User:WabashC&T

Spring C&T Readings List
Kant - "What is Enlightenment?"

Main message: “Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage.” The general public must become educated—and by educated, Kant means “rational thinkers”—to think for themselves. Instead of accepting the doctrine of priests without question, people should analyze what they are being told and see if it makes sense. Supports female enlightenment, too. Kant puts a strong emphasis on obeying the ruler/doing one’s duty, even if the individual disagrees with the ruler. “A greater degree of civil freedom appears advantageous to the freedom of the mind of the people, yet it places inescapable limitations upon it. A lower degree of civil freedom, on the contrary, provides the mind with room for each man to extend himself to his full capacity.” Also worth keeping in mind--"This is not an enlightened age, but an age of enlightenment." Not everyone is enlightened, but the restrictions on becoming enlightened have been lifted (or eased.)

Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

Voltaire, Treatise on Tolerance

Summary: Jean Calas was a French man who lived in Toulouse and was sentenced to death for killing his son (who Voltaire claims, convincingly, committed suicide.) Voltaire uses the case as an argument against religious extremism and intolerance--Calas was a Protestant who lived in Toulouse, a primarily Catholic region. Rumor was that Calas' son was about to convert to Catholicism, so the family killed him to prevent that from happening.

Main message: Religion is a good thing, religious intolerance is a bad thing. Voltaire believes in a 'Creator' or a 'Supreme Being,' but he strongly supports tolerance of others' beliefs. (He also proposed the debate between Fanaticism and Reason. Fanaticism occurs when mankind use religious ideals to justify good actions as well as evil actions; which is like saying, "God told me to kill my son. I don't know why he wanted me to, but I had no choice but to obey him." Reason, on the other hand, would say, "I killed my son because he tried to kill me with..blah blah blah" (This isn't what really happened in the story). Overall, he advocated critical thinking instead of blindly accepting facts unchallenged, promoted open-mindedness and public civility instead of fighting for ideas to the death. He also encouraged the idea that 3 heads working together are better than one, and said that it's a good idea to embrace differences rather than condemning others.)

Joseph Addison, "On the Royal Exchange"

While the enlightenment encouraged the use of reason to understand the works of life, Joseph Addison (as well as Adam Smith) believed that trade, commerce, and material abundance are essential to the quality of life. He believed that commerce and trade not only gave one the opportunity to attain wealth, but united the people all over the world, exposing a different cultures and ideas along with their products of trade. He stated, "As I am a great lover of mankind, my heart naturally overflows with pleasure at the sight of a prosperous and happy multitude insomuch that at many public solemnities I cannot forebear expressing my joy with tears that have stolen down my cheeks. For this reason I am wonderfully delighted to see such a body of men thriving in their own private fortunes, and at the same time promoting the public stock; or in other words, raising estates for their own families, by bringing into their country whatever is wanting, and carrying out of it whatever is superfluous." Furthermore, he added, "Intercourses and traffic among Mankind, that the natives of the several parts of the globe might have a kind of dependence upon one another, and be united together by their common interests. Almost every degree produces something peculiar to it." All in all, the idea was that Trade not only brought a wealth of knowledge of cultures and traditions around the world, but improved not only the person but society as a whole. "Trade, without enlarging the British territories, has given us a kind of additional empire. It has multiplied the number of the rich, made our landed estates infinitely more valuable than they were formerly, and added to them as an accession of other estates as valuable as the land themselves."

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

There are many ways to interpret "the Wealth of Nations", but I will try to formulate an "upshot". The whole idea of "Division of Labor" was a group of men working together would be more productive than one man working alone. A man cannot divide his labor because he cannot divide himself. However, a group of men can divide their labors into however many men there are within the group; and each man would perform a series of tasks that contribute to the production of the good.

The Division of Labor is also related with the amount of Time it takes to produce a good. On top of that, the machinery serves as a catalyst to the rate of production. For most of the article, he refers to basic economic ideals such as supply and demand, the quality of the product, etc. He also defines money as the measure of value and how it "has become in all civilized nations the universal instrument of commerce, by the intervention of which goods of all kinds are bought and sold, or exchanged for one another." He also talked about the relationship between the workers and their bosses, and amount of payment the worker deserves. "A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more. Otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.."

Like Joseph Addison, Smith believed that trade brought people together and helped families thrive. Furthermore, trade&commerce fosters the growth of society as well as the growth of man. As commerce ignites the growth of society, there becomes a greater demand for more educated individuals for more important employment positions. Nonetheless, "In the progress of the division of labor, the employment of the far greater part of those who live by labor, that is, of the great body of the people, comes to be confined to a few very simple operations, frequently to one or two. But the understandings of the greater part of men are necessarily formed by their ordinary employments." Smith described an extreme case of ignorant person with no ability to participate in society, commerce, or even think the way typical humans do. Based on such descriptions, he stated, "Invention is kept alive and the mind is not suffered to fall into that drowsy stupidity, which, in a civilized society, seems to benumb the understanding of almost all the inferior ranks of people." Furthermore, "If they are not always properly educated, it is seldom from the want of expense laid out upon their education, but from the improper application of that expense. It is seldom from the want of masters, but from the negligence and incapacity of the masters who are to be had, and from the difficulty, or rather form the impossibility which there is, in the present state of things, finding any better."

