西方文明史Western Civilization (1) & (2)
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英文系
蘇文伶與墨樵、
Wen-ling Su & Joseph Murphy
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製作日期
July 2011
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網頁教材 |
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歷史斷代 Historical Periods
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1.希臘時期 The Greeks
2.中世紀時期 The Middle Ages
3.文藝復興 Renaissance
4.北方文藝復興 Northern Renaissance
5.巴洛克時期The Age of Baroque
6.啟蒙時期Enlightenment
7.浪漫時期The Romantics
8.現代主義 Modernism
9.現代主義研究 Modernism Survey
10.後現代主義 From Modernism to
Postmodernism |
The Enlightenment
(ca. 1650-1800)
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I. The Scientific Revolution
A. Deism
B. Heliocentrism:
Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo
C. The
scientific method:
Bacon and Descartes
D. Influence on Dutch Painting
II. The Enlightenment: The Promise of Reason
A. The concept
of natural law
a. Political theories: Hobbes and Locke
b. Economic theories: Adam Smith
B. Encyclopédie
C. The Crusade
for progress
III. The Limits of Reason
A. Historical
context:
industrialism & the transatlantic slave trade
B. Satire:
Swift and Voltaire
C. Revolt
against pure reason:
Rousseau and Kant
D. The French
Revolution
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I.
The Scientific Revolution |
A. Deism
(1600-1750)
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A. Belief in God the Creator;
God as a master mechanic
B.
A “natural” religion based on human reason rather than revelation.
(Fiero 119)
C.
An issue:
whether God intervenes in the world
“The
classical view is that the universe was created by a God, who then
makes no further intervention in its affairs (the clockmaker
hypothesis). In this view, the reason God does not intervene in the
world (via miracles) is not that God does not care, but
rather that the best of all possible worlds has already been
created and any intervention could not improve it.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism)
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An Example:
Voltaire |
Reflecting on the sky at night,
Voltaire
wrote: “One would have to be blind not to be dazzled by this sight;
one would have to be stupid not to recognize its author; one would
have to be mad not to worship him.”
“If God did not exist, He would have to be invented.”
(Davies, Europe, 601)
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B.
Heliocentrism |
Models of the Cosmos:
Geocentric vs. Heliocentric
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Galileo Galilei |
A. “Galileo grew interested in the
heavens, and built his own telescope in 1609 after the discovery of
lenses was reported from Holland.”
B. “Galileo discovered craters
on the Moon, sunspots which rotated with the Sun, the
four largest satellites of Jupiter, and phases of Venus.”
C.
“This last observation
demonstrated that the Copernican theory was correct, since
phases would only be observed if Venus were always closer to the sun
than to the Earth.”
<http://scientificthinkers.wikidot.com/galileo-galilei>
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Isaac Newton
(1642-1727)
Newton’s Scientific Synthesis |
A.
Provided a theory of universal
gravitation in Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
(or Principia, 1687).
B.
Newtonian world-machine: Newton
proposed “the concept of an orderly universe . . . that operated
systematically as a well-oiled machine” (Fiero 121).

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C. The Scientific Model |
A.
The empirical method
1.
inductive reasoning
2.
direct observation and experimentation
B.
Francis Bacon
(1561-1626)
Novum
Organum (The New Methodology)
“This was the frontpiece to
Novum Organum (perhaps The New Methodology). .
. .”
“The ship is sailing through
the Straights of Gibraltar, out beyond the common limits of
exploration for English ships at that time.”
“Bacon looked for a new era
of scientific discovery where the old boundaries and the old ways of
thinking would no longer constrain discovery.”
http://maths.anu.edu.au/~johnm/dm/dmpaper.html |

