Dialectic of Enlightenment

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the world was faced with a series of dramatic shifts and cultural reforms that revolutionized the world in order to make way for the postmodern era. During this tumultuous time, scholars began reevaluating concepts and challenging the authenticity of life prior to this period. Consequently, many philosophers examined the new definitions of freedom and autonomy and discovered their role as an individual in an increasingly absurd world. Fyodor…

In the 16th and 17th century, a war was being fought for the future of natural philosophy. On one side was Galileo Galilei and his followers. They wanted natural philosophy to be based on the results of math and direct experience. On the other were the Aristotelian natural philosophers, who wanted to maintain the separation theoretical knowledge, such as theology, and practical knowledge, such as math and astronomy, and base natural philosophy on only theoretical knowledge. While Galileo was…

E.B. Tylor and James George Frazer are both widely known for their influential works regarding that of religion, namely “Primitive Culture” and “The Golden Bough” accordingly. Both of these nineteenth century intellectualists took a new approach to studying religion in terms of science, something that was almost unheard of in their time. Coining the term himself, E.B. Tylor introduced ethnological studies as a method of describing, comparing and scientifically analyzing the characteristics of…

Micah Reigstad Professor: Douglas Pierce History 0222-21 6 October 2017 Social Contract Book Review The Social Contract was written by the Swiss born Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and the first publication of the book was in the year of 1762 in the French language. In 1968, Maurice Cranston translated the book in English and the book has around 190 pages in Penguin Classics edition. In this non-fiction book, Rousseau tried his very best to theorize the most superior way possible to make a…

The French Revolution was a revolution that swept through the lands of France, bringing forth ideas that soon question the old ideals of the citizens of France. Though many seem to generalize the French Revolution as the revolution that wanted to bring change to the old monarchy system, however there were also other ideas and perspectives that were created from the French Revolution. We can see these perspectives and ideas through the writings of contemporary observers such as Olympe de Gouges,…

The Enlightenment was a time period of philosophical, economical, social, and political movement in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many philosophes were associated during this time period, including: Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot, along with many others. Montesquieu believed in an inclusion of the scientific method in social and political areas of the Natural Laws guiding social relationships. Voltaire believed in political and religious toleration, in contrast, Diderot doubted the importance…

Oftentimes, humans place religion on a pedestal and view religious beings in a positive light. However, the Age of Enlightenment challenged these customs instead of blindly following them. Similarly, in his satirical novella Candide, Voltaire imbeds his belief that religion is superstitious as he constructs specific characters who mock the superficiality and hypocrisy of it. As he highlights the varying philosophies and beliefs of these characters, he advances the plot and shames the world’s…

Frankenstein’s Folly In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Shelley criticizes the Enlightenment through characterization, symbolism, and framework in order to challenge the idea that intellectualism is more important than humanity. The Enlightenment was an era of intellectual and scientific progression in the 1800’s that encouraged reason and rationality over religion. One of the themes of Frankenstein is that the “acquirement of knowledge” is “dangerous” (Shelley 38). Frankenstein tells Walton that…

Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote The Social Contract post-French Revolution because he wanted to create a system of government he thought to be legitimate. Rousseau explains throughout The Social Contract that for a government to be legitimate, the power must lie in the hands of the general will, which represents the whole body politic. Rousseau’s idea sounds great, that is until it is put into practice and, alongside the strengths, you can also see the weakness of it. His philosophy of governance is…

The first chapter of the book ‘The Empire of Trauma’ by Fassin and Rechtoman, examines the origin or the genealogy of the concept of trauma. The authors wrote that the concept of trauma has a dual genealogy, one that is scientific and one that is moral. Both the scientific and moral genealogy are rooted in the nineteenth century Europe. Fassin and Rechtoman argue that the “reconfiguration of the relationship between trauma and victim, in which the victim gains legitimacy as trauma comes to…