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V57.0900.007 Critics of “Civilization” Andrew Sartori Since the eighteenth century, a persistent theme of political, social and philosophical discourse has been the critique of “civilization,” both within Europe and beyond. How has the object of this critique, “civilization” (a concept that itself only emerged in the eighteenth century), been construed by its critics? With what alternatives or by what standards have they judge its failings? To what extent does this strand of criticism represent a continuous tradition, and to what extent should we locate specific critiques of civilization in the particular contexts of their articulation? More generally, how can we treat the critique of civilization as an object of historical investigation? Topics will include enlightenment and counter-enlightenment, British cultural criticism, the Kultur/Zivilisation distinction, and anti-colonialism. Week 1 Introduction Week 2 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality. Week 3 Denis Diderot, “Paradox on Acting,” in Diderot’s Writings on the Theatre. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Letter to M. D’Alembert… Concerning the Effects of Theatrical Entertainments on the Manners of Mankind. Week 4 Johann Georg Hamann, “Letter to Christian Jacob Krauss” and “Metacritique on the Purism of Reason,” in James Schmidt (ed.), What is Enlightenment? Johann Gottfried Herder, “Yet Another Philosophy of History,” in Against Pure Reason. Week 5 Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, “Something Lessing Said,” in What is Enlightenment? Friedrich Karl von Moser, “True and False Political Enlightenment,” in What is Enlightenment? Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, selections. Week 6 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Church and State, chapter 5. Thomas Carlyle, “Signs of the Times.” John Ruskin, “The Nature of Gothic,” Stones of Venice, vol. 2. Week 7 Boris Jakim and Robert Bird (eds.), On Spiritual Unity: A Slavophile Reader. Week 8 Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance,” Essays. Henry David Thoreau, Walden, first and last chapters. Week 9 Friedrich Nietzsche, “David Strauss,” in Untimely Meditations. Friedrich Nietzsche, “Natural History of Morals” and “Peoples and Fatherlands,” in Beyond Good and Evil. Week 10 Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, An Islamic Response to Imperialism. Week 11 Okakura Tenshin, Ideals of the East. Shaku Soyen, “Buddhism and Oriental Culture,” in Sermons of a Buddhist Abbot. Week 12 Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents. Week 13 Oswalt Spengler, Man and Technics. Thomas Mann, Reflections of an Unpolitical Man. Week 14 Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is within You, chapter 9. Mohandas Kamachand Gandhi, Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, 26-38, 66-74, 156-164. Week 15 Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 13-32, 57-61. Leopold Senghor, The Foundations of Africanité, selections.