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novum_Organum |
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Francis Bacon
(1561-1626) |
•Novum Organum:
New Method, or true Directions Concerning the Interpretation of
Nature
•Idols of the Tribe:
projection of our understanding and behavior on and toward natural
processes or other objects, e.g. our perception of time.
•Idols of the Cave:
allowing one’s prior knowledge, circumstances and opinions to cloud
one’s judgment, e.g. individual biases and prejudices
•Idols of the Marketplace:
e.g. custom and agreement, sexism in language
•Idols of the Theatre:
conceptual networks of philosophical schools, e.g. Plato’s
explanation of “soul after death”
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<http://www.iep.utm.edu/bacon/>
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René Descartes
(1596-1650)
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A.
The subject is defined as the original location of
certainty:
“Cogito, ergo
sum.” = “I” think, therefore “I am.”
I doubt,
therefore I am.
B.
Cartesian dualism
→the
split of mind and body
→The
senses are unreliable.
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http://english.turkcebilgi.com/Ghost+in+the+Machine
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Deductive Reasoning:
an Example
“Cogito, ergo sum.”
1. I exist (Axiom)
2. I have in my mind the
notion of a perfect being (Axiom, partly based on 1)
3. An imperfect being, like
myself, cannot think up the notion of a perfect being (Axiom)
4. Therefore the notion of a
perfect being must have originated from the perfect being himself
(from 2 & 3)
5. A perfect being would not
be perfect if it did not exist (Axiom)
6. Therefore a perfect being
must exist (from 4 & 5)
“Cogito, ergo sum.”
→“Nothing
comes of nothing.”
→Something
must have existed before the cogito.
↓
“God
exists.”
http://www.positiveatheism.org/faq/descartes.htm
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John Locke
(1632-1704) |
A.
Culmination of the Empirical
Tradition (Fiero 120)
B.
Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (1690)
1.
The human mind at birth is a
tabula rasa (“blank slate”)
2.
All knowledge originates from
sense perception: “Nothing is in the understanding that was not
first in the senses.”
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http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JohnLocke.png
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C.
Optimism:
1.
Believed in the goodness and perfectibility of humanity
2.
Education promises individual moral improvement and social
progress.
On Natural Rights:
“Men being . . . by nature
all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this
estate and subjected to the political power of another without his
own consent”
(from Of Civil Government, Fiero 137).
The social contract
preserves the natural rights of the governed:
“The only way whereby any
one divests himself of his natural liberty and puts on the bonds of
civil society is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a
community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceful living one
amongst another”
(from Of Civil Government, Fiero 137).
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D. Influence on
Dutch Painting |
Dutch Painting
in the 17th Century
A.
Influenced by the new “Baconian” attention to the evidence of the
senses
B.
Main
feature:
photographic realism
C.
Foci:
the art of describing; attention to detail
D.
Genres:
still life, portraits, landscape, genre painting (scenes of everyday
life)
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II.
The Enlightenment:
the
Promise of Reason |
Dates:
from 1687 (Newton’s Principia) to 1789 (the
beginning of the French Revolution) |
A. The
Concept of Natural Law |
•Definition: “the
unwritten and divinely sanctioned law of nature”
(Fiero 134).
•Natural laws can be
grasped by way of reason: “As Newton had established the
natural laws of the physical universe, so [eighteenth-century
intellectuals] sought to establish general laws of human behavior”
(Fiero
134).
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Laws of Human Behavior |
A.
Birth of the social sciences
B.
Political theories of Hobbes
and Locke
C.
Influence of Locke on
Montesquieu and Jefferson
D.
Economic theories of Adam Smith
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Hugo Grotius
(1583-1645) |

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/grotius.html |
A.
Dutch statesman
B.
Father of modern
international law
C. Originator of “natural
morality” and the social contract theory of the state.
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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) |
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Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826) |
“We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure
these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it,
and to institute new government ….”
(“The Declaration of Independence”, 1776)
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Adam Smith
(1723-1790)
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A.
a Scottish philosopher
B.
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
Nations (1776)
1.
Advocated free enterprise
and the policy of Laissez-faire (literally,
“allowed to act”)
2.
Believed that rational
individual would pursue their interest rationally
3.
the “invisible hand” of the
marketplace hence refers to individual self-interest, which Smith
believed guides the most efficient use of resources in a nation's
economy

