Teacher
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PIAZZA MARCO
(syllabus)
Title: Catastrophe and Progress in the Age of Enlightenment The course will explore the new conception of nature and history inaugurated by the 18th century, focusing on two key concepts that enable us to understand the spirit of the Enlightenment: catastrophe and progress. Didactic Unit 1 will be devoted to the analysis of a series of short texts - by Voltaire, Rousseau and Kant - on a catastrophic natural event that had an enormous resonance in Europe at the time: the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Didactic Unit 2 will focus on the analysis of some short texts by Kant and Condorcet, which outline a philosophy of history based on the idea of progress. At the end of the course, there will be a space for reflection on the relevance of the questions raised by the Enlightenment about man's misuse of nature and progress as an effect of democratic governance of power and property.
(reference books)
Programme for Erasmus Students: 1. Voltaire, Poem on the Lisbon Desaster (1755) All editions 2. Rousseau, Letter to Voltaire (in reply to the Voltaire's Poem on the Lisbon Desaster (1756) All editions 3. José O. AMARQUES, The Paths of Providence: Voltaire and Rousseau on the Lisbon Earthquake in «Cadernos de História e Filosofia da Ciência». Campinas: CLE-Unicamp, Série 3, v.15, n.1, jan-jun. 2005, p. 33-57 (http://www.unicamp.br/~jmarques/pesq/modern.htm) free access 4. I. Kant, What is Enlightenment? (1784) All editions 5. I. Kant 'A renewed attempt to answer the question: "is the human race continually improving"? (1798) All editions 6. Condorcet, 10th Epoch. Future Progress of Man (1796) (Final chapter of Condorcet's Outlines of an historical view of the progress of the human mind) All editions 7. J.B. Bury: The Idea of Progress: an Inquiry Into its Origin and Growth, 1932 or R. Nisbet, The History of the Idea of Progress, Routledge, 1994 (especially the parts on Einlightenment)
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