Leading international scholars will attend Australia's first conference on the Libertine Enlightenment to be held at The University of Queensland on September 21 and 22.
Conference co-convenor Professor Peter Cryle said the Enlightenment was an 18th Century period in which philosophers produced many of the ideas that modern societies take for granted.
Critical of orthodoxy, these philosophers radically changed the way people thought about religion, economics, political philosophy, and education. Their method was founded on a belief that the exercise of reason alone could reveal ultimate truths and move people to improve their condition.
"Nowadays the word 'Enlightenment' is sometimes used in modern contexts as a term that makes people uncomfortable, and the word 'Libertine' has been narrowed down just to refer to sexual freedoms. However, in the 18th Century it had a wider meaning of plurality of thought and freedom of social discussion," Professor Cryle said.
"It was actually a case of multiple enlightenments, and it's interesting for us today to think about the ways that this was the beginning of modern political and cultural theory and practice."
Professor Cryle said the conference, to be opened by UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay, expected to discuss such issues as the uses of libertine and libertinism as names; modes of (feminine) enlightenment; multiple enlightenments; and libertine counter-enlightenments.
Conference co-convenor Dr Lisa O'Connell said the project of a conference on the libertine enlightenment was hatched by UQ scholars who had begun forming themselves into a research concentration in the history of sexuality. This group includes scholars whose primary fields are Asian, Australian, British, French, and Hispanic studies.
"When the Humanities Research Centre at Australian National University in Canberra announced that its theme for 2001 would be the Enlightenment, we saw a compelling opportunity for collaborative research," she said.
"With assistance from the French Embassy and UQ's Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, we have invited some leading French scholars who would not otherwise be part of the HRC's activities, and given them the opportunity to interact with prominent scholars in British studies who will this year be research fellows of the HRC."
For further details about the conference visit the web site: http://arts.uq.edu.au/cccs/events/libertine/
Media: For further information, contact Professor Peter Cryle, telephone 07 3365 2270, Dr Lisa O'Connell, telephone 07 3365 2589 or Ms Andrea Mitchell at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, telephone 07 3365 7182.
