Rights! Liberty! Justice for all(-ish)!
All of the big changes we marked with the Modern Era come to a head in the High Enlightenment. Now that we are rational, autonomous (elite, white, land-owning) men, how do we structure our worlds? What is an ideal government? What rights do all humans (again, elite, white land-owning men) deserve just by nature of being born?
This week we will spend some time with those elite, white, land-owning men like Immanuel Kant, as well as elite, white women like Mary Wollstonecraft. But we’ll also hear critiques from those on the margins.
- Listen to A Curious Disputation, Season 2 Ep 5
- Read Logan, “Immanuel Kant on Categorical Imperative” (Beyond the Pale)
- Read Brekus, “Sarah Osborn’s Enlightenment”
- Watch “Mary Wollstonecraft and A Vindication of the Rights of Women“
- Read Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women*
- Read Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals*
- Turn in your Enlightenment Reading Response to Populi
- Guiding question for your RR: How do you understand our world (students, in Seattle, in the U.S., in the 21st century) as a continuation of Enlightenment-era thinking?