SP18 PHIL414/514

 

Professor: Marcy Lascano

 

There are a number of narratives that one can tell about the 17th and 18th century. One such narrative involves the dispute between Continental Rationalists and British Empiricists. According to this narrative, on one side you have Descartes and those who think the foundation of all our knowledge is reason, and on the other side you have Locke and all those who think experience is the basis of human knowledge. According to this narrative, in the British Empiricist class we should spend the entire semester reading and discussing the theory of ideas and problems like the veil of perception. We should read only Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. However, we’re not going to do that because I fell asleep twice just while writing this. We will, of course, discuss epistemology, but we are also going to look at some of the really interesting things that these philosophers have to say about, for example, personal identity, freedom of the will, reason, scientific methodology, substance, experimental philosophy, the transfer of motion, and other such things. We will begin by reading some Thomas Hobbes, we will then move to Margaret Cavendish, reading some Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke along the way, then move John Locke, and David Hume. Our task will be to develop a broad understanding of the various concerns and problems that were debated amongst these British philosophers. Requirements: For undergraduates: Response papers, a midterm and final take-home examination. For Graduate students: Response papers, a midterm take-home exam and a final research paper on a topic approved by the instructor. Textbooks: I have required the Hackett editions of Hobbes’ Leviathan, Cavendish’s Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy, and Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding, and Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. These are available at the University Bookstore. Additional readings and some secondary source material will be available on Beachboard.