Here's some food for thought, "But though common people cannot in any civilized society, be so well instructed as people of some rank and fortune, the most essential parts of education, however- to read, write and account- can be acquired at so early a perio of life that the greater part even of those who are to be bred to the lowest occupations have time to acquire them before they can be employed in those occupations. For a very small expense the public can facilitate, can encourage, and can even impose upon almost the whole body of the people the necessity of acquiring the most essential parts of education..."

Probably the most relative section of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is the last section "Of the Expense of the Institutions for Instruction of People of All Ages." He talked about ignorance, impediments set by religion, etc. However, there are two remedies: 1) the encouragement of Science and Philosophy 2) The encouragement of "frequency and gaiety of public divisions...giving entire liberty to all those who for their own interests would attempt, without scandal or indecency, to amuse and divert the people by painting, poetyry, music, dancing, by all sorts of dramatic representations and exhibitions - would easily dissipate, in the greater part of them, that melancholy and gloomy humor which is almost always the nurse of popular superstition and enthusiasm. Public diversions ahve always been the objects of dread and hatred to all the fanatical promoters of those popular frenzies." Figure Science and Philsophy for yourself... dumb luck.

Mary Shelley(loved the Dick), Frankenstein

Charles Lyell, "Prejudices which Have Retarded the Progress of Geology"

(The Progress of Geology) Lyell strongly emphasized the use of reason to perceive the illogical ideas promoted by fanatics. Scientists should not jump into conclusions based on their first impression without examining an idea. Instead, there should be a "gradual progress of opinion concerning the succession of phenomena in very remote eras, resembles, in a singular manner, that which has accompanied the growing intelligence of every people, in regard to the economy of nature in their own times." He feared that scientists of the past are formulating theories based on insufficient evidence are serving as the foundations of further research. The problem is, what if the theories are wrong in reality and all the extra research that derived from that theory would be a waste of time and talent. It would make the man "incapable of reasoning with sobriety." "If a theory be required to embrace some false principle, it becomes more visionary in proportion as facts are multiplied, as would be the case if geometers were now required to form an astronomical system on the assumption of the immobility of the earth." Additionally, "The imagination is as much perplexed by the deception...the most reasonable supposition, perhaps, which he could make, if by necromancer's art he were placed in such a situation, would be, that he was dreaming; and if a geologists form theories under a similar delusion, we cannot expect him to preserve more consistency in his speculations, than in the train of ideas in any ordinary dream...."

(Uniformity of Change) The title suggests that the world is always changing, not only through cataclysmic events, but overtime. He stated, "The readiest way, perhaps, of persuading the reader that we may dispense with great and sudden revolutions in the geological order of events is by showing him how a regular and uninterrupted series of changes in the animate and inanimate world must give rise to such breaks in the sequence, and such nonconformity of stratified rocks, as are usually thought to imply convulsions and catastrophes."

Read the second paragraph of K-16 or (page 436)

Furthermore, the scientists of his day needed to do a better job establishing evidence to support their theories instead of using their imaginations to explain what cannot be explained. Instead, the scientists of his day needed to examine how nature functions in his day rather than trying to look into the past and interpret the future. HOwever, the whole idea of geology is to figure out patterns inflicted by nature in the past; but they should only work on what is absolutely known instead of playing guessing games unless its' based on trial-and-error through experimentation.

Charles Darwin had sex with a monkey and caused genetic variation. The gene variation in turned caused a disease which we today call AIDS, Voyage of the Beagle

This is where the term voyage of the beagle comes from. "the beagle" is another name darwin used in reference to his male reproductive organ. Other names included 'the evolutioner" and simply "Charlie"

Alfred Wallace, "On the Law which has Regulated the Introduction of New Species" and "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type"

Modern Art

Karl Marx and Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, The Germany Ideology, The Community Manifesto, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts

Film: Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times

Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

D.T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali

African Art

African Music

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Negritude Poetry

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions

Film: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Booker T. Washington, "The Awakening of the Negro" & "Atlanta Exposition Address"

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Several Parts)

W.E.B. Du Bois, "OF Booker T. Washington and Others"

Lorraine Hansberry, Raisin in the Sun

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Film: Eyes on the Prize

Martin Luther King, Jr. "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

African American Poetry

Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

Z.Z. Packer, "Brownies" and "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere"