Syllabus
Course Description and Overview:
The modern era in western philosophy spans the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Spurred mainly by advances in science, but also by criticisms of Church dogma, philosophers attempted to accommodate new learning with a broad view of human abilities, and to construct systematic understandings of the world. This course mainly surveys, chronologically, the work of eight philosophers of the modern era: Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Among the recurring topics to be discussed are the nature of mind, free will, space and time, the self, and scientific reasoning. In combination with Philosophy 201: History of Ancient Western Philosophy, this course will provide students a broad background in the history of western philosophy, preparing you for both advanced work in the history of philosophy and contemporary study of a wide range of topics including epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics.
Texts
Required
Roger Ariew and Eric Watkins. Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources, 2nd edition. Hackett, 2009.
Various supplementary readings, available here.
Recommended
Norman Melchert. The Great Conversation, Volume II: Descartes through Derrida and Quine. Oxford, 2007.
Jeffrey Tlumak. Classical Modern Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge, 2006.
Class notes are here.
Assignments and Grading:
Your responsibilities this course include the following, with their contributions to your grade calculation in parentheses:
Attendance and Participation
Readings
Panel Presentation (10%)
Two papers (20%, 25%)
Midterm and Final Exams (20%, 25%)
Attendance: While there is no direct reward or penalty to your grade for attendance, I expect students to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned reading. I prepare carefully for classes and I expect you to be there in body and mind, asking questions and thinking.
Readings: As this course is a broad survey, there is a lot of assigned reading. I have divided the readings into three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary readings. You are responsible for completing all primary readings, which cover all the central topics in the course. Exams will be based on the primary readings. To assist you with the readings and to help prepare you for the midterm and final examinations, I will post reading guides, lists of questions, for all of the primary readings. The secondary readings, consisting mainly of further primary sources, will be useful in illuminating the primary readings. I will sometimes refer to the secondary readings in class. You should try to complete as many of the secondary readings as you reasonably can. The tertiary readings are mainly from the secondary sources (Melchert and Tlumak) and are optional.
Panel Presentation: Each student is required to participate in one in-class panel presentation. Panels will be organized around specific themes. I will distribute more specific guidelines, as well as a sign-up sheet, in class. I welcome, indeed encourage, you to use your presentation topic as a theme for your second paper.
Papers: Each student will write two short papers. The first paper, 4-6 pages on any theme from the Objections and Replies to Descartes's Meditations, is due on Thursday, February 9. The second paper, 5-8 pages on any topic in the material from Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, or Hume, is due on Thursday, April 26. I will distribute more details about the each paper in class.
Exams: The midterm exam will be given in class on Thursday, March 8, just before spring break. The final exam will be given at the appointed exam time: Wednesday, May 9, 2-5pm. Both exams will be based on questions from the Reading Guides, though the final exam may also include a short essay topic.
The Hamilton College Honor Code will be strictly enforced
Office Hours
My office hours for the Spring 2012, term are 10:30am - noon, Monday through Friday. My office is upstairs in the Philosophy Building, 202 College Hill Road.
Schedule:
Note: The readings listed in each row are to be completed before class.
Part I: Descartes
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 1 | January 17 | Early Modern Philosophy and the Scientific Revolution | Rosenthal, "Philosophy and Its Teaching" | Melchert, Chapter 12 | |
| 2 | January 19 | Sense Experience, Method, and Doubt | Discourse on Method, Parts 1 and 2 (AW
25-33) Meditations on First Philosophy, through Meditation One (AW 35-42) |
Montaigne, Apology, §7 (AW 4-13) | Melchert
319-327 Tlumak 1-22 |
| 3 | January 24 | The Cogito and Certainty | Meditations Two and Three (AW 43-54) | Bacon, from New
Organon (AW 16-20) Galileo, from The Assayer (AW 21-24) |
Melchert
327-332
Tlumak 22-38 |
