Site maintained by Roy J. deCarvalho
Last updated: December 04, 2005
| HIST-4370 |
INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE |
| COURSE INFORMATION | Instructor ....................... Roy J.
deCarvalho, Ph.D. Office .............................. Wooten Hall, Room 238 Telephone ....................... 565-4209 or 565-2288 (messages) E-mail address ............... roy@unt.edu Home page ..................... http://courses.unt.edu/rdecarvalho Office hours ................... (R) 5:30-6:30 pm Course schedule ............ (R) 6:30-9:20 pm Classroom Location ....... Wooten Hall, Room 215 Course Home Page......... http://courses.unt.edu/rdecarvalho/h4370/syl.htm |
| COURSE DESCRIPTION | From the Scientific and French revolutions; romanticism, reform movements, realism, science and technology, and intellectual currents of the 20th century. |
| OBJECTIVES & OUTCOMES | The objective of the course is to acquaint students with Modern European politics, ethnic diversity and intellectual currents. The major periods, events and historiographical perspectives will be covered and the most important details of each will be discussed. The course seeks to foster intellectual appreciation of historical events and processes and the particularity of European cultural and intellectual life. In so doing, it is expected to develop students' critical and analytical skills and make them better world citizens. The achievement of the course's objectives will be evaluated with exams and a written assignment. |
| REQUIREMENTS | Students are required to attend
the lectures, read the textbook, take examinations, and write a book review. The textbook
does not repeat the material of the lectures word for word but rather digress into related
topics. There will be three mid-terms and a final examinations. Reading and comprehension
of the textbook will be evaluated in all exams. Students are encouraged to visit the
instructor during his office hours even if they are not experiencing difficulties. First mid-term: February 15 (Perry's Intellectual
History, chs. 1-6) |
| BOOK REVIEW ASSIGNMENT | Students are expected to read a course related book of their choice and write a book review. Instead of being told precisely what to read students are encouraged to read and write about a topic they find meaningful. Students must receive my approval of their choice before they start reading. Students must restrict their choices to works related to the material of the textbook and lectures. They are encouraged to chose works they find meaningful; works they have always wanted to read but did not have the opportunity to do it. This exercise should be above all a rewarding intellectual experience. |
| TEXTBOOK | Marvin Perry, An Intellectual History of Modern Europe (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992) |
| ATTENDANCE POLICY | Students may miss up
to three scheduled class meeting. Students who miss more than three classes will be
penalized five points per missed class. Penalty points will be deducted from final grade. Make-up exams are granted only when agreed upon by the instructor before the exam takes place and only in cases of medical or family emergencies (evidence required in order to document the emergency). Medical and family emergencies should be reported when possible before the exam to the instructor's e-mail (roy@unt.edu), office (940-565-4209) or messages (940-565-2288) phone numbers. |
| SPECIAL ACCOMMODATION REQUEST PROCEDURE | Any person with special circumstances covered by the American with Disabilities Act should register with the office of Disability Accommodation, Suite 318A, University Union Building, and also inform the instructor of this class. Reasonable adjustment will be made to accommodate the special needs of students with disabilities where such adjustments are necessary to provide equality of educational access. |
| TENTATIVE LECTURE TOPICS | THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION Newton's achievement Pre-Copernican astronomy and physics Nicolau Copernicus (1473-1543) Copernicanism: Brahe, Kepler, Galileo Descartes' Mechanical Philosophy Newton's grand synthesis THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE AGE OF REASON Prophets of the Age of Reason: Locke, Hume and Kant Kant and the renewal of metaphysics Hegel and the dialectics of history Marx and dialectical materialism THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION On the relationship between science, technology and society The new technology and the steam engine The steam engine: Savery, Newcomen and Watt Industrial organization before and after 1760 The textiles industry: Invention and production The railroad revolution in transportation The nature and causes of the industrial revolution Physiocrats, Adam Smith and Laissez-faire economics Jeremy Bentham: Philosopher of the Industrial Revolution ROMANTICISM AND THE ENERGY CONCEPT The romantic outlook and its expression The roots of the energy concept Naturphilosophie and the primordial power Romanticism and electricity Electricity from Volta to Faraday James Prescott Joule and the mechanical equivalent of heat The energy law and late 19th cent positivism Ernest Mach: Prophet of positivism SCIENCE, HUMAN NATURE AND SOCIETY August Comte: Positivism and sociology The origins of the statistical method in the social sciences Social physics and political arithmetics Phrenology and human differences Marx Weber, history and sociology Emile Durkheim's studies on suicide On the origin(s) of the races and human diversity The myth of the superiority of the Aryan race Criminal anthropology: from Beccaria to Lombroso DARWIN, EVOLUTION AND HUMAN NATURE 18th cent natural history and the species problem Darwin's exposure to various ideas Evidence for descent with modification The origin of the species Reception and controversy British evolutionary anthropology Herbert Spencer and social Darwinism Eugenics: Artificial selection of human nature? UNDERSTANDING HUMAN (UN)CONSCIOUSNESS Wundt's Ganzheit psychology and volkerpsychologie Challenges to the psychology of consciousness Freud and the discovery of the unconscious The transformation of psychoanalysis: Rank, Jung and Adler Discovery of subjectivity: Phenomenology & existentialism SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND 20TH CENTURY SOCIETY The technological utopias |
Number of visitors since January 1, 1999
Site maintained by Roy J. deCarvalho
Last updated:
December 04, 2005