Sponsored by the Office for History of Science and Technology (U.C. Berkeley)
And the History of Health Sciences Program (UCSF)
Peter Reill
UCLA
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Rethinking the Enlightenment: Nature and Culture in the High and Late Enlightenment
In most accounts, the Enlightenment is seen as a monolithic movement characterized by the dominance of reason, the idea of progress, and acommitment to a mechanical natural philosophy. This so-called "Enlightenment Project" often serves as a simplistic interpretive symbol that hides the complexity and richness of Enlightenment thought. Nowhere is this truer than in the accounts of its language of nature. Traditionally, it has been assumed that the Enlightenment's language of nature had been forged by mechanical natural philosophy. Yet that characterization overlooks a major shift that occurred in the mid-century in which many Enlightenment thinkers conceived of nature as filled with life and with life forces that defied simple mechanical explanatory patterns. This shift in views touched many aspects of Enlightenment culture, since it was then assumed that nature served as the model for all reality. By looking closely at this shift we are better able to understand the true complexity of Enlightenment thought and culture and abandon the assumption of a single Enlightenment with a specific agenda, one which lends itself to stereotypical portrayal.
4:00PM
Monday, November 14
140 Barrows Hall
UC Berkeley
Office for History of Science and Technology, 543 Stephens Hall #2350
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2350
tel: (510) 642-4581, e-mail: diana@berkeley.edu
