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L03-330-04-07-15 Reading for next class: Start on Goethe: The Sufferings of Young Werther; Kant: “What is Enlightenment?” in course reader. Self & Selfhood:

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Presentation on theme: "L03-330-04-07-15 Reading for next class: Start on Goethe: The Sufferings of Young Werther; Kant: “What is Enlightenment?” in course reader. Self & Selfhood:"— Presentation transcript:

1 L03-330-04-07-15 Reading for next class: Start on Goethe: The Sufferings of Young Werther; Kant: “What is Enlightenment?” in course reader. Self & Selfhood: How do we handle normative questions? Can we control ourselves? Edwards & Rousseau Religion and Civil Society Bildung and the Bildungsroman The Logic of Assent Enlightenment & Romanticism The essential issue: the complexity of human nature. From potential to actuality: Are we born human, or do we have to learn to be human?

2 Managing the self EDWARDS: Enthusiasm & authority That those people went so far beyond them in raptures and violent emotions of the affections, and a vehement zeal, and what they call boldness for Christ, our people were ready to think was owing to far greater attainments in grace, and intimacy with heaven: they looked little in their own eyes in comparison with them, and were ready to submit themselves to them, and yield themselves up to their conduct, taking it for granted, that every thing was right that they said and did. These things had a strange influence on the people, and gave many of them a deep and unhappy tincture, from which it was a hard and long labour to deliver them, and from which some of them are not fully delivered to this day. The effects and consequences of things among us plainly show the following things, viz. That the degree of grace is by no means to be judged of by the degree of joy, or the degree of zeal; and that indeed we cannot at all determine by these things, who are gracious and who are not; and that it is not the degree of religious affections, but the nature of them, that is chiefly to be looked at. Some that have had very great raptures of joy, and have been extraordinarily filled, (as the vulgar phrase is,) and have had their bodies overcome, and that very often, have manifested far less of the temper of Christians in their conduct since, than some others that have been still, and have made no great outward show. But then again, there are many others, that have had extraordinary joys and emotions of mind, with frequent great effects upon their bodies, that behave themselves stedfastly, as humble, amiable, eminent Christians.

3 “On Tuesday night, Jan. 19, 1742,” observes Mrs. Edwards, “I felt very uneasy and unhappy, at my being so low in grace. I thought I very much needed help from God, and found a spirit of earnestness to seek help of him, that I might have more holiness. When I had for a time been earnestly wrestling with God for it, I felt within myself great quietness of spirit, unusual submission to God, and willingness to wait upon him, with respect to the time and manner in which he should help me, and wished that he should take his own time, and his own way, to do it. “The next morning I found a degree of uneasiness in my mind, at Mr. Edwards’s suggesting, that he thought I had failed in some measure in point of prudence, in some conversation I had with Mr. Williams, of Hadley, the day before. I found, that it seemed to bereave me of the quietness and calm of my mind, in any respect not to have the good opinion of my husband. This, I much disliked in myself, as arguing a want of a sufficient rest in God, and felt a disposition to fight against it, and look to God for his help, that I might have a more full and entire rest in him, independent of all other things. I continued in this frame, from early in the morning until about 10 o’clock, at which time the Rev. Mr. Reynolds went to prayer in the family. “I had, before this, so entirely given myself up to God, and resigned up every thing into his hands, that I had, for a long time, felt myself quite alone in the world; so that the peace and calm of my mind, and my rest in God, as my only and all- sufficient happiness, seemed sensibly above the reach of disturbance from any thing but these two: 1st. My own good name and fair reputation among men, and especially the esteem and just treatment of the people of this town; 2dly. And more especially, the esteem, and love, and kind treatment of my husband. At times, indeed, I had seemed to be considerable elevated above the influence of even these things; yet I had not found my calm, and peace, and rest in God so sensibly, fully, and constantly, above the reach of disturbance from them, until now.

4 Social contract 15: Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. State of nature; civil society Legitimacy. Family the first model of political societies. 16 Grotius and Hobbes Caligula: either the kings were gods or that men were beasts 17 All power comes from God, I admit; but so does all sickness Ch iv: slavery: no natural authority over others, so convention is the basis of all legitimate authority “To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man 19: must always go back to a first convention; DIFFERENCE between subduing a multitude and ruling a society. Ch VI: the social compact: the form of association 20

5 Emile: Savoyard Priest 25 26 sad state of morals Church which decides everything 27 Philosophers and faction


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