Syllabus
Course Description and Overview:
Is there a material world? Does God exist? Is there more to me than my body? Am I free to choose my actions? Am I born this way? What am I, anyway? What is the relation between language and mind and the world? Is mathematics real? How about science? Do we know the laws of nature? Are there even any laws? Is space and time real? What is the world like behind our perspectives?
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, to construct a systematic understanding of the world in order to answer the big questions like the ones of the above paragraph.
This course surveys the work of some of the major philosophers of the modern era: Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, 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, 6th ed. Oxford, 2010. (The full text, including both volume 1 and volume 2, is only marginally more expensive.)
My Unit Notes, posted here.
Assignments and Grading:
Your responsibilities this course include the following, with their contributions to your grade calculation in parentheses:
Attendance
Readings
Readiness Assessment Tests (RATs) (20%)
In-Class Work (5%)
First Paper (15%)
End-of-Unit Writing Assignments (15%)
Midterm (15%)
Peer Evaluations (10%)
Final Paper or Final Exam (20%)
Attendance: Most classes will involve participatory activities which can not be done without being in class. You will be a member of a team, the other members of which will be counting on you to be there to help. There is no direct reward or penalty to your grade for attendance.
Readings: As this course is a broad survey, there is a lot of assigned reading. The readings are divided into three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary readings. You are responsible for completing all primary readings, covering the central topics in the course. Class activities will presume that you have done the primary readings before class. Exams will be based on the primary readings. The secondary readings consist mainly of further primary sources. The tertiary readings are mainly from secondary sources. Both the secondary and tertiary readings are optional, though I may recommend, refer to, or use them in class.
Readiness Assessment Tests (RATs): You will take five RATs, ten-question multiple-choice quizzes, both individually and in teams, one at the beginning of each unit of the course. The RAT will cover material on the first readings of the unit. Your grade will be the average of your team score with your individual score.
In-Class Work: Much of classwork will be done in teams. I hope that your motivation for doing the work will be mainly that it is engaging and fun. I assume that your participation will be active. Some activities may be graded.
First Paper: The first paper, 4–6 pages on any theme from the Objections and Replies to Descartes's Meditations, is due on Tuedsay, February 16.
End-of-Unit Writing Assignments: At the end of the second, fourth, and perhaps fifth units, each student will complete one short (500–750 word) writing assignment. I will distribute a set of questions. The one on which you will write will be randomly assigned.
Midterm: The midterm will be given in class on March 31. I will distribute sample questions in advance.
Peer Evaluations: You are responsible for being an active member of your team. You will assess the work of the other members of your team twice during the semester, once after the second unit and once at the end of the term. You will receive the feedback from the other members of your team anonymously.
Final Paper or Final Exam: Students may choose to write a final paper, five-to-seven pages, or sit for a final exam, in the same format as the midterm exam and covering the last two sections of the course. I will distribute a paper assignment; the second paper is due on April 28.
The Hamilton College Honor Code will be strictly enforced
Accessibililty and Diversity of Learning Styles
Your well-being and success in this course are important to me. Different people learn best in different ways. Please come talk with me about how best to balance your individual needs and learning style with my expectations for the course. If you are eligible for testing accommodations, please also see Allen Harrison, Associate Dean of Students for Multicultural Affairs and Accessibility Services in the Office of the Dean of Students, Elihu Root House.
Special Guest
On Monday, April 18, Prof. Becko Copenhaver of Lewis and Clark College, an expert in philosophy of mind and the modern era will be speaking, at 4pm, on Philosophy and Modern Memory. She will visit our class the following day. You should plan to attend her Monday afternoon talk; I expect it will be most excellent and engaging.
On Grades
Grades on assignments will be posted on Blackboard, along with a running total, which I call your grade calculation. Your grade calculation is a guide for me to use in assigning you a final grade. There are no rules binding how I translate your grade calculation into a letter grade. The Hamilton College key for converting letter grades into percentages is not a tool for calculating your final grade. I welcome discussion of the purposes and methods of grading, as well as my own grading policies.
Office Hours
My office hours for the Spring 2016 term are 10:30am–noon, Tuesdays and Thursdays. I may be available to meet at other times by appointment. My office is 202 College Hill Road, Room 210.
Schedule:
Note: The readings listed in each row are to be completed before class.
Preliminaries
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 1 | January 19 | The Scientific Revolution | Galileo, “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany" | Rosenthal, "Philosophy and Its Teaching" | Melchert, Chapter 12 |
Unit 1: Descartes
| Class | Date | Topics | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 2 | January 21 | RAT1 Doubt and Skepticism |
Discourse on Method, Parts 1 and 2 (AW
25-33) (Alternative Version) Meditations on First Philosophy, through Meditation One (AW 35-42) (Alternative version) |
Montaigne, Apology, §7 (AW 4-13) | Melchert 319-27 |
| 3 | January 26 | Appearance and Reality The Self Certainty |
Meditations Two and Three (AW 43-54) | Bacon, from New
Organon (AW 16-20) Galileo, from The Assayer (AW 21-24) |
Melchert 327-32 |
| 4 | January 28 | God Freedom Mathematics |
Meditations Four through Five (AW 54-61) | Readings on the Ontological Argument | Melchert
332-36 |
| 5 | February 2 | The External
World The Mind-Body Distinction |
Meditation Six (AW 61-68) Discourse, Part 5 (AW 33-34) |
Descartes, "Arguments... Arranged in Geometrical Fashion" (AW 72-75) | |
| 6 | February 4 | Descartes and His Critics | Spinoza, from Descartes's Principles of Philosophy (AW 93-98) | Leibniz, Letters (AW 99-105) | Melchert 356-59 |
| 7 | February 9 Bring Paper draft |
Summation |
Unit 2: Monism
| Class | Date | Topics | Primary Readings | Secondary readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 8 | February 11 | RAT2 God/Nature Monism |
Spinoza, Appendix to Part I of Ethics (AW 160–64) | Melchert, 361-71 | |
| 9 | February 16 Paper 1 is due |
Language Mind |
Hobbes, from Leviathan (AW 114-36) | Singer, "The Spinoza of Market Street" | Melchert 438 |
| 10 | February 18 | Determinism Parallelism |
Spinoza, Ethics, Part I and Part II (P1-P13), (AW 144-72) | Letters to Oldenburg and to Meyer (AW 137-43) | |
| 11 | February 23 | Knowledge and Freedom | Spinoza, Ethics, Part II (P14-end) and Part V (AW 172-95) |
Unit 3: Empiricism: Naive Materialism and Idealism
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 12 | February 25 | RAT3 Primary/Secondary Distinction |
Locke, Essay, Book II, Chapter VIII (AW 332-37) | Boyle, "Of the Excellency..." AW (308-315) | |
| 13 | March 1 | Innate Ideas Perception Materialism Mathematics |
Locke, Essay, Book I, Chapters I-II
(AW 316-22) Locke, Essay, Book II, Chapters I-VII (AW 322-332) Locke, Essay, Book IV, Chapters I-IV (AW 386-405) |
Locke, Essay, Book II, Chapters IX-XXIII (AW 337-67) | Melchert 372-81 |
| 14 | March 3 | Personal Identity | Locke, Essay, Book II, Chapter XXVII (AW 367-77) | Locke, Essay Book IV, Chapters X-XII (AW 405-14) | |
| 15 | March 8 | Abstract Ideas | Locke, Essay, Book III (AW 377-86) Berkeley, Principles, Introduction (AW 438-46) |
Leibniz, Preface to the New Essays (AW 422-33) | |
| 16 | March 10 | Idealism | Berkeley, Principles, §1-33 (AW 447-53) Berkeley, Principles §86-100 Berkeley,Three Dialogues, Dialogue 1 (AW 454-74) |
Berkeley, Principles §34-84 Berkeley, Three Dialogues, Dialogue 2 (AW 475-84) |
Melchert 385-95 |
| 17 | March 29 | Mathematics Science Skepticism Atheism |
Berkeley, from On Motion (AW 504-508) Berkeley, Principles, §101-156 |
Three Dialogues, Dialogue 3 (AW 484-503) |
March 31: Midterm Exam
Unit 4: Humean Skepticism
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings | Tertiary Readings |
| 19 | April 5 | RAT4 Matters of Fact and Relations of Ideas |
Hume, Enquiry I-II (AW 533-41) | Melchert 397-409 | |
| 20 | April 7 | Causation Induction |
Hume, Enquiry III-IV (AW 541-48) | ||
| 21 | April 12 | Skepticism | Hume, Enquiry V-VII (AW 548-64) Hume, Enquiry XII (AW 593-600) Reid, from An Inquiry into the Human Mind (AW 641–50) |
Bayle, "Pyrrho" (AW 512-516) | |
| 22 | April 14 | Compatibilism | Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics §13 (AW 230-32) Hume, Enquiry VIII (AW 564-575) |
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, IX-XI (AW 575-93) | Melchert 409-415; 423-425 |
| Monday, April 18, 4:10pm |
Becko Copenhaver's Public Lecture | Philosophy and Modern Memory | SC-G027 (Auditorium) | ||
| 23 | April 19 | The Self | Hume, Treatise, I.4.6 (AW 525-532) Reid, "On Identity" |
Unit 5: Kant's Transcendental Idealism
| Class | Date | Topic | Primary Readings | Secondary Readings |
| 24 | April 21 | RAT5 The Synthetic A Priori and Forms of Intuition |
Critique of Pure Reason, Introduction (AW 724-29) | Melchert 426-47 |
| 25 | April 26 | Sensibility and Intuition | Critique of Pure Reason, Prefaces and The Transcendental Aesthetic (AW 717-24, 729-37) | |
| 26 | April 28 Paper 2 is due |
Concepts and Understanding The Synthetic Unity of Apperception |
Critique of Pure Reason, Prefaces, Introduction, and The Transcendental Aesthetic (AW 737-756) | |
| 27 | May 3 | Space and Time | Newton, Selections (AW
284-93) Leibniz, Letters to Clarke (AW 294-303) Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, First Antinomy (AW 792-94) |
Melchert 447-50 |
| 28 | May 5 Peer Evals due |
The Limits of Reason Freedom The Ontological Argument |
Critique of Pure Reason, Third Antinomy, On the Ontological Argument (AW 798-800; 819-823) |
Final Exam: Friday, May 13, 2pm-5pm