By Sharifah Williams
bruin reporter
swilliams@media.ucla.edu
UCLA will house a debate on current discussions concerning the
Enlightenment on Friday.
The 17th and 18th Century Studies Center will be hosting a
two-day conference, “The Radical Enlightenment,”
bringing international speakers specializing in the subject to
campus.
The Radical Enlightenment concerns events taking place among
radicals in 18th century Dutch and English cultures who went
against all organized religion, said Margaret Jacob, a history
professor and conference organizer.
Jacob and her long-time friend, Wijnand Mijnhardt,
Netherlands’ leading cultural historian, came up with the
idea for the conference in order to discuss the radicals and their
ideas.
“We are examining the first decades in the Western world
when the monarchy and churches, and indeed Christian belief, was
challenged largely by writers and thinkers who remained
anonymous,” said Jacob.
Jacob is the author of “The Radical Enlightenment,”
in which she identifies Dutch land and England as the central
locations of the Radical Enlightenment.
Jacob’s perspective was taken up and challenged by
Princeton scholar Jonathan Israel.
Israel wrote “Radical Enlightenment” ““ not to
be mistaken with Jacob’s title ““ in 2001, 20 years
after the publication of Jacob’s book.
Although he agreed Dutch culture was the source of the Radical
Enlightenment, he did not adopt Jacob’s idea that the English
Revolution also played a part in the Enlightenment.
The conference will serve as the platform for debate between the
two scholars and will explore other issues concerning the topic as
well.
Some of these issues include whether France should continue to
be seen as the center of the Enlightenment and whether the
Enlightenment is an international phenomenon with revolutionary
implications, Jacob said.
The speakers will bring in their own research to include in the
debate on these issues. They will also focus on new ideas and
findings related to the topics.
Jacob said speakers will bring up discussion topics that include
the first pornographic novels, nature as god and the idea that
Jesus, Moses and Mohammed were impostors.
These discussions will highlight the earliest radical ideas of
the Enlightenment.
The discussion will also be brought into a present-day
perspective by Antonio Damasio, a University of Iowa professor and
internationally renowned neurological scientist.
Damasio will discuss the meaning of the philosophy of Spinoza
for his work in neurological science, Jacob said.
Students can still register for the conference by attending
the event early and bringing a student ID.