The philosophical essay, in its modern form, dates from the late-sixteenth-century France: Michel de Montaigne “retired from political life, shut himself in his library, and tried something new”. In 1580, he published the first version of the Essays. In this course we will look at the ideas of some of the most important philosophers and public thinkers through their essays. The essay form serves many purposes: The philosopher may use it to summarise their ideas or comment on a contemporary social or political issue. They may be serious, as in Hume’s “On Suicide” or humorous as in Voltaire’s “Dialogue Between a Savage and a Bachelor of Arts”, or delightfully whimsical as in John Tyerman Williams Pooh and the Philosophers.
- _Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). "Of Experience" In The Complete Essays
- of Montaigne. (trans). Donald Frame Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, (1958).
- Voltaire (1694-1778). "Dialogue Between a Savage and a Bachelor of Arts" in The Works of Voltaire: Short Essays. Editor Mark Johnson, Penguin Classics 2007.
- David Hume (1711-1776) "On Suicide" in David Hume: Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary. Edited by Tom L. Beauchamp and Mark A. Box. Oxford University Press 2021.
- Mary Shelley (1797-1851) On Ghosts, First published 1826. Available: Project Gutenberg Australia, 2019.
- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Extracts from On Liberty and Other Essays. Editor John Gray. The World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) "Resistance to Civil Government" in Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: Norton, 1990.
- Mark Twain (1835-1910) "Corn-pone Opinions" and "The Dervish and the Offensive Stranger" in The Complete Essays of Mark Twain. Editor Charles Neider. Doubleday and Company Inc 1963.
- Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968) "Letter from Birmingham Jail", reprinted in Why We Can’t Wait. New American Library 1988.
- The Age of Enlightenment: Essayists in the Enlightenment used the essay to critique religion, superstition, and monarchy. They often used humour, irony and satire for that purpose. They promoted science and the liberalisation of social structures. Voltaire (1694-1778). “Dialogue Between a Savage and a Bachelor of Arts” in The Works of Voltaire: Short Essays. David Hume (1711-1776) “On Suicide” in David Hume: Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary.
- The Nineteenth Century: Romance and Revolution: The Nineteenth Century Romantic Essayists, such as Mary Shelley (1797-1851), author of Frankenstein, used the essay to give her more personal opinions. Her “On Ghosts” is a good example of this. Mark Twain ( 1835-1910) in “Corn-pone Opinions” and “The Dervish and the Offensive Stranger” also takes on a more personal style. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) in On Liberty and Other Essays, and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) in “Resistance to Civil Government” employ the essay for philosophical and political commentary.
- Civil Rights and the Power of the Essay: The centrepiece of this theme is Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968) “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, reprinted in Why We Can’t Wait. However, we will also look at this work in relation to oppositional views such as the very powerful essay by Malcom X: “The Ballot or the Bullet”.
- The Whimsical Essay: Wisdom need not be ponderous, these two works are delightful and insightful. John Tyerman Williams (1920-2016). Extracts from Pooh and the Philosophers. First published in Great Britain by Methuen London, 1995. Daniel Klein and Thomas Cathcart. Extracts from I Think, Therefore I Draw: Understanding Philosophy through Cartoons. First Published by Penguin Books 2018
- The Revival of the Philosophical Essay On Line: Simply by pure volume, the essay is booming. The philosophical essay of about 5 to 10 pages seems to work for those who want less than a book but more than Tic Tok. Some sites such as Aeon have mastered this format.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Understand the key concepts in the development of the essay style of philosophy.
- Read and discussed extracts from the history of the essay to the present.
- Relate the essay ideas to their personal lives and contemporary issues.
- Further their interest in the philosophical essay through the many new internet sites such as Aeon which have taken up the short form essay as their mode of presentation.
