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Classical Modern Philosophy |
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 11 | Introduction to the course | none |
| DESCARTES | ||
| Friday, Jan 13 | Meditation I: skepticism | Descartes, Introductory material (pp. 3-11) Descartes, Meditation I Selections from Objections and Replies (pp. 63-67) recommended: introductions by Bernard Williams and John Cottingham; Lex Newman, "Descartes' Epistemology," esp. section 2.2 and all of section 3 |
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Monday, Jan 16 |
No Class: Martin Luther King Day | |
| Wednesday, Jan 18 | Meditation II: distinction between mind and body | Descartes, Meditation II Selections from Objections and Replies (pp. 68-77) recommended: Lex Newman, "Descartes' Epistemology," section 4 |
| Friday, Jan 20 | Meditation III: existence of God | Descartes, Meditation III Selections from Objections and Replies (pp. 78-89) |
| Monday, Jan 23 | Meditation III, continued; Meditation IV: error, free will | Descartes, Meditation IV Selections from Objections and Replies (pp. 90-94) |
| Wednesday, Jan 25 | Meditation V: God, again; Cartesian Circle | Descartes, Meditation V Selections from Objections and Replies (pp. 95-106) recommended: article from Stanford Encyclopedia |
| Friday, Jan 27 | Meditation VI: skepticism refuted; mind and body again | Descartes, Meditation V Selections from Objections and Replies (pp. 107-115) |
| Monday, Jan 30 | Meditations, concluded; transition to Spinoza | no new reading |
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SPINOZA |
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| Wednesday, Feb 1 | substance and God | Ethics, Part I. Read the Definitions and Axioms, the demonstrations up through proposition 14, and the Appendix. You can find the text of Part I at http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/spinoza1.pdf. (You might also want to explore the rest of the site a bit: http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/.) |
| Friday, Feb 3 | mind and body | Ethics, Part II. You can find the text at http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdf/spinoza2.pdf. Read Axioms, Definitions, and Propositions; dip into the proofs wherever you wish. |
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LEIBNIZ |
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| Monday, Feb 6 | Discourse: God and substances | Discourse (Leibniz, text 1), sections 1-22 |
| Wednesday, Feb 8 | Discourse: understanding, will, and religion | Discourse (Leibniz, text 1), sections 23-37 |
| Friday, Feb 10 | New System: mind and body (etc.) | New System (Leibniz, text 4) |
| Monday, Feb 13 | mind and body, continued: discussion of the "New System" with Foucher and Bayle | Leibniz, texts 6-8, 10-12 |
| Wednesday, Feb 15 | Monadology | Leibniz, text 19 |
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LOCKE |
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| Friday, Feb 17 | Introduction to Locke; review for mid-term examination | no new reading |
| Monday, Feb 20 |
Midterm Examination |
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| Wednesday, Feb 22 | ideas | Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book I, Book II Chapters 1-7 (pp. 4-46) |
| Friday, Feb 24 | primary and secondary qualities, etc. | Essay, Book II, chapters 8-13 (pp. 47-78) |
| Monday, Feb 27 | power (freedom, free will, etc.) | Essay, Book II, chapter 21 (pp. 93-114) literature review due |
| Wednesday, March 1 | substance | Essay, Book II, chapters 22 - 24 (pp.
114-129) recommended: Book III, chapter 6 (192-203) |
| Friday, March 3 | identity | Essay, Book II, chapters 25-27 (pp. 129-150) |
| Monday, March 6 | knowledge | Essay, Book IV, chapters 1-4, 9-11 (pp. 224-254, 274-292) |
| Wednesday, March 8 | faith and reason (etc) | Essay, Book IV, chapters 17-21 (pp. 312-337) |
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BERKELEY |
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| Friday, March 10 | Berkeley | Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge, sections
1-85. We'll use Jonathan Bennett's "translation into English" (from
English!) of the text. The entire book is available in one PDF file here. Notice
that the introduction is also in 25 numbered sections: the assignment
starts after that, at p. 10, where the numbering starts over again at
1. paper proposal due no later than today (note: if you won't be in class on Friday, email it or turn it in earlier!) |
| March 11 - 19 |
SPRING BREAK |
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HUME |
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| Monday, March 20 | introduction; ideas | Hume, Enquiry, Sections 1-3 |
| Wednesday, March 22 | skepticism | Hume, Enquiry, Sections 4-6 |
| Friday, March 24 | necessary connection | Hume, Enquiry, Section 7 |
| Monday, March 27 | liberty and necessity | Hume, Enquiry, Section 8 |
| Wednesday, March 29 | personal identity | 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!) |
| Friday, March 31 | conclusion: the skeptical philosophy | Hume, Enquiry, section 12 |
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KANT |
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| Monday, April 3 | Introductory | |
| Wednesday, April 5 | Space and Time | Transcendental Aesthetic (B version): 172-92 |
| Friday, April 7 | intro to Analytic; Categories | Intros to Trans. Logic, Analytic (193-203); Clue (204-18) |
| Monday, April 10 | Transcendental Deduction | Deduction (B version): 219-226, 245-266. (Recommended: read A version as well (227-244).) |
| Wednesday, April 12 | Causation | organizational material, (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.) |
| Friday, April 14 | No Class: Good Friday | |
| Monday, April 17 | What we can and can't know | Refutation of Idealism: 326-337; Phenomena & Noumena
(B version): 354-365 paper due |
| Wednesday, April 19 | Soul; Personal Identity | [I've crossed out the organizational material, but you might want to look at the following passages: the discussion of Platonic ideas (forms) at pp. 395-6; the classification of kinds of mental representation at pp. 398-99 (it's not clear that this is entirely consistent with what Kant says elsewhere, but at least it's admirably clear and succinct!)] |
| Friday, April 21 | Freedom | 3rd Antinomy: 484-489, 508-524, 532-546 |
| Monday, April 24 | God; regulative use of the Ideas | Ideal of Pure Reason: |
| Wednesday, April 26 | summing up; review for final | no new reading |
| Friday, April 28 | No class: Instructor out of town | |
| Friday, May 5, 2:00 PM |
FINAL EXAMINATION |
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Last update: April 19, 2006. |