SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY: BACON
TO LOCKE
PHI V 3230x.
Tu Th 9:10-10:25. Milbank 327
Alan Gabbey. Milbank 326B, tel. 854-2066, wag8@columbia.edu.
In this course we assist at "The Birth of Modern Philosophy". The areas normally covered are: scepticism; theories of knowledge; metaphysics; spirit and matter; perception; methodology; ethics; philosophy and science. The main thinkers are normally selected from: Bacon, Hobbes, Gassendi, Descartes, Pascal, Spinoza, Leibniz, Malebranche, the Cambridge Platonists, Anne Conway, Locke, Newton. 3 pts.
PREREQUISITE: One philosophy course, or permission of the instructor.
REQUIRED TEXTS. All paperbacks, available at Labyrinth Books, 536 W 112 St. To be supplemented by xeroxes of other texts.
Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy, trans. John Cottingham. Cambridge UP.
Leibniz. Philosophical Texts, trans. R. S. Woolhouse and Richard Franks. Oxford UP.
Locke. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, abridged by Kenneth Winkler. Hackett.
Spinoza. Ethics, Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, Selected Letters, trans. Samuel Shirley. Hackett.
COURSE ASSIGNMENTS:
Paper I, due on October 17: 6 pages, 35%
Paper II, due on November 26: 6 pages, 35%
Final Examination, Thursday, December 19: 3 questions, 10% each, totaling 30%
Paper topics will be announced three weeks before each due date. By prior arrangement with the instructor, you may if you wish turn in a draft of your papers for comment and advice. The Final Examination will cover the whole course. Class discussion is expected and strongly encouraged.
NOTE:
1. Examinations will not be rescheduled to meet individual requests except in the case of illness, serious family emergency, examination timetable conflicts, or examination crowding as defined by the Registrar.
2. The acceptance and grading of papers submitted late will be solely at the discretion of the instructor.
3. It is NOT acceptable to eat during class.
LECTURES AND READINGS:
In addition to the prescribed readings for each topic, read the relevant sections of Copleston's History of Philosophy (Wollman and Butler Reserves), and of The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy (eds. Garber and Ayers) (Wollman and Butler Reserves, Barnard Philosophy Dept).
Weeks 1-2. Introduction. General features of 17th-century philosophy. Scepticism. "The mechanical philosophy". Rationalism and Empiricism. Francis Bacon, knowledge as power. Methodology. Readings: Popkin (Reserve), chaps. 1-3. Woolhouse (Reserve), chaps. 1-4.
Weeks 3-4. Descartes' philosophical program. The cogito argument, the existence of God. Mind and Body. Readings: Descartes, Meditations. Descartes, Principles of Philosophy (xeroxed excerpts). Cottingham (Reserve).
Weeks 5-6. Critics of Cartesian philosophy: Spinoza. Readings: Spinoza, Ethics. Cottingham (Reserve).
Week 7. Spinoza (cont.).
PAPER I due Oct 17
Weeks 8-9. Critics of Cartesian philosophy: Leibniz. Readings: Leibniz, Philosophical Texts. Cottingham (Reserve). Academic and Election Day Holidays: November 4-5 Week 10 (November 7 only). Leibniz (cont.) Week 11. Rationalism in England: Henry More, the Cambridge Platonists, Anne Conway. Readings: Conway, Principles (xeroxed excerpts). Week 12. Empiricism in England: Locke. Ideas, power and freedom, personal identity, the limits of human knowledge. Readings: Locke, Essay, Bk. 1, chaps. 1-2; Bk. 2, chaps. 21, 27; Bk. 4, chaps. 1-3, 12. Woolhouse (Reserve), chaps. 5, 6. PAPER II due Tuesday, November 26. Week 13. Locke (cont.). Thanksgiving Holidays: November 28-December 1 Week 14. Locke (cont.). Locke and Newtonian science. Concluding review. Readings: Selections from Newton (xeroxes). Reading Period: December 10-12. FINAL EXAMINATION: Thursday, December 19, 9:00 a.m. – Noon, Milbank 327. READINGS ON RESERVE (Wollman and Butler): Copleston, Frederick. Descartes to Leibniz; The British Philosophers, Part I (1963). Vols. 4 and 5 of A History of Philosophy. Cottingham, John. The Rationalists, 1988. Garber, Daniel, and Michael Ayers (eds.), The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, 2 vols., 1998. Also on Reserve in the Barnard Philosophy Dept. Popkin, Richard H. The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza, 4th ed., 1979. Spinoza, Benedict. A Spinoza Reader: The Ethics and Other Works, trans. Edwin Curley, 1994. Woolhouse, R. S. The Empiricists, 1988. ANCILLARY REFERENCES and SOURCES These provide explanations of philosophical terms, bibliographical orientation, and further details on the topics and philosophers dealt with in the course. The Philosopher's Index, the standard bibliographical tool, provides up-to-date comprehensive subject-and-author indices to articles, books, and anthologies. Available on Dialog OnDisc (Butler Reference), and online via the Columbia web page: Libraries – Electronic Resources – Databases – Humanities and History or Indexing and Abstracting. Angeles, Peter A. (ed.). The HarperCollins Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Butler Reference) Audi, Robert (ed.). The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (Butler Reference) Blackburn, Simon (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Wollman Reference) Copleston, Frederick. A History of Philosophy (Wollman and Butler Reserve). Craig, E.(ed.). The Routledge Encylopedia of Philosophy (Wollman and Butler Reference) Edwards, P.(ed.). The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Wollman, Butler, and Psychology Reference)Flew, Antony (ed.). A Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Psychology Referenc e)