Abstract
This final lecture will change course to examine the efforts of absolutist rulers to capitalize on the new intellectual world that emerged in the eighteenth century, appropriating from " theenterprise of the Enlightenment ". I will focus on the emblematic figure of Tsarina Catherine II, to show how the new " science of society " of the time encouraged several sovereigns to nurture the ambition to reshape society to their liking, while creating subjects of a new form.
