IH5005 Current Controversies in Intellectual History

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Module description

This module enables students to scrutinise central historiographical disputes that continue to determine the nature and practice of intellectual history. The aim is to provide students with a detailed knowledge of the text and the controversy that it generated, with a view to providing the student with the skills to understand and evaluate the arguments presented in the best work in intellectual history published in recent years. The themes include topics drawn from the following list (the topics taught each year will depend upon discussion of what the most important topics of controversy are): John Pocock: Machiavellian moments; The decline and fall of states; Quentin Skinner: Liberty and liberalism; The Concept of Liberty; Reinhart Koselleck: Crisis and revolution; Franco Venturi: Utopia and Reform; Leo Strauss: Ancients and moderns; Istvan Hont: Commercial society and the jealousy of trade; Richard Sher: Enlightenment and the book; Michael Sonenscher: Enlightenment and revolution; Knud Haakonssen: Natural law and natural rights; Michel Foucault: Madness and civilisation; John Dunn: Democracy and rationality; Richard Tuck: Philosophy and government;; Lorraine Daston: Reason, wonder and nature; Eugene Genovese: Slavery and the southern tradition; Jonathan Rose: Intellectual life of the working classes; Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer: Hobbes, Boyle and the experimental life; James Secord: Natural history of creation.