Instructor: M. Lilla
“Themes in Intellectual History” offers an intensive examination of one major intellectual concept or problem as it develops over time. This semester will be devoted to some classic modern works on education: its aims, its methods, its prerequisites, its limitations, its social and political implications. These works by Montaigne, Descartes, Locke, Vico, and Rousseau have been chosen for intensive study due to their wide influence and the starkly different pedagogical alternatives they develop. Particular attention will be devoted to Rousseau’s Emile and its relation to its precursors.
