Course Description

Have you ever heard the French slogan Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité? These three words, meaning respectively freedom, equality and fraternity, are today printed, engraved, carved on every French governmental building, school, university and public institution. While these words have been a great source of pride for the French people in the last two centuries, recent studies have shown how much ideals stemming in the French Enlightenment were built on the exclusion of women, the lower classes, foreigners, and slaves. In this class we will examine these ideals to investigate and interrogate their legacy in contemporary Western societies. To do so, we will read excerpts and articles from the Encyclopédie, the first French 18th-century encyclopedia, composed by 28 volumes and containing state-of-the-art (at the time) reflections on life, law, history, society, citizenship, etc.