Philosophy & Making of the Mod. World

Catalog description

This course examines, in historical context, the philosophical ideas ingredient to the emergence of the modern world. Attention will be paid to theories that undergird major developments of the early modern period, e.g. in science, politics religion, or art. Themes covered may include, for example, the increasing emphasis on epistemology (rationalism & empiricism) at the expense of metaphysics, the subjectivist birth of the modern idea of the self, and the modern transformation of approaches to moral and ethical questions. Texts will be drawn from (among others) works of Descartes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau and Kant.