The first lecture will consider in particular Descartes’ foundational epistemological project in his Meditations.
The second lecture will consider Spinoza on, among other things, God, knowledge, and human freedom in his Ethics.
The third lecture will consider Leibniz on, among other things, individual substance in his Monadology and on God.
The fourth lecture will consider Hobbes’ political philosophy in his De Cive and Leviathan.
The fifth lecture will consider Locke on, among other things, ideas and knowledge in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
The sixth lecture will consider Berkeley’s idealism.
The seventh lecture will consider Hume on, among other things, impressions and ideas, causality, the problem of induction, the world and the self and his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
The eighth lecture will consider Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.
The ninth lecture will consider Marx’s analysis of modern capitalism.
The tenth and final lecture will consider Wittgenstein on, among other things, the nature of logical necessity and on propositions as “pictures” in his Tractatus and on rules and meaning and his private language argument in his Philosophical Investigations.
What our students say
"Dr Esmail gave us a delightful tour through Thought History, seasoned with accessible explanations of some of brightest human beings' ideas."
