Early Modern Philosophy

Catalog description

This course is a survey of European philosophy of the early modern period (17th – 18th Century). This period witnessed a burgeoning of diverse philosophical views on the major issues in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. These views shaped contemporary philosophy and continue to profoundly influence modern society and culture. This course surveys the influential philosophers of this period including Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Hume, and Kant, whose selected works cover the following six major topics: (a) knowledge, justification, and skepticism, (b) the metaphysics of the physical world, (c) the nature of mind and consciousness, (d) free will and moral responsibility, (e) the ground for political obligation and the structure of government, and (f) the rational basis of morality.