Table of Contents

1. Eighteenth Century: Art, Literature and Society
2. Eighteenth Century Resources on the Web
3. David Hume
4. Edmund Burke
5. Jean Jacques Rousseau--The Communitarian
6. 18th Century America and the American Revolution

• Art of the Enlightenment
• Eighteenth Resources on the Net--Very useful site for students of this period
• Krannert Art Museum at the Univertity of Illinois
• Le Web Louvre--(Have no fear like most Web sites, it is in English)--One of the very best sites on the Web. It has won awards, in 1994. as the best site on the Web.
• On Line Masterpieces--The art of a period is very reflective and suggestive of changes influencing social and political theory. For example look at the portrayal of facial character and nature in the paintings of the 14th century as contrasted with paintings of the 16th century.

Eighteenth Century Resources on the Web

• Eighteenth-Century Studies--This is a another wonderful source from the English server at Carneige Mellon Universityl
• Eighteenth Resources on the Net--Very useful site for students of this period

David Hume

• The Hume Society

Edmund Burke

• Edmund Burke--British/Irish Statesman (18Th Century) Conservative
• Edmund Burke's page--This is a slow page to download.

Jean Jacques Rousseau--The Communitarian

• The Well--This is a site worth visiting. It raises some interesting questions about what we mean by community, particiapation and friendship. Sites like the Well force us to ask questions about the meaning of community. One of the traditional components of a community in Aristotle or Rousseau's sense is one of physical proximity. Both theorists suggest the need for the community to be small and that the economic system should distribute wealth in a reasonably equitable manner. They also stress the need for a community of sharee values, traditions and beliefs. A community is created though participation in the decisions that shape our lives. We engage in long standing dialogue. Is it possible to talk about a Virtual Community where proxity makes little sense and where the exchange of ideas is not rooted in community concers and problems (schools, safe neighborhoods, work). Is it perhaps necessary to change the meaning of community and is the change still community in a meaningful sense. Some of the element of community seem to be there. Many of the people in these Internet discussion groups like The Well exchange concerns, ideas, and feelings weekly if not daily. These discussions have gone on for years and they are often of considerable intensity. Certainly there links to each other are closer than the attachments many of us have to our neighbors. ("How, how are you" How's the wife? dog? cat? With our neighbors we share a space and little else. In a Newsgroup we might exchang ideas for years on an almost continual basis. Some other sites and articles worth examining are:
  1. Blacksburg Electronic Village Gopher-- An attempt to foster community networking.
  2. CSF: Communictations for a Sustainable Future--Gopher Server of Conflict Resolution Materials
  3. Electronic Democracy Must Come From Us-- Dangers of too large a role of government in the Internet
  4. The Electronic Public Interest versus the Private Good--The need for the government to assure that access to the Internet is open to all in the community

• American and British History Resources--Online books on Locke, Jefferson, Paine, Franklin, etc.
• American Classical Leaque home page
• American Memory Collection--This is wonderful site from the Library of Congress
• American Revolution and the Struggle for Independence--From Revolution to Reconstruction
• American Studies Web--Links to a tremendous amount ot information on American society
• The Constitution of the United States of America--This is a marvellous way to study the American constitution in considerable detail.
• The English Server--Government, Law and Society. This is a quite famous site. It has texts in politics and political theory from the 17th to 19th century, including the Federalist Papers.
• History of American States

(Return to Modern Political Theory Web sites--Table of Contents

[Contents]	[Index]	[Comment]	[Home]