philosophy for practical politics?

 

  • Week 25 - Frankenstein: The Romantic Reaction to the Enlightenment  (Lisa Wade)

 

Summer Term

  • Week 30  - Conclusion and Revision (Cathy Crawford)  


  • Week 31 - Kant: ‘What is Enlightenment?’ (Peter Dews)
    1. What does Kant mean by `enlightenment' and how does it relate to autonomy?
    2. What is the political dimension of `enlightenment' according to Kant?
    3. What is meant by the distinction between private and public reason?
    4. What, if any, is Kant's view on the role of tradition in enlightenment?
    5. How relevant are Kant's ideas today