ITB 020 - Formations of Modernity

Course Objectives

In the last three centuries, the social formations that have radically changed the life and the being of the individual have been depicted under concepts like modernity, enlightenment, capitalism, or bourgeois-, industrial- and science and technology society. Understanding the forces, discourses and the movements that challenge and resist these formations are as important as understanding the forces and movements which enable the emergence and the reproduction of these social formations. This course will focus on the foundational concepts of modernity, like being modern, secularity, democracy, and critical mind on the one hand and on the resisting formations like dictatorship, mass and authoritarian society and their entanglements with each other, on the other hand. These topics will be addressed through the works of Kant, Max Weber, Barrington Moore, Canetti and Richard Sennett.

Course Description

In the last three centuries, the social formations that have radically changed the life and the being of the individual have been depicted under concepts like modernity, enlightenment, capitalism, or bourgeois-, industrial- and science and technology society. Understanding the forces, discourses and the movements that challenge and resist these formations are as important as understanding the forces and movements which enable the emergence and the reproduction of these social formations. This course will focus on the foundational concepts of modernity, like being modern, secularity, democracy, and critical mind on the one hand and on the resisting formations like dictatorship, mass and authoritarian society and their entanglements with each other, on the other hand. These topics will be addressed through the works of Kant, Max Weber, Barrington Moore, Canetti and Richard Sennett.