Previously, this course mainly covered the Enlightenment era and European philosophers at that time. As the course moves on, the material shifts more towards talking about the era of romanticism and art. Week 4 discusses Flaubert's criticisms of the movement as well as the stupidity of the bourgeoisie, through analyzing his work Madame Bovary. The next week discusses the Enlightenment in England and continues to discuss the era of romanticism. In particular, the course discusses Darwin's ideas that human beings are a byproduct of evolution, not the goal of it. He saw evolution as a tree, with many diverging branches rather than a single branch with mankind at the very top. After studying Darwin, the course moves on to morality and how it is truly a tool used by the weak to control the strong. At last, the final week analyzes some art pieces from the eras discussed. I would generally still consider this to be a modern European history course, however, because much of the material covers the ideas, I think it is useful in studying the pieces created in that time period. With a general grasp on what concepts and notions were perpetuated at the time, it's more likely we can also find what artists had in mind while creating works.

Recently, I  took a course on Coursera called "The Modern and the Postmodern", taught by Wesleyan University. This entry will detail a course overview and what I learned in weeks 1-3. This course first examines the Enlightenment period, through philosophers including Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Karl Marx. In the first week, I read Kant's "What is Enlightenment?". Kant states that both religion and science can co-exist, that one does not interfere with the other. Kant thought that enlightenment and modernity enhanced society, however did not want radical change, he wanted to go about enlightenment logically and rationally. Using Kant's thoughts on enlightenment, in the second and third weeks, this course took a closer look at Rousseau and Marx's opinions. Overall, while early on, this course does not delve into art analysis much, it explains many Enlightenment figures' beliefs and philosophies. Later on, these may be useful to analyze how art was shaped in the era.