In the 1660s and onward, the Radical Enlightenment pushed for full freedom of thought, religious freedom, and personal liberty together with democracy and the principle of equality.  In this lecture, Jonathan Israel will address how this part of the Western Enlightenment used medieval Islamic freethinkers and their ideas, and interpreted the special features of Islamic society and politics to illustrate and broaden its own arguments for transforming the Western World.  In recent years, this intellectual movement has been much more intensively studied and better understood, and this lecture -- the outgrowth of a highly innovative colloquium recently held at the Institute, Islamic Freethinking and Western Radicalism -- will highlight recent research into what might be broadly termed the Democratic Enlightenment. 

 

This lecture is presented with support provided by the Dr. S.T. Lee Fund for Historical Studies. 

This lecture is free and open to the public.  Tickets are not required. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.

 

 

 

This event is free and open to the public; registration is requested.  Seating is on a first come, first served basis. 

 

The work of Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science, will be recognized at a conference that will explore his contributions to the ethical and political philosophy of the twentieth century.  A range of speakers and talks will offer penetrating discussion into Walzer's broad philosophical interests and how these ideas intersect and interrelate. Walzer has written extensively on a variety of topics in political theory and moral philosophy. His most acclaimed work to date, Just and Unjust Wars (1977), is the classic contemporary text on the morality of war.