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.
One of the principal concerns of a number of these philosophers is knowledge: for example, they are concerned with how to acquire knowledge. Rationalists such as Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz believe that the principal, if not exclusive, means to acquire knowledge is by way of reason. Empiricists such as Locke, Berkeley, and Hume believe that the principal, if not exclusive, means to acquire knowledge is by way of experience.
There are other concerns, too: for example, the existence of God, the world itself and some fundamental features of it, and society.
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, rational principles, possible worlds, God, and individual substance.
The fourth lecture considers Hobbes’ political philosophy. Hobbes is among other things an early social contract theorist, ie he believed that the state may be understood as the result of an agreement between free human beings to submit to government.
The fifth lecture considers Locke on, among other things, things, ideas, and knowledge.
The sixth lecture considers Berkeley’s idealism. For Berkeley, there are only minds or spirits or
souls and their perceptions or ideas. This is his 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. It is among other things a critique of the claim of rationalists that we can know how the world is, and how it must be, a priori (or by 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.
Learning outcomes
- An understanding of some of the key elements in the thought of some of the greatest philosophers of the modern period;
- To begin to understand their thought in a wider philosophical context.