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B.
Encyclopédie |


http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Diderot_-_
Encyclopedie_1ere_edition_tome_4.djvu
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A.
35 volumes, published between
1751 and 1772
B.
Chief editor:
Denis Diderot
(1713-1784)
C.
A collection of “all the
knowledge” on earth
D.
Voltaire: “Let the facts
prevail.”
E.
Purpose:
to “change the general way of thinking”
F.
To demonstrate how the everyday
applications of science could promote progress and alleviate
all forms of human misery.
G.
Louis XV banned it twice
The Encyclopedic Cast of
Mind: Emphasis on the accumulation,
codification, and systematic preservation of
knowledge (Fiero 143).
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C. The Crusade for Progress |
A.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
(1646-1716)
1.
Noted for his optimism:
he believed that our world, the world that God creates, must be “the
best of all possible worlds” and must have the maximum possible
beauty, order and harmony. In this world, even evil exists for a
reason.
2.
His view is ridiculed in
Voltaire’s Candide.
B.
Alexander Pope
(1688-1744)
“WHATEVER IS, IS
RIGHT”
(from “An Essay on Man”: Epistle I, Fiero
150)
C.
Nicolas de Condorcet
(1743-1794)
“The real advantages that should result from this progress, of which
we can
entertain a hope that is almost a certainty, can have no other term
than
that of the absolute perfection of the human race . . .”
(from
Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human
Mind, Fiero 146).
D.
Result:
a “cult of utility”
1.
Advances in science and
technology
2.
Social reforms
3.
Tyranny and injustice
challenged
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The Rights of Women
Mary Wollstonecraft
(1759-1797) |
•A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
•The argument: men consider females “rather as women than
human creatures.” Women receive “a false system of education” that
teaches them to sacrifice strength and usefulness to beauty so that
they could please men.

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III.
The Limits of Reason |
A.
Historical Context |
A New Barbarism
A.
The Industrial Revolution
“. . . the English factory
system often gave rise to dangerous working conditions and the
exploitation of labor—mainly women and children” (Fiero 153).
B.
The transatlantic slave trade
(left)
http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/33-340-Life-in-stuarts.html
(right)
http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/slave_trade.htm

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B. Satire |
Jonathan Swift
(1667-1745) |
1.
Gulliver’s Travels
2.
“A
Modest Proposal”: In view of the poverty of Irish farmers, Swift
proposed that most of the children there should “at a year old, be
offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the
kingdom” as food to be consumed at the dinner table.
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Voltaire
(1694-1778) |
1.
The
personification of the Enlightenment
2.
Great
admirer and popularizer of all things English (Newton, Bacon, Locke)
3.
“Écrasez l’infâme”:
literally, “crush infamy” (all forms of repression, fanaticism, and
bigotry)
4.
Had
contacts with Frederick of Prussia and Catherine the Great
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Visual Satire |

William Hogarth, “Marriage a la Mode: the
marriage settlement.” 1743. Web. NationalGallery. 28 July
2011.
<http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/william-hogarth-marriage-a-la-mode-1-the-marriage-settlement>
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William Hogarth
(1697-1746) |
A.
The Marriage Transaction
B.
Gin Lane
The Marriage
Transaction
(Marriage à la mode)
“The story starts in the
mansion of the Earl Squander who is arranging to marry his son to
the daughter of a wealthy but mean city merchant. It ends with the
murder of the son and the suicide of the daughter.”
•The Marriage
Settlement
“. . . the aged Earl (far
right) is shown with his family tree and the crutches he needs
because of his gout.”
“The merchant, who is plainly dressed, holds the marriage contract,
while his daughter behind him listens to a young lawyer . . . . The
Earl's son, the Viscount, admires his face in a mirror.”
“A grand portrait in the French manner on the rear wall confronts a
Medusa head, denoting horror, on the sidewall.”
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/william-hogarth-marriage-a-la-mode-1-the-marriage-settlement
15 October 2011
Gin Lane

