Readings

Invisible Bonds – The Enlightenment Science of Society from Mandeville to Hegel

WEEK 1

Monday, July 9

Session 1: Introduction: Hobbes and the Science of (Un-)Sociable Passions

  • Hobbes, On the Citizen, pp. 21-57 (chs. I-III); 69-74 (ch. V); Leviathan, pp. 3-5 (Intro); 27-35 (ch. VI); 38-78 (chs. VIII-XIII); 106-129 (chs. XVII-XVIII).

Tuesday, July 10

Session 2: Mandeville and the Socialization of Self Love

  • Fable of the Bees, preface, ‘An Enquiry Into the Origin of Moral Virtue;’ ‘A Search Into the Nature of Society’; Remarks C, G, L, and N

Wednesday, July 11

Session 3: Hume on the History of Morality in Commercial Societies

  • Hume, Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, sections I-VI and appendix sections II and III (pp. 13-60, 88-98); and ‘Of the First Principles of Government’ and ‘Of the Origin of Government’, in Essays, Moral, Political and Literary,pp. 32-41; Smith, LJ, pp. 399-407

Thursday, July 12

Session 4: Montesquieu: Law and Commerce

  • Spirit of the Laws, ed. Cohler, Miller & Stone,bks. 1-3 (pp. 3-30); bk. 20 (pp. 231-246)

Friday, July 13

Session 5: Montesquieu and Smith: The Decline of Human Bondage

  • Spirit of the Laws, ed. Cohler, Miller & Stone,bks. 15-16 (pp. 246-81); Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Glasgow ed., bk 3 (pp. 376-427).

WEEK 2

Monday, July 16

Session 6: Adam Smith: Becoming a Moral Self in Commercial Society

  •  Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part 1, 1.1-4. (Penguin ed., pp. 13-30); 3.1-3. (pp. 55-78); Part 2, 2.1-3 (pp. 95-110); Part 3, 1-2 (pp. 131-56); Part 4.1-2 (pp. 209-24); Wealth of Nations, Chapters 2-4 (WN, pp. 13-30.)

Tuesday, July 17

Session 7: Diderot: Nature and Culture

  • Diderot, Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville and Selections from Bougainville’s Voyage

Wednesday, July 18

Session 8: Rousseau: Freedom and the History and Critique of Civil Society

  • ‘Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men’, In Discourses, pp. 131-76, 248-81.

Thursday, July 19

Session 9: Rousseau: Culturing Sensible Selves in Commercial Society

  • Emile, ed. Bloom, bks. 1 & 3 (pp. 37-74; 164-208); Julie, or the New Heloise, eds. Stewart & Vaché,pp. 432-55.

 

WEEK 3

Monday, July 23

Session 10: Kant’s Social Unsociability

  • ‘Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose’, ‘Towards Perpetual Peace’ (Excerpts) and ‘Conjectures on the Beginning of Human History’, In Political Writings, pp. 41-53, 108-14, 221-34; Lectures On Anthropology (Friedländer 1774-75), ed. Wood & Louden, 212-30.

PUBLIC LECTURE, 5 p.m., followed by reception

Silvia Sebastiani, EHESS, “Man, Secluded from the Company of Women is… a dangerous animal to society’: Histories of Women in the Scottish Enlightenment”

Tuesday, July 24

Session 11: Schiller

  • On the Aesthetic Education of Man,1st-10th Letters; 19th-27th Letters (pp. 3-37; pp. 67-112)

Wednesday, July 25

Session 12: Hegel: Freedom and Property

  • Philosophy of Right, §§ 33-71, § 141-157

Thursday, July 26

Session 13: Hegel: Societas CivilisRedefined

  • Philosophy of Right, §§ 181-211, §§ 231-249, 257-61

Friday, July 27

Session 14: Plenary Discussion

 

Editions for Seminar Readings

(Readings will be provided to participants either in book or pdf format).

Diderot, Denis, Political Writings. Ed and translated John Hope Mason and Robert Wokler.Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Ed. Allen W. Wood and transl. H. B Nisbet Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Political Writings. Ed. Laurence W. Dickey and transl. H. B. Nisbet Cambridge, U.K. ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Hobbes, Thomas,  On the Citizen. Ed. Richard Tuck and transl. Michael Silverthorne Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Hobbes, Thomas, and Richard Tuck. Leviathan. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. Ed. J.B. Schneewind Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co., 1983.

Hume, David, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary. Ed. Eugene F. Miller. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987.

Kant, Immanuel, Political Writings. Ed. and transl. Hans Siegbert Reiss. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Kant, Immanuel, Lectures On Anthropology. Ed. Robert Louden and Allen Wood, transl. Robert Clewis and others. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Mandeville, Bernard, The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Publick Benefits, Ed. E.J. Hundert, Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing, 1998.

Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, The Spirit of the Laws. Ed. and transl. Anne M. Cohler, Basia C. Miller, and Harold Samuel Stone. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, The Discourses and Other Early Political Writings. Ed. and transl. Victor Gourevitch. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Julie, Or, The New Heloise: Letters of Two Lovers Who Live in a Small Town At the Foot of the Alps. Ed. and transl. Philip Stewart and Jean Vaché. Hanover: Dartmouth College: University Press of New England, 1997.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Emile, or, On Education: Includes Emile and Sophie, Or, The Solitaries. Ed. Christopher Kelly and transl. by Allan Bloom. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2010.

Smith, Adam, D. D. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Ed. D. D. Raphael, and A. L. Macfie. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982.

Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.  Ed. R. H. Campbell and Andrew S. Skinner. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1981.

Schiller, Friedrich. On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters. Ed. Alexander Schmidt and transl. by Keith Tribe. London: Penguin Classics, 2016.