Philosophy 202 (Fall 2020)
Readings in the Western Philosophical
Tradition: Modern Philosophy
ONLINE EDITION!!
Prof. Patrick Frierson
My email: frierspr@whitman.edu
Zoom for class meetings, Password Elizabeth.
Gather Apartment, Password Kant
Class Meets Online on Zoom, Monday and Wednesday 1-2:20
Office Hours in my GatherTown
office, Tues 8-9 and Thurs 1-2:30
Course Format: This class will meet
synchronously approximately 75% of the time during our regularly scheduled
class time, Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-2:20 PM, Pacific Standard Time. I expect us to use Zoom for most of these
meetings, though I also plan to experiment with GatherTown
for at least some class sessions. I have
set up a Gather
apartment for this class. (The password
is Kant.) You should feel free to use
this apartment to meet up with others in the class (for instance, to work on
group projects).
Class Rhythm: Online education
provides an excellent opportunity to be reminded that most of the learning for
(almost) any College class, whether or not it