•“Most shockingly, the focus
of the picture is a woman in the foreground, who, addled by gin and
driven to prostitution by her habit-as evidenced by the syphilitic
sores on her legs-lets her baby slip unheeded from her arms and
plunge to its death in the stairwell of the gin cellar below.
Half-naked, she has no concern for anything other than a pinch of
snuff.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Lane 15 October 2011
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Beer
Street vs.
Gin Lane

•“The inhabitants of both
Beer Street and Gin Lane are drinking rather than working, but in
Beer Street the workers are resting after their labours . . .
while in Gin Lane the people drink instead of working.”
•“Hogarth intended Beer
Street to be viewed first to make Gin Lane more
shocking—but it is also celebration of Englishness and
depicts of the benefits of being nourished by the native beer.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Lane
15 October 2011
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C. Revolt Against
Pure Reason
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Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1712-1778) |
A. Works:
Politics: The
Social Contract (1762)
Education:
Emile (1762)
B.
Influence: Montessori (1870-1952)
C.
Slogan in French Revolution: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”
http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/r/rousseau.htm
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Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) |
A.
The
mind is not a passive recipient of information (Locke’s “blank
slate”) but, rather, a participant in the knowledge process.
B.
Focused on the question of cognition:
Reality
= the mind + its perception / understanding
C.
The
“Categorical Imperative”: "Act only according to that maxim by which
you can at the same time will that it should become a universal
law."
D.
What
we must do in any situation of moral choice is act according to a
maxim that we would will everyone to act according to.
(Fiero 643) &
http://www.iep.utm.edu/k/kantmeta.htm
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D. The French
Revolution |
Causes |
A.
Financial
Disorders:
1.
Unjust tax system
2.
Bankruptcy of the government:
a.
war
expenses
b.
extravagant life styles
B.
Class
Conflict:
Three Estates
(the Old Regime)
1.
First:
clergy (1%) (owned 10% of the land)-->largest landowner, tax exemption
2.
Second:
nobility (2%) (owned 25 % of the land)-->best positions in government and army, tax exemption
3.
Third:
everyone else (97%)--> heavy taxation, feudal dues
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http://www.indiana.edu/~b357/weeks--2008/week%202.html
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C.
The
Enlightenment
1.
Voltaire
2.
Locke
3.
Montesquieu
4.
Rousseau
D.
American
Revolution:1776 The
Declaration of Independence |
Two Stages of
the French Revolution |
A.
The
Moderate Stage:
(1789-1791)
B.
The
Radical Stage:
The Second French Revolution (1792-1794)
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The Radical
Stage
(1792-1794) |
Legacy:
“The Revolution
eroded the strength of those traditional institutions—church, guild,
parish—that had for centuries given people a common bond. In their
place now stood patriotic organizations and a culture that insisted
on loyalty to one national cause” (Lerner 706).
The Guillotine
http://guillotineparty.tumblr.com/
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After the
Revolution |
1795-1799:
The Directory
--A board of 5
men
--Ineffective
reaction
1799-1815:
Napoleon Bonaparte
1799-1804:
Consolidating Authority
1799 First
Consul
1801
Concordat with the pope
1802 Consul
for life
1804
Crowned himself emperor
1806-1815:
Napoleon’s downfall
1806
The Continental System
1808
Invaded Spain
1812
Invaded Russia
1814
Abdication
1815
Exile
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System of
Administration |
1.
Centralization
2.
Careers open to talent
3.
Equality before the law
4.
Abolition of ancient customs and privileges
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Impact of French
Revolution |
1.
Liberty: more freedom
2.
Equality: no legal distinctions of rank
3.
Nation: a nation of citizens, a nation ruled by law

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Works Cited |
Davies, Norman.
Europe. London: Pimlico, 1997.
Fiero, Gloria.
The Humanistic Tradition. Vol. 2. 6th ed. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2011.
Lerner, Robert
E., Standish Meacham, and Edward McNall Burns. Western
Civilizations. 13th ed. New York: Norton, 1998.
Piper, David.
The Illustrated History of Art. London: Chancellor, 1981.
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