HI281-15 Being Human: Human Nature from the Renaissance to Freud
Introductory description
This 30 CATS undergraduate second-year module introduces students to the different ways in which humans have thought about themselves from the Renaissance to the early 20th century, both as individuals and as collectives. It forwards the idea that ‘human nature’ is not a universal, trans-historical concept constant over time, but rather, is socio-culturally constructed. At different moments in time, ‘being human’ has been constructed and interpreted differently according to dominant values, norms, and systems of knowledge governing a society at a particular moment in time. This module investigates those differences over time in Western culture and how they link to wider social, cultural and economic contexts.
Module aims
Students will learn about crucial moments in the history of conceptualising and defining ‘human nature,’ from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment to Sigmund Freud’s theories of the unconscious at the end of the 19th century.
Among other things, the module explores how 15th-century humanists felt that all that was worthwhile about being human was to be found in God, the scriptures, and classical texts. During the so-called Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, however, it began to be believed that humans possessed the creative power to ‘discover’ new things about themselves and their vastly-expanded world (the ‘new world’ of the Americas).
This module also documents how, especially during the 17th and 18th centuries, the idea of ‘human nature’ came increasingly to be articulated and worried over, and how a new age of ‘humanity’ was envisioned. Rationality and reason became key attributes of the Enlightenment self; sociability, free speech, natural laws and universal rights came to be seen as structuring 'civilised' society. Also important was the linking of individuals and populations to economics and the territorial politics of emergent nation states. In the 19th century this process continued, but ‘being human’ was increasingly defined in terms of natural laws with ever-greater trust being placed in the natural sciences and, ultimately, the science of psychology.
Overall, the module asks how a new age of humanity and new ways of knowing one-self came into being, and discusses what these new ways of understanding the self closed off or overlaid. Underlying the module is the question of the extent to which we are still within the Enlightenment project, or not.
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
Term I:
- In Search of Human Nature: Why History is So Vital for Our Understanding of What
It Means to Be Human - Famous Stories We Tell Ourselves (I): The ‘Discovery’ of the Individual or the ‘Self-Fashioning’ of Renaissance Man? Jacob Burckhardt and Stephen Greenblatt
- Famous Stories We Tell Ourselves (II): The ‘Scientific Revolution’
- Discovering Human Nature? The Case of Sixteenth–Century Anatomy
- Man Possessed: How to Become Holy or Demoniac in the Early Modern World
~ reading week ~
- Of Monsters and Cannibals: Europeans Encounter the New World ‘Other’
- Challenging God’s Power? The ‘Invention’ of a 'Curious' Human Nature in the Seventeenth Century
- Body and Soul Re-Thought: Man as Machine and the Changing Animal/Human Relationship in the 17th Century
- Who is 'Man'? The Quest for Human Nature and the ‘Science of Man’ in the Enlightenment
Term II
- Is the Savage Noble: Exploration, Cross-Cultural Encounter and the Question of Human Races in the 18th Century
- ‘All Men are Equal’: But Women and Slaves are not!
- Human Nature, Commerce and Corruption: The Invention of a 'Homo Economicus' in the Eighteenth Century
- The ‘Invention’ of Pornography: Exploring Man’s Sexual Fantasies
- Bringing the Psyche into Focus (I) – An Introduction
~ reading week ~ - Bringing the Psyche into Focus (II): The Problem of the Individual Self and Its Relationship to Society
- Human Evolution: Darwin
- ‘Penis Envy’, ‘Castration Anxiety’, ‘Oedipus Complex’ and ‘Perversion’:
the Invention of an Unconscious Human Nature in 19th-Century Vienna - How Freud Got Under Our Skin: The Unconscious and Modern Capitalism
Term III:
2 Revision Lectures and Seminars
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Development of critical and analytical study, writing and communication skills
- Critically evaluate sources for the study of human nature
- Understand historical and theoretical interpretations of human nature
- Present research in an imaginative and concise manner
- Develop written and oral communication skills
- Undertake bibliographic research
- Develop competency in using electronic resources for research and writing
Indicative reading list
Reading lists can be found in Talis
Subject specific skills
-Critically evaluate sources for the study of human nature
-Understand historical and theoretical interpretations of the study of human nature
Transferable skills
-Develop critical and analytical study, writing and communication skills
-Present research in an imaginative and concise manner
-Develop written and oral communication skills
-Undertake bibliographic research
-Develop competency in using electronic resources for research and writing
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Lectures | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
| Seminars | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
| Tutorials | 1 session of 1 hour (1%) |
| Private study | 131 hours (87%) |
| Total | 150 hours |
Private study description
No private study requirements defined for this module.
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A1
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment component |
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| Assignment 1: Oral participation | 10% | Yes (extension) | |
Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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| Assignment 2: 1000 word essay plan | 40% | Yes (extension) | |
Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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| Assignment 3: 3,000 word essay | 50% | Yes (extension) | |
Reassessment component is the same |
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Feedback on assessment
- written feedback on essay and exam cover sheets\r\n- student/tutor dialogues in one-to-one tutorials\r\n
There is currently no information about the courses for which this module is core or optional.