| PHIL
104 -- The Rationalists Winter 2011 |
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| Instructor:
Clinton Tolley office: HSS 8018 hours: tbd phone: 2-2686 email: ctolley [at] ucsd.edu |
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| Time:
Tues & Thurs, 11:00am-12:20pm Location: Warren Lecture Hall [WLH] 2207 [map] |
| Benedictus Spinoza, The Spinoza Reader ed., Curley; Princeton, 1994 [cover] G.W. Leibniz, Philosophical Essays ed., Ariew and Garber; Hackett,1989 [cover] {available at the Price Center bookstore} |
| We will read and discuss
the
major works of Spinoza and Leibniz, with the hope of sorting out what
it means to be a 'rationalist', in the tradition inaugurated by
Descartes. Key issues here will include: the proper method of
philosophy; the place of logic in philosophy; the distinction between
reason, sense-perception and imagination; the limits of our powers of
reasoning (in particular, whether they are sufficient to arrive at
knowledge of the basic ontological and moral truths about the
universe); the significance of basic ontological categories (substance,
mode, cause, force, action); the place of theology and faith in
philosophy; the locus of moral responsibility; freedom, determinism,
and the meaning of life. |
| Take-home open-book
mid-term exam (three 500 word essays); due 5th week Final course paper (3000 words); due exam week Attendance |
| {basic, subject to change} Introduction: Descartes, selections (week 1) Spinoza (weeks 2-5) Leibniz (weeks 6-9) Conclusion: alternatives to rationalism (week 10) |
| Routledge
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
entries (requires sign-in) Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
entries
Overview of 'continental
rationalism'
(i.e., Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, as well as Nicholas Malebranche); Descartes: life and works, theory of knowledge, theory of ideas, argument for God's existence Spinoza: overview metaphysical categories metaphysics of modality theory of mind (psychology) Leibniz: overview metaphysics of modality theory of mind Arnauld: overview For those looking for a companion treatment of many of the themes and figures to be discussed in this course, John Cottingham's The Rationalists (Oxford UP, 1988) is especially recommended. |
