During the Enlightenment, key thinkers like Voltaire believed that one could use reason and rational thought to combat the forces of ignorance, tyranny, and repression that had come to be associated with the Church and the absolutist monarchic government.  In this unit, we will begin by thinking critically about these (and other) Enlightenment principles, acquainting ourselves with the socio-historical context in which they were developed and then exploring the way in which this “Enlightened” frame of mind gave rise to the period’s major literary trends—from political satire to Alexander Pope’s famous mock-epic, The Rape of the Lock.

• Reading: Immanuel Kant’s “What Is Enlightenment?” and The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “Introduction to the Restoration and the Eighteenth-Century”

• Reading: The History Guide: Dr. Steven Kreis’s “Ecrasez l’infame!: The Triumph of Science and the Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophe” Lecture

• Reading: Washington State University: The European Enlightenment’s “Rene Descartes” and “Blaise Pascal”

• Reading: Marie Jean Antonie Nicolas Caritat’s “The Future Progress of the Human Mind” and Marxists.org’s version of Immanuel Kant’s “Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View”

• Reading: The History Guide: Dr. Steven Kreis’s “The New Intellectual Society: Man, Nature and Society” Lecture
• Reading: Excerpts from Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method

• Reading: Washington State University: The European Enlightenment’s “Absolute Monarchy and Enlightened Absolutism”

• Reading: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “Summary” of the Restoration and the 18th Century and Washington State University: The European Enlightenment’s “The Eighteenth Century”

• Reading: The Norton Anthology of English Literature’s “The Plurality of Worlds” and accompanying illustrations; Washington State University: The European Enlightenment’s “The Scientific Revolution”

• Reading: Matthew Tindal’s Christianity as Old as the Creation and The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s “English Deism”

• Reading: John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government and Excerpts from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract; Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s “Jean-Jacques Rousseau” and “John Locke.”

• Reading: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s “French Deism”

• Reading: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s “Denis Diderot”

• Reading: Excerpts from Voltaire’s Candide
• Reading: The Saylor Foundation's "Voltaire’s Tenets of Empirical Thought and Religious Tolerance"

• Reading: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s “The Political Philosophy of John Locke” and “David Hume’s Life and Writings”
• Lecture: Yale University: John Merriman’s “The Enlightenment and the Public Sphere” Lecture

• Reading: Excerpts from Spectator, Volume 1 as well as The Internet Modern History Sourcebook's “The First English Coffee Houses” and “Salon Life”

• Reading: Project Gutenberg’s version of Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock; VictorianWeb’s “Rape of the Lock: An Introduction”; and The Norton Anthology of Literature’s “A Day in Eighteenth Century London.”
• Lecture: Indira Gandhi National Open University’s “Alexander Pope”
• Reading: The Saylor Foundation's "Satire: Horation Roots and Enlightenment Applications"

• Reading: Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
• Web Media: Northwestern Library’s “Politics and Print” Exhibition from “William Hogarth and 18th-Century Print Culture”
• Lecture: Montgomery County Community College: Dr. Catherine Carsley’s “Swift, Satire, and the Enlightenment”

• Reading: William Congreve’s The Way of the World and Theater History’s “Restoration Drama”
• Reading: The Saylor Foundation's "Comedies of Manners"