History of Ideas I

The course provides a basic survey of the history of human thought from Antiquity to the present day. In relation to societal development, a critical perspective is adopted on central ideas, world views, and life philosophies mainly in Western culture considered in a global context, regarding areas such as philosophy, science, politics, aesthetics, religion, and daily life. The ideas relate to areas such as the origin of the world, the structure of society, the nature of the future, the potential of knowledge, the range of morality, and the driving force of the psyche as well as to how our self-conceptions affect our relation to nature and to others. One basic assumption is that the past is reflected in the present and the present in the past, without the loss of the intrinsic value of historical reflection. The course includes exercises in seeking information and solving problems in interpreting historical sources and presenting the result orally and in writing. Module 1. Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (7.5 ECTS cr) The module provides a basic history of ideas survey of philosophy, science, views of life, culture, and society from early major cultures until the mid 16th century, with an emphasis on Ancient Greece, Early Christianity, and the Middle Ages (and examples from the Western Christian, Byzantine, and Arabic-speaking cultural spheres) and the Renaissance and Reformation. Central history of ideas concepts and themes are treated and the source text analysis method is introduced. Module 2. The Enlightened World (7.5 ECTS cr) The module provides a basic history of ideas survey from the early 16th century until the French Revolution with a focus on conceptions of nature, society, and humanity. The science revolution and the European intellectual development in early modern times are treated in relation to changing societal and global conditions. One focus area concerns significant intellectual movements such as the Enlightenment, another the emergence of the colonial world order and its ideologies. The emphasis is on European thinking and how it changed in the encounter between the coloniser and the colonised. Module 3. Modern Times (7.5 ECTS cr) The module provides a general history of ideas survey of the 19th and 20th centuries with extensions into the early 21st century from Romanticism to Postmodernism, and illustrates the changes taking place in conceptions of nature, society, science, culture, and humanity. Political ideoIogies, systems thinking, social movements and the development and institutionalisation of science are treated along with philosophical specialisations and diversification. The diversity of intellectual trends and recurring patterns and structures are of special importance. Also, other power aspects of knowledge are addressed in the study of positive and negative approaches to the development of science and technology. Module 4. The Swedish History of Ideas (7.5 ECTS cr) The module provides a historical survey of ideas, culture, and science in Sweden in its European context with a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. There is a special focus on the emergence of modern Sweden, which includes social movements, expansion of education and science systems, democratisation, the welfare state, political and cultural ideologies and debates, equality policy and Sweden in the globalised world. The module is research-based and reverberates with issues of history consciousness, historiography and the use of history. Instruction is in the form of lectures, presenting essential content, and mandatory seminars on course content in the light of course literature, in which students discuss their understanding orally and in writing.