Examination of central themes in the modern period of philosophy, focusing on those writing in the 17th and 18th centuries such as Descartes, Elisabeth of Bohemia, Margaret Cavendish, Locke, Leibniz, Spinoza, Sor Juana, Hume, Kant, etc.
Athena Title
Modern Philosophy
Prerequisite
PHIL 2010 or PHIL 2010H or PHIL 2010E or PHIL 2020 or PHIL 2020H or PHIL 2020E or PHIL 2030 or PHIL 2030H or PHIL 2030E or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered springOffered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to articulate some of the fundamental ontological, epistemological, and normative philosophical questions that philosophers of the modern period attempted to resolve.
Students will be able to explain how different philosophers of the modern period answered fundamental ontological, epistemological, and normative philosophical questions.
Students will be able to compare how different philosopher of the modern period answer fundamental ontological, epistemological, and normative philosophical questions.
Students will be able to defend an assessment of the philosophical plausibility of particular modern philosophers’ answers to fundamental ontological, epistemological, and normative philosophical questions.
Topical Outline
The course will proceed chronologically emphasizing such 17th and 18th century
philosophers as:
I. Descartes
II. Spinoza
III. Locke
IV. Leibniz
V. Berkeley
VI. Hume
VII. Kant