The Collapse of Civilization

Does modern progress corrupt our morals and degrade our humanity? Has the march of civilization exhausted our souls? This course engages classic literary and philosophic works that explore how humanity has been shaped by modernizing forces. Students will investigate the enlightenment's promise to improve the human condition through the accumulation of knowledge, the technological mastery of nature, and the conferral of natural rights. They will consider--and question--modernity's faith in the goodness of progress, liberalism, socialism, science, technology, and democracy.