PHIL 252 - 17th- and 18th-Century European Philosophy

Fall (3) Staff (College 200, ALV, GER 4A)

This course is a critical study of the ideas, culture, world-view, and values of the leading philosophers of early-modern Europe whose work shaped the history of Western thought: Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Our study is informed by the context of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. Possible topics include the nature and existence of God, the existence of a soul, personal identity, the mind-body connection, the reliability of sense perception, knowledge of the external world, the possibility of free will, the cause and justification of political systems, and the basis and content of morality. (This course is anchored in the ALV domain, and also considers aspects of the CSI domain.)