June 30, 2009
Week 5: Astronomical and Philosophical Views During the Enlightenment, Part 2
Topics covered: The New Celestial Cities; Voltaire’s Irritation; Pope and Wordsworth; American Perspectives; Swedenborg’s Visions Synopsis: Week 5 continues the exploration of changing perspectives on extraterrestrial life, focusing on the contributions of writers and social philosophers. Material covered in this session addresses a major shift in attitude about the plurality of worlds, which by now regards the idea as reconcilable with science and religion. Not all agree. Some writers adopted positions heavily influenced by science, but most drew from metaphysics and religion. Particular emphasis is given to Voltaire (1694-1778), Alexander Pope (1688-1744), William Wordsworth (1770-1850), and Americans Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), John Adams (1735-1826), David Rittenhouse (1732-1796), and Thomas Paine (1737-1809). Assigned readings: Chapter 8, “Extraterrestrials and the Enlightenment” (Crowe 2008:182-229). Crowe’s text includes primary source excerpts from these works: Voltaire, Micromegas, in Favorite Works of Voltaire (Garden City, NY: De Luxe Editions Club, 1900[?]). Alexander Pope, selections from Essay on Man (1733-1734), in Selected Works, ed. Louis Kronenberger (New York: Random House, 1948). William Wordsworth, “Peter Bell, A Tale” in his Poetical Works, ed. Thomas Hutchinson (London: Oxford University Press, 1910). Benjamin Franklin, “Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion,” in Works of Benjamin Franklin, with notes and a life of the author by John Sparks (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Company, 1840). John Adams, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, by L.H. Butterfield (New York, Atheneum, 1964). Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, in Representative Selections, ed. Harry Hayden Clark (New York: Hill and Wang, 1961).
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