Here is a detailed but tentative list of readings for the course, to be modified if necessary as the semester progresses.
| Date | Topic | Assignment |
| Wednesday, Jan 14 | Introduction to the course | none |
|
Monday, Jan 19 |
No Class: Martin Luther King Day | |
| DESCARTES | ||
| Wednesday, Jan 21 | Meditation I: skepticism Meditation II: distinction between mind and body |
Descartes: Introductory material (pp. 3-11);
Meditation I (with corresponding selections from Objections and Replies, pp.
63-67); Meditation II (with corresponding selections from Objections and
Replies, pp. 68-77). Selections from Objections and Replies (pp. 68-77) recommended: introductions by Bernard Williams and John Cottingham; Lex Newman, "Descartes' Epistemology," esp. section 2.2 and all of sections 3 and 4 |
| Monday, Jan 26 | Meditation III: existence of God | Descartes, Meditation III Selections from Objections and Replies (pp. 78-89) recommended: article from Stanford Encyclopedia |
| Wednesday, Jan 28 | Meditation IV: error, free will Meditation V: God, again; Cartesian Circle |
Descartes, Meditation IV (with corresponding
selections from Objections and Replies, pp. 90-94); Meditation V (with corresponding selections from Objections and Replies, pp. 95-106) |
| Monday, Feb 2 | Meditation VI: skepticism refuted; mind and body again | Descartes, Meditation V Selections from Objections and Replies (pp. 107-115) |
|
SPINOZA |
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| Wednesday, Feb 4 | substance and God | Ethics, Part I. Pay special attention to the Definitions and Axioms, the demonstrations up through proposition 14, and the Appendix |
| Monday, Feb 9 | mind and body | Ethics, Part II |
| Wednesday, Feb 11 | the passions, bondage, and freedom | Ethics, Parts III-V |
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LEIBNIZ |
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| Monday, Feb 16 | Leibniz I: God, substances, etc. | Leibniz, Discourse |
| Wednesday, Feb 18 | Leibniz II: Monadology | Leibniz, Monadology |
| Monday, Feb 23 |
Midterm Examination |
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LOCKE |
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| Wednesday, Feb 25 | ideas and qualities | Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book I, chapters 1-2 (pp. 4-14); Book I, chapter 4, sections 1-18 (pp. 23-29); Book II Chapters 1-3 (pp 33-42), 5-8 (44-56), 10 sections 1-2 (p. 60), 11-12 (pp. 63-68) |
| Monday, March 2 | power (freedom, free will, etc.) | Essay, Book II, chapter 21 (pp. 93-114) |
| Wednesday, March 4 | substance and identity | Essay, Book II, chapters 22 - 27 (pp.
114-150) recommended: Book III, chapter 6 (192-203) literature review due |
| March 7 - 15 |
SPRING BREAK |
|
| Monday, March 16 | knowledge | Essay, Book IV, chapters 1-4, 9-11 (pp. 224-254, 274-292) |
| Wednesday, March 18 | faith and reason (etc) | Essay, Book IV, chapters 17-21 (pp. 312-337) paper proposal due no later than today |
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BERKELEY |
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| Monday, March 23 | Berkeley I | Berkeley, First Dialogue |
| Wednesday, March 25 | Berkeley II | Berkeley, Second and Third Dialogues |
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HUME |
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| Monday, March 30 | introduction; ideas; skepticism | Hume, Enquiry, Sections 1-5 (pp. 87-130) |
| Wednesday, April 1 | necessary connection; liberty and necessity | Hume, Enquiry, Sections 6-8 (pp. 131-164) |
| Monday, April 6 | personal identity; conclusion: the skeptical philosophy | Hume, Treatise, Book I, Part 4, sections 5-6 (from Jonathan Bennett's Early Modern Texts site: download here. Note: you don't need to read the whole PDF file, just sections 5 and 6!); Hume, Enquiry, sections 9-12 (you can skim sections 9-11) |
|
KANT |
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| Wednesday, April 8 | Introductory; Space and Time; intro to Analytic; Categories | Introduction to the Second Edition (B1 - B30, pp. 136-152); comparison with Copernicus (B xvi-xvii, p. 110); discussion of the relation between knowledge and faith (Bxxx, p. 117); Transcendental Aesthetic (B version): 172-92; Intros to Trans. Logic, Analytic (193-203); Clue (204-18) |
| Monday, April 13 | Transcendental Deduction; Schematism | Deduction (B version): 219-226, 245-66; Intro
to Analytic of Principles, Schematism: 267-77 Recommended: read A version of the Deduction, 227-244. |
| Wednesday, April 15 | Causation; What we can and can't know | organizational material, 278-83;
2nd Analogy: 304-316; Refutation of Idealism: 326-337; Phenomena & Noumena
(B version): 354-365 (note: the short passage from 281-283 is a nice overview of what K thinks he has shown in the Trans. Deduction. The 2nd Analogy attempts to justify the claim that every event has a cause.) |
| Monday, April 20 | What we can and can't know; Soul; Personal Identity | discussion of Platonic ideas (forms), 395-6; classification of kinds of mental representation, 398-99; Paralogisms: 411-15, 445-58 |
| Wednesday, April 22 | Freedom | 3rd Antinomy: 484-489, 508-524, 532-546 final draft of paper due |
| Monday, April 27 | God; regulative use of the Ideas | Ideal of Pure Reason: 563-583, 618-623 |
| Wednesday, April 29 | summing up; review for final | no new reading |
| Wednesday, May 6, 2:00 PM |
FINAL EXAMINATION |
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Last update: February 19, 2009. |