Spring, 2009

Course Description

This course covers the crucial figures in early modern philosophy from Descartes to Kant. The texts are difficult and to some extent unfamiliar; reading them will require careful attention. Our goal will be to acquire a basic understanding of the thought of the British Empiricists, the Continental Rationalists, and Kant, and to see some of the interconnections between their views. We will pay particular attention to their views on the nature, sources, and extent of knowledge; the nature of the mind and its relation to the body; the nature and extent of free will; and the relations between religion and science. The thought of these philosophers is interesting in itself; it is essential to the study of more recent philosophy; and it is useful in gaining a sense of the intellectual life of early modern Europe.

Texts

Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Meditations on First Philosophy : With Selections from the Objections and Replies, ed. John Cottingham (Cambridge University Press, 1996 [1641]).

Spinoza (1632-1677), Ethics, ed. G. H. R. Parkinson (Oxford University Press, 2000 [1677]).

Leibniz (1646-1716), Discourse on Metaphysics and Other Essays, ed. Garber and Ariew (Hackett).

John Locke (1632-1704), An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, abridged and edited by Kenneth P. Winkler (Hackett, 1996 [1689]).

David Hume (1711-1776), An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Tom L. Beauchamp (Oxford, 1999 [1772]).

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Critique of Pure Reason, trans. and ed. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood (Cambridge, 1998 [1781, 1787]).

Office Hours

TR 8:30 - 10:30 AM
MW 4:00 - 5:00 PM
or by appointment.

I am usually in my office during office hours, but occasionally a meeting or another commitment prevents this.  If you just drop by during office hours, you will probably find me in; if you want to see me at another time, or if you want to be certain I'll be in, we can set up an appointment.

Course Requirements

Exams: Midterm examination (20%), tentatively scheduled for Monday, February 23; cumulative final examination (25%) on Wednesday, May 6, at 2:00 PM.

Literature Review: This will count 20% of the final grade. Each member of the class will select a philosopher and a particular topic addressed by that philosopher, and will prepare a review of the literature on the philosopher's views on the topic for distribution to the class. The review will include an annotated bibliography including both book and journal sources. (Internet sources may be listed as well, but will not substitute for listings of the published literature.) It will also include a concise (say 4-5 pages) summary of some of the main interpretive debates and positions discussed in the literature. Topics will be chosen from a list available on the web. Further information about this assignment is also available on the web. Each class member must select a different combination of philosopher and topic. The literature review is due Wednesday, March 4.

Paper: This will count 25% of the final grade. I would recommend writing the paper on a topic related to your literature review. However, its purpose is different: the paper should defend a thesis concerning one or more of the philosophers we have read (a thesis about how the philosopher should be interpreted, or about the plausibility of one of their views, or possibly about the relation between the views of two of the philosophers). A proposal is due no later than Wednesday, March 18; the final draft of the paper is due Wednesday, April 22. See the web page on the paper for further information.

Participation: Participation will account for 10% of the final grade. This includes attendance, contributions to class discussion, and weekly one-page papers. I will assign a grade based on both the quality and quantity of your participation. However, the highest grade I will assign depends on the number of weeks in which you do not submit a satisfactory one-page paper: if you miss more than one week, the highest grade will be a B; more than 2, C; more than 3, D; more than 4, F. One-page papers must be turned in on Monday every week when we have a class on Monday. Late submissions will not be accepted, and a missed paper cannot be made up by extra submissions later on. Some possible uses of the one-page papers include: you might raise the issue of how a particular bit of a text should be interpreted and explore at least one possible solution; you might pose an objection to a view in the reading, and consider how the author might respond to this objection; you might make and defend a suggestion about the relations between the philosophers we will discuss. Although they are short, the one-page papers should be clear, well-organized, and well-argued. They should respond to specifics of the texts, and page numbers should be provided for any view attributed to the texts. Papers that do not satisfy these criteria will be marked unsatisfactory.

Attendance: Excessive absence is grounds for failure in the course, not just on the 10% of the grade specifically assigned to participation.

Academic Integrity

You should make certain that you are familiar with the details of the Honor Code, which all Trinity students are now covered by. Students are required to pledge all written work that is submitted for a grade by writing, on the submitted work: “On my honor, I have neither given nor received any unauthorized assistance on this work,” followed by their signature. The pledge may be abbreviated “pledged” with a signature. If I suspect that the Honor Code has been violated, I am required to submit an allegation to the Honor Council, a student committee. After that, it is out of my hands: it is up to the Honor Council to determine whether a violation has occurred, and if so, what the penalty should be. The Honor Code prohibits faculty members from making their own determination, or even communicating about the allegation with the student involved. In my experience, the Honor Council has been at least as tough as I would have been on students found to have violated the code. For more details see the Honor Code web site.

You should be aware that I take academic integrity very seriously. Do not use any material verbatim that you did not write yourself unless you enclose it in quotation marks and give a citation to the source. (This goes for individual clauses as well as larger chunks of prose.) Do not use close paraphrases of material you did not write yourself, period. Be aware that plagiarism is easier to detect than you might think. Other actions that violate academic integrity, including turning in the same paper for more than one class, are listed at http://www.trinity.edu/departments/academic_affairs/honor_code/honor_code.htm.

Please remember that any use of material you did not write yourself, either word-for-word or in close paraphrase, is plagiarism. This is true even if the passage is only a sentence or two long, and no matter where the material came from, including web sites, discussion groups, or the papers of other students. I have had some students suggest that their plagiarism is “not a big deal.” You should be aware that I do regard it as a big deal. Other students have told me they were not aware that what they were doing was a violation of academic integrity. If you have any uncertainty about the policy, or about whether the specific use of other sources you are considering is acceptable, come and talk with me. I’ll be happy to clarify what is acceptable and what is not. Finally, I have heard from some students that they resorted to plagiarism because they were overwhelmed by an assignment and saw no way of completing it successfully without resorting to cheating. Ironically, in many cases, if these students had worked as hard at writing a paper as they did at plagiarizing, they could certainly have written an acceptable paper. If you are having trouble getting started on a paper, please come and talk with me.

Tentative Schedule of Topics and Readings

The schedule of topics and readings is located on a separate web page. Although quite detailed, the schedule is tentative; we may make changes as we go along. Make sure to consult the online version for up-to-date information.