Dr Tim Hochstrasser, EAS. E407

Intended primarily for MSc History of International Relations and MSc Theory and History of International Relations students. Optional for MSc European Studies: Ideas and Identities, LSE-Columbia University Double Degree in International and World History and LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in European Studies. Also available as an outside option.

The objective of the course is to introduce students to the main themes and debates of the Enlightenment through selections from the original writings of the leading political, scientific and philosophical thinkers of the period. The chronological framework of the Enlightenment is here taken to be Europe between the reign of Louis XIV and the end of the French Revolution. The Enlightenment is the period in which philosophy, history, economics and anthropology and other social sciences began to emerge as discrete disciplines independent of state and church control. The course sets out to explore the new ideas generated in these areas as a result of a fresh understanding of man's place in the physical world. The contributions of Newton, Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Hume and Smith, among others, will be highlighted, and developed with a detailed study of selected texts as detailed on Moodle. The primary focus of the course is on philosophy and the history of political thought, not political or social history.

The course will be taught by both lectures (HY315) and seminars (HY426). There will be 20 lectures and 20 seminars held in the MT and LT and two revision sessions in the ST.

Two essays are required of up to 3,000 words (one submitted in week 4 of MT and in week 4 of LT). There will also be a presentation from each student in LT. There will be a mock examination in the ST.

A full Reading list will be provided at the start of the course on Moodle. The following represent basic introductory reading only, and students will be expected to give class presentations: T C W Blanning, The culture of power and the power of culture (2002); T Munck, The Enlightenment (2000); D Outram, The Enlightenment (1995); R Porter, The Enlightenment (2001); Anthologies: I Kramnik (Ed), The Portable Enlightenment Reader (1995).

A three-hour written examination in the ST (100%).