| 4 | January 26 | Freedom, Mathematics, Science | Meditations Four through Five (AW 54-61) | Readings on the Ontological Argument | Melchert
332-336 Tlumak 38-68 |
| 5 | January 31 | The External World and The Mind-Body Distinction | Meditation Six (AW 61-68) Discourse, Part 5 (AW 33-34) |
Spinoza, from Descartes's Principles of Philosophy (AW 93-98) | |
| 6 | February 2 | Descartes and His Critics | Descartes, "Arguments... Arranged in
Geometrical Fashion" (AW 72-75) Themes in the Objections and Replies |
Leibniz, Letters (AW 99-105) | Melchert 356-359 |
Part II: Hobbes and Spinoza
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 7 | February 7 | Materialism | Hobbes, from Leviathan (AW 114-136) | Melchert, 361-371 | |
| 8 | February 9 Paper 1 is due |
Monism, Parallelism | Spinoza, Ethics, Part I (all) and Part II (P1-P13), (AW 144-172) | Letters to Oldenburg and to Meyer (AW 137-143) | Melchert 438 Tlumak 77-88 Singer, "The Spinoza of Market Street" |
| 9 | February 14 | Knowledge and Freedom | Spinoza, Ethics, Part II (P14-end) and Part V (AW 172-195) | Tlumak 88-95; 100-102 |
Part III: Leibniz
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 10 | February 16 | Monads, Truth, Minds, and Bodies | The Monadology (AW 275-283) Discourse on Metaphysics §1-§25 (AW 224-240) |
Malebranche, from The
Search After Truth (AW
200-223) Letters to Arnauld (AW 248-264) |
Tlumak 133-141
Melchert 440 |
| 11 | February 21 | Theodicy, Necessity, and Freedom | Discourse on Metaphysics
§25-§37 (AW 240-247) from Theodicy 405-417 |
"Primary Truths" (AW
265-268) "A New System of Nature" (AW 269-274) |
Tlumak 133-138; 159-163 |
| 12 | February 23 | Space and Time Panel Presentation 1: Minds and Bodies I |
Newton, Selections (AW
284-293) Letters to Clarke (AW 294-303) |
Tlumak 164-171 |
Part IV: Locke
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 13 | February28 | Against Innate Ideas, For the Primary/ Secondary Distinction | Essay Book I, Chapters I-II
(AW 316-322); Book IV, Chapters I-II (AW 386-392) Book II, Chapters I-IX (AW 322-339) |
Boyle, "Of the Excellency..." AW (308-315) | Melchert 372-381 Tlumak 106-110 |
| 14 | March 1 | Identity and the Self Panel Presentation 2: Arguments for God's Existence |
Essay, Book II, Chapter XXVII (AW 367-377) | Essay, Book II, Chapters IX-XXIII (AW 337-367) | Tlumak 110-122 |
| 15 | March 6 | Abstract Ideas | Essay, Book III (AW 377-386) | Leibniz, Preface to the New
Essays (AW 422-433) Essay Book IV, Chapters X-XVI (AW 405-421) |
Tlumak 122-128 |
March 8: Midterm Exam
Spring Break
Part V: Berkeley
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 17 | March 27 | Three Arguments for Idealism | Principles, §1-33 (AW 447-453) Three Dialogues, Dialogue 1 (AW 454-474) |
Melchert 385-395 | |
| 18 | March 29 | Against Abstract Ideas Panel Presentation 3: Innate Ideas and the Tabula Rasa |
Principles, Introduction (AW 438-446) Principles §86-100 Three Dialogues, Dialogue 2 (AW 475-484) |
Principles §34-84 | Tlumak, Chapter 5 |
| 19 | April 3 | Mathematics, Science, Skepticism and Atheism | from On Motion (AW 504-508) Principles, §100-156 |
Three Dialogues, Dialogue 3 (AW 484-503) |
Part VI: Hume
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 20 | April 5 | Impressions, Ideas, Facts, Relations | An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, I-IV (AW 533-548) | Bayle, "Pyrrho" (AW 512-516) | Melchert 397-409 Tlumak, 193-199 |
| 21 | April 10 | Causation and Induction | An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, V-VII(AW 548-564) | Tlumak, 199-205 | |
| 22 | April 12 | The Self and Free Will | from A Treatise of Human Nature
Book I, Part 4, Section 6 (AW 525-532) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, VIII-IX, XII (AW 564-576, 593-600) |
Reid, Selections (AW
641-653) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, X-XI (AW 576-593) |
Melchert 409-415; 423-425 Tlumak, 208-221 |
Part VII: Thematic Panels
| Class | Date | Topics |
| 23 | April 17 | Panel Presentations 4-6: The Primary-Secondary Distinction and the Resemblance Hypothesis; Minds and Bodies II; Abstract Ideas and Uses of Language; |
| 24 | April 19 | Panel Presentations 7-9: Two Brands of Idealism; The Existence of the External World; Free Will and Determinism |
| 25 | April 24 | Panel Presentations 10-11: The Self; Laws of Nature |
Part VIII: Kant
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings |
| 26 | April 26 Paper 2 is due |
The Synthetic A
Priori; The Transcendental Aesthetic |
Critique of Pure Reason, Prefaces and Introduction (AW 717-737) | Melchert 426-447 Tlumak, 244-257; 291-303 |
| 27 | May 1 | Transcendental
Deduction; The Refutation of Idealism |
Critique of Pure Reason (AW 737-756; 781-783) | Tlumak, 258-268; 303-312 |
| 28 | May 3 | The Ontological Argument | Critique of Pure Reason (AW 819-823) | Melchert 447-450 Tlumak, 285-291; 320-330 |
Final Exam: Wednesday, May 9, 2pm-5pm