Time Schedule:
Paul L. Franco
PHIL 422
Seattle Campus
Study of one or more of the major continental Rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz.
Class description
In this course, we will closely read and interpret Rene Descartes’ Meditations, Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics, and representative writings from Gottfried Leibniz. Our readings emphasize these authors’ metaphysical theories, their epistemologies, and their views about the relationship between metaphysics and epistemology. In particular, we’ll focus on each author’s metaphysical views about the notion of substance. We’ll examine how their respective views commit them to differing views about the possibility of a causal relationship between the mind and the body and the nature of material bodies. Another metaphysical topic we’ll consider deals with the relationship between God’s will, God’s understanding, and his role in establishing eternal truths. Like other figures in the Early Modern period, we can’t tackle these metaphysical topics without also examining each author’s epistemologies. Epistemological topics we’ll cover include the role of the principle of sufficient reason in rationalist philosophy, the nature and extent of empirical knowledge, and the attempt to import the geometrical method into philosophy. This may seem like a disparate, grab-bag of topics, but rest assured it’s not: our investigations will uncover just how interrelated all these topics are within the different Rationalist systems. TEXTS: Required: Descartes Selected Philosophical Writings, Rene Descartes (translated by Cottingham, Stoothoff Murdoch); A Spinoza Reader: The Ethics and Other Works, Benedict de Spinoza (translated by Edwin Curley); Leibniz: Philosophical Essays, G.W. Leibniz (translated by Ariew and Garber); Optional: Descartes and the Meditations, Gary Hatfield; Spinoza, Michael Della Rocca; Leibniz, Nicholas Jolley.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
