Reading Assignments & Class Calendar

Reading Assignments & Class Calendar

Note: if a reading is listed for a particular date, that's the date on which you must have the reading done! Week

Topics and Readings

Week #1 7/5 Introduction: (a) syllabus, (b) why study the history of modern philosophy? (c) three Fundamental Frameworks (No readings; History Handout; List of Philosophers Handout) PART I: RATIONALISM 7/6 Meditation 1: The quest for certainty, methodological skepticism, the critique of common sense. (READINGS: Preface to the Reader, Synopsis, Meditation I; "Objections and Replies" on Meditation I. Study Guide Worksheet #1 due) 7/7 Meditations 1 & 2: The quest for certainty, methodological skepticism, the critique of common sense, the Cogito. (READINGS: Meditations I & II) 7/8 Meditation 2: The Cogito, the nature of the ego, the wax argument. (READINGS: Meditations I & II cont’d, "Objections and Replies" on Meditation II.) Week #2 7/11 Meditation 3: Intuition, ideas, and types of reality (Handout #1). (READINGS: Meditation III; "Objections and Replies on Meditation III; Handout #1) 7/12 Meditation 3: Intuition, ideas, and types of reality redux; stepping through Descartes's proof for God's existence from the nature of ideas. (No new readings; Handouts #2 & 2suppl; Study Guide Worksheet #2 due) 7/13 Meditations 3 & 4: Criticism of Med. III proof, Other Proofs, the Cartesian Circle; Why God isn't a deceiver; how error is possible. (READINGS: Meditation IV; "Objections and Replies" on Meditation IV) 7/14 Meditations 4 & 5: Criticisms of Descartes’ solution to the problem(s) of error in Meditation IV; Descartes's Meditation V "ontological" proof for God's existence; the existence of the External World (EW), the role of Med. 5 in preparing for Med. 6's proof for the existence of an EW, and the mind-body problem. (READINGS: Meditation V, "Objections and Replies" on Meditation V; Handout #3; Quiz on Descartes: 15 minutes) 7/15 Meditation 6: Descartes's proof of the existence of the External World (EW), the mind-body problem, and the solution to the dream problem. (READINGS: Meditation VI, "Objections and Replies", on Meditation VI; Study Guide Worksheet #3)

Week #3 PART II: EMPIRICISM 7/18 Locke against innate ideas, on acquired ideas and mental powers (READINGS: Essay, Book I, Chapter II, §1-28. Locke on acquired ideas and mental powers (READINGS: Book II, Chapter I, §1-9 inclusive; Book II, Chapter II, §1-3, Chapter III, §1-2, Chapter IV, §1-6, Chapter V, §1; Chapter VI, §1-2, Chapter IX, §8-15 [Molyneux's Problem]); Chapter X, §1-3, Chapter XI, §117; Chapter XII, §1-8; Chapter XXII, §1-8. (Handout #5 [we will skip handout #4, which concerns a philosopher we are not reading in the summer term]) 7/19 Locke on acquired ideas and mental powers cont’d (READINGS: see this heading for 7/23) 7/20 Locke on qualities and substances, consciousness and personal identity. (READINGS: Essay, Book II, Chapter VIII, §7-26; Chapter XXIII, §1-37; Book II, Chapter I, §10-25; Chapter XXVII, §1-29. (Study Guide Worksheet #4). 7/21 Locke on consciousness and personal identity (cont’d). (READINGS: same as for 7/25) 7/22 Introduction to Hume's mental geography and theory of ideas. (READINGS: Enquiry, Author’s Advertisement, Section I, Section II) Week 4 7/25 More on Hume’s mental geography and theory of ideas plus Hume's theory of association. (READINGS: same as for 7/27) 7/26 In Class Midterm (Study Guide Worksheet #5 Due) 7/27 Hume's theory of association, of judgment and his negative critique of the rationalist principle of sufficient reason, and the idea of a causal relationship. (READINGS: Enquiry, Section III, IV, Parts Iⅈ Handout #6a) 7/28 Hume's solution to the problem with the idea of a causal relationship: A New Theory of Causal Relations, and its consequences (External World Skepticism and the New Modesty of Empiricism); the problem of induction (; Section V, Parts I&II, Section VI, Section VII, Parts Iⅈ Handout #6b) 7/29 Wrap up Hume. What Descartes, Hume, Locke (and Berkeley) all assumed about the nature of ideas; Kant's Copernican revolution and the reconciliation of rationalism and empiricism. (Read Ahead for Monday: READINGS: Critique of Pure Reason: Preface and Introduction; Handouts #7 & #8)

Week #5 PART III: BEYOND RATIONALISM AND EMPIRICISM 8/1 Kant solves the Old Problem of Objectivity and creates the New Problem of Objectivity. The Transcendental Aesthetic (TA) and transcendental idealism, or, How the Active Faculty of Appearances Creates Something A Priori in Perception. (READINGS: Critique of Pure Critique of Pure Reason: Transcendental Aesthetic, First Section, On Space; Study Guide Worksheet #6 due) 8/2 Transcendental Aesthetic (continued). Transcendental Idealism, Pure Space and Pure Time, and Kant’s revolutionary theory of perception. (READINGS: Critique of Pure Reason: Transcendental Aesthetic, Second Section, On Time) 8/3 Transcendental Analytic: The Role of the Faculty of Concepts in the Constitution of Experience. (READINGS: Critique of Pure Reason: Analytic of Concepts, Chapter 1 [entire] : Study Guide Worksheet #7 due) 8/4 Jason’s overview of Kant’s Transcendental Deduction of the Categories: How Kant Solves Hume’s Problem. Review of Hume and Kant (READINGS: Critique of Pure Reason: Analytic of Concepts, Chapter 2 [entire]) ** Take-Home Final Handed Out Via Web/D2L Site ** 8/5 Last Class....Party Time! ** Take-Home Final Due (In Class or by midnight through D2L) **