Social & Political Philosophy of the Enlightenment

This research seminar proposes a critical rereading of most prominent Enlightenment philosophers’ legacy concerning the social and the political paying special attention to the issues of femininity, race, and colonialism. After two introductory lectures on women’s struggle for recognition in the Enlightenment, Enlightenment study and classification of races, modern European colonialism, and on contemporary philosophical approaches to the question of femininity, race and colonialism, the seminar will be devoted to the discussion of selected passages of the works of central figures of the European Enlightenment (Spinoza, Locke, Hume, Kant, and Wollstonecraft). A selection of secondary literature will be made available for the discussion of each Enlightenment philosopher.