PHIL 151 History of Philosophy II

Spring Semester 2012 | Day | Burnaby

INSTRUCTOR  Evan Tiffany, WMC 5652

REQUIRED TEXTS

• The Voyage of Discovery: The Modern Age, 2nd ed., William Lawhead, Wadsworth Publishing
• Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources, 2nd ed., Ed. Roger Ariew and Eric Watkins, Hackett Publishing

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course focuses on the development of philosophy in the early modern period, roughly the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This period can be characterized by a movement away from the doctrines of Aristotle, as incorporated into the theological framework of Catholic philosophers such as Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), and toward a corpuscularian mechanism characteristic of the emerging natural sciences. While it is common to think of the main figures of this camp as divided into two camps, the rationalists and the empiricists, we shall see that matters are actually much more complex. While we shall focus primarily on the epistemology and metaphysics, one cannot do justice to this period, which includes the Enlightenment, without seeing how this new way of thinking of the world and one's place in it also influenced the ethics and politics of the time. Specific topics we will consider will include the nature of physical things and the mind, the existence of God, causation, knowledge, personal identity, and human nature.  Specific philosophers will include Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1626). Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), Robert Boyle (1627-1691), John Locke (1632-1704), Isaac Newton (1642-1727), George Berkeley (1685-1753), David Hume (1711-1776), and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).

 COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• Low stakes assignments - 20%
• Two midterms - 15% each
• 5-6 page paper - 20%
• Final exam - 30%

Note: Philosophy 151 has no prerequisites and may be applied towards the Certificate in Liberal Arts