Lecturers:

Assoc. Prof. Iassen Zahariev, PhD

Course Description:

Competencies:

Successful graduates of the course students:

1) know:

• The historical features of Enlightenment.

• Key philosophy ideas from the Enlightenment period.

• The most important ideas that changed the modern world.

2) can:

• Link various problems of the contemporary culture to their source in the age of Reason.

• Recognise the origin of different political and moral theories.

Prerequisites:
None

Types:
Full-time Programmes

Types of Courses:
Lecture

Language of teaching:
English

Topics:

1. The age of Enlightenment. History and context.
2. Reason and Fate
3. F. Bacon and the rise of science
4. The problem of Method
5. Descartes, cogito and the idea of Self
6. Descartes’ legacy
7. The idea of Encyclopedia
8. The social contract theories
9. Edmund Burke on French revolution
10. John Locke and the idea of toleration
11. David Hume on knowledge and causation
12. German Enlightenment and Rationalism
13. Kant and the answer of what Enlightenment is
14. Kant’s categorical imperative
15. Enlightenment, Europe and the contemporary world

Bibliography:

Bacon, Francis. The New Organon

Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the revolution in France

Descartes, René. Meditations on First Philosophy

Gay, Peter. The Enlightenment: An Interpretation

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan

Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Hume, David. Treatise of Human Nature

Kant, Immanuel. An answer to the question: What is Enlightenment?

La Rochefoucauld, François. Maxims

Locke, John. A Letter Concerning Toleration

Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Montesquieu. The Spirit of the Laws

Pascal, Blaise. Pensées

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Confessions

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract

Voltaire. Candide and Other Stories

Assessment:

Mid-semester exams:

1. Analysis;

2. Annotation;

End-semester exam:

1. Presentation;

2. Discussion.