HIS 346 - EGW: Enlightenment & Genocide: Mode

3 Credit(s)

How did the Enlightenment, with its calls for universal human rights and democracy, exist alongside crimes against humanity such as the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust? Studying both western and non-western ethical traditions, we look more closely at Enlightenment attempts to detach ethics from religion, and ask how widely-heralded but hotly contested advances and progress connected to - and sometimes led to - ethical failures. Bringing western and non-western philosophy into conversation with history, we study the changing structures of Ottoman and European societies in the context of industrialization, repeated cycles from monarchy to democracy to dictatorship, and the growth of radical strains of Islam as a social protest and revolt against European dominance.
Bonaventure Designated Course: Ethics, Global, and Writing Enriched