The modern period of philosophy begins in the 17th century.
This course of lectures is an introduction to some of the key elements in the thought of some of the greatest philosophers of this period.
The first lecture considers Descartes’ foundational epistemological project.
The second lecture considers Spinoza on, among other things, substance and God, knowledge, and human freedom.
The third lecture considers Leibniz on, among other things, individual substance and God.
The fourth lecture considers Hobbes’ political philosophy.
The fifth lecture considers Locke on, among other things, things, ideas, and knowledge.
The sixth lecture considers Berkeley’s idealism.
The seventh lecture considers Hume on, among other things, impressions and ideas, causality, the problem of induction, the world and the self.
The eighth lecture considers Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.
The ninth lecture considers Marx’s analysis of modern capitalism.
The tenth and final lecture considers 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.
