HIS-226 History of Modern Ideas, 1890-2000
A survey of some of the major currents of modern
intellectual history focusing first on European
presumptions to scientific knowledge about nature
and humanity, including theories of the physical
universe, psychology, and society. Subsequent
challenges to absolute knowledge both from within
and without Europe will then feature, focusing on
self, biology, existence and human freedom in the
twentieth century. Examining first thinkers
grappling with the positivistic legacy of the
nineteenth century such as William James, Freud,
Weber, and Popper, the course moves on to new
modes of thought associated with existentialism,
the 'linguistic turn', and the new science from
Saussure, de Beauvoir, and Levi-Strauss, to
Derrida, Said, and E. O. Wilson.