This course offers a general overview of the enlightenment period and its introduction to the Turkish society and politics following the breakdown of the Ottoman society and the formation of the modern Turkish nation-state. On this basis the course will evaluate concepts such as society, modernity, Westernization, populism, ideological conservatism, statism, and ideologies of domination in internal politics. These themes will be discussed in relation to some of the following major Turkish sociologists like Abdullah Cevdet (1869-1932), Yusuf Akçura (1876-1935), Ziya Gökalp (1876-1924), Prens Sabahattin (1877-1948), Şevket Süreyya Aydemir (1897-1976), Hilmi Ziya Ülken (1901-1974), Ziyaeddin Fahri Fındıkoğlu (1901-1974), Ömer Lütfü Barkan (1902-1979), Ömer Celal Sarç (1906-1998), Mümtaz Turhan (1908-1969), Niyasi Berkes (1908-1988), Nurettin Şazi Kösemihal (1909-1972), Behice Boran (1910-1987), İbrahim Yasa (1914-1983), Cahit Tanyol (1914-??), Cemil Meriç (1916-1987), Cavit Orhan Tütengil (1921-1979), Sabri Ülgener (1911-1983), Mübeccel Belik Kıray (1923-2007), Baykan Sezer (1939-2002).