2009 Fall PHIL 101-01
Bulletin Course Description Seventeenth and eighteenth century attempts to address philosophical problems concerning knowledge and the nature of reality in Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Instructor: Flanagan, Janiak, Rosenberg, or Schmaltz
(Instructor named in bulletin description above may not be current. For current instructor, see listing below.)
Title HST MODERN PHILOSOPHY Department PHIL Course Number 2009 Fall 101 Section Number 01 Primary Instructor Schmaltz,Tad M Prerequisites
Synopsis of course content
This course is a survey of modern (i.e., 17th- and 18th-century) philosophy, one which concerns primarily the writings of Descartes, Malebranche, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant, with some attention to the writings of Copernicus, Galileo, Boyle, Newton and Clarke. The course focuses on issues concerning the nature or reality (metaphysics) and our knowledge of that reality (epistemology). Among the issues to be discussed are the relation between faith and science; the distinction between primary and secondary qualities; the rise and fall of mechanism; skepticism and responses to skepticism; the nature of mind and of its relation to body; realism and idealism concerning matter, motion, space and time; the nature of human freedom; and personal identity. One recurring topic is the impact in the modern period of the “Scientific Revolution”.
Textbooks
Ariew & Watkins, Modern Philosophy (Hackett)
Matthews, Scientific Background to Modern Philosophy (Hackett)
Assignments
One 3-4 page paper
One 5-7 page paper
Cumulative final exam
Exams
Final exam
Term Papers
None
Grade to be based on
Written work and class participation
