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Phil. 126: Modern Philosophy, Descartes to Kant

Decartes to Kank photo

course web page: https://campuspress.yale.edu/keithderose/126-s21/ .

Provisional Syllabus (2/12/21, 12:45pm)

Phil. 126, Spring 2021
Prof. K. DeRose
Modern Philosophy, Descartes to Kant
M, W 11:35-12:25

Course Description: An introduction to some major figures in the history of modern philosophy, with critical readings of Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Reid, and Kant. Intended to be taken in conjunction with PHIL 125a, although PHIL 125a is not a prerequisite.

Discussion Sections: Each student should sign up for and attend one of the discussion sections that meet weekly, and will be led by one of the course’s teaching fellows. Section attendance is mandatory.  Sections and times:
Tu 1:30-2:20pm, sect. 01, BE
Tu 3:30-4:20pm, sect. 02, BE
Tu 3:30-4:20pm, sect. 08, SH
W 10:30-11:20am, sect. 03, SH
Th, 3:30-4:20, sect. 05, HH
F 9:25-10:15am, sect. 06, HH

Instructor’s (Keith DeRose’s) office hours: Mondays (on which Yale College classes meet), 12:50-2:15pm
.
Books: We will use these books. Locke and Reid readings will be assembled by KDR in pdf documents that will be posted on our course’s Canvas page.

The links are to the publishers’ pages for each book, and also to the amazon.com page for each. For the most part, we will be using quite cheap (when you get the paperback) Hackett editions — with the exception of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, which is a bit pricier, and from Palgrave Macmillan publishers. (But if you keep it, you will have something that will always look very hefty and impressive on the bookshelves of your future.)

On Berkeley, though the edition I list is a good one, any complete edition of his *A Treatise concerning the Principle of Human Knowledge* will work, because I won’t be using page numbers, but Berkeley’s section/paragraph numbers, to refer to specific parts of it.

For our other books, it’s good to the editions listed on the syllabus, so we all have the same page numbers we can refer to, and for the works not written in English, it’s good to all be working from the same translations. (For Descartes, I won’t give page references to our text book, but to the page numbers from the standard original language collection of Descartes’s writings [AT – volume VII for the Meditations], which page numbers run in the margins of our text book.)

We will be getting into Descartes in our first lecture, but I always do that opening lecture in a way that books aren’t needed: I’m introducing Descartes’s Meditations, and put on the day’s handout the passages from the First Meditation that you will want to look at. So you don’t need your Meditations by Monday. But for those who would like a look at the Meditations before class (and maybe start to read them) before their book arrives (esp. if it won’t arrive until after Wednesday’s class), there are many translations of it on-line, for instance, here:

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/descartes/1639/meditations.htm
(note though that these nice Marxists do put in many of their own paragraph breaks, so talk about, say, “the 4th paragraph of Meditation Three” does get messed up)

  • D: Rene Descartes (D.A. Cress, tr.), Meditations on First Philosophy, 3rd ed., Hackett [Hackett] [amazon]
  • L: G.W. Leibniz (D. Garber, R. Ariew, tr.), Discourse on Metaphysics and Other Essays; Hackett [Hackett] [amazon]
  • B: George Berkeley (K. Winkler, ed.), Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge; Hackett [Hackett] [amazon]
  • H: David Hume (E. Steinberg, ed.), Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 2nd ed.; Hackett [Hackett] [amazon]
  • K: Immanuel Kant (N. K. Smith, tr., ed.), Critique of Pure Reason, 2nd ed. (though 1st works as well); Palgrave Macmillan [Palgrave Macmillan] [amazon]

Written work: Written requirements will consist of:

  1. Mid-term test: a “take-home” test, due March 5, consisting of short-to-medium length essay answers to questions distributed on Feb. 26.
  2. short paper (1400-2100 words, about 4-6 pages), due April 12
  3. medium-length paper (2100-3150 words, about 6-9 pages), due May 6
  4. Final exam, format still to be decided: Either a) an “in-class” final taken on May 15, 2-4:30 pm, consisting of essay answers written from memory to questions taken from a list of questions distributed on April 30; or b) a “take-home” final exam, due May 15 at 5 pm: short-to-medium length essay answers to questions distributed April 30

Other course requirements: Synchronous attendance at lectures and discussion section (except for special cases where students have been given permission to view lectures only asynchronously).

Grading. Grades will be based roughly on the following formula, though adjustments will be made for insightful classroom and especially for section participation and for marked improvement over the course of the semester: Test: 20%; Short Paper: 20%; Medium paper: 30%; Final Exam: 30%. Lecture and section attendance are mandatory, and repeated unexcused absences are grounds for the lowering of one’s grade and, in serious cases, for failure — even if one’s written work is good.

 

Topics, Readings (projected dates to be added later):

Descartes: Feb. 1, 3, 8, 10, 15

Meditations on First Philosophy,       D, AT, pp. 17-90
  Meds I-VI

R.M. Adams, "Sensible Qualities and    in Canvas-Files
  the Rise of Modern Science," pp.
  xii-xvii of "Editor's Introduction"

..
Leibniz: Feb. 15, 17, 24, March 1

Discourse on Metaphysics
    -sect. 1-14                        L, pp. 1-16
    -sect. 30-35                       L, pp. 31-39
Monadology                                    
    -sect. 1-29                        L, pp. 68-71
    -sect. 51-62                       L, pp. 75-77
    -sect. 78-81                       L, pp. 79-81

On the Ultimate Origination of Things  L, pp. 46.1-47.5

.
Locke: March 3, 8

An Essay concerning Human Understanding.
    -reading to be posted on Canvass

.
Berkeley: March 10, 15, 17, 22

A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, Part I (not Intro!)
 sects. 1-44, 50-59, 86-87, 135-156 at:
 B, pp. 23-39, 42-46, 56-57, 78-87

.
Hume: March 29, 31, April 5, 7

Inquiry concerning Human Understanding,    
   sects. 1-5, 7, 12 at:
   H, pp. 1-37, 39-53, 102-114

.
Reid and Shepherd: April 12, 14, 19, 21, 26  

Reid: selections from An Inquiry into the Human Mind on the 
Principles of Common Sense: available on course web page

Shepherd: Preface, Introductory Chapter, and Chapter 1 of 
An Essay on the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy: 
available under "Files" on the Canvas page for this class

Martha Bolton, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry 
for "Mary Shepherd": 
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mary-shepherd/

..
Kant: April 26, 28, May 3, 5

Critique of Pure Reason
    Preface to the Second Edition     K, pp. 17-33.6      (Bvii-Bxxxvii)
    Introduction                      K, pp. 41-62        (B1-B30)
    Transcendental Aesthetic          K, pp. 65-91        (B33-B73)
    Fourth Paralogism (A-version)     K, pp. 344.5-352.8  (A366-A380)
    Antinomy of Pure Reason           K, pp. 393.7-402.3  (B448-B461)

 

Timeline

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