Malebranche
1.
emphasis on GodŐs omnipotence and wisdom
2. his modifications of DescartesŐs principles
3. ideas in God (and various arguments
for this position)
4. Occasionalism
- the definition of cause (true or real
causes vs. natural or occasional causes),
- various arguments for occasionalism
(the arguments from omnipotence, concurrence, perception, against bodies and
minds acting)
Spinoza
1.
God is the only substance, has infinite attributes, and everything is in God
(and his argument for this position)
2. his modifications of DescartesŐs principles
3. freedom/free will/determinism
4. no transcendent creation
5. rejection of final causes
6. bodies and ideas as modes (two different
kinds of modes-finite and infinite)
7. three kinds of knowledge
8. double aspect theory (of mind-body
relationship)
Leibniz
1. the nature of substance (complete concept,
self-sufficiency, eternal, etc.)
2. freedom, hypothetical vs. absolute
necessity
3. the principle of the identity of indiscernibles
4. Optimism
5. the reducibility of relations
6. Pre-established Harmony (arguments for it and against
Occasionalism and Physical Influx)
7. rejection of DescartesŐs position
on the nature of body as extension
8. distinction between divine will and
divine understanding (possible worlds)
9. Principle of Sufficient Reason and
Principle of Contradiction
10. monads have perceptions and appetitions
11. LeibnizŐs main positions and arguments
in the works we read.
Locke
1. nature and parts of general project
2. sources of experience (sensation and
reflection)
4. simple vs. complex ideas (substance, mode, relations, abstract ideas)
5. LockeŐs notion of substance
8. definition, kinds, extent, and degrees of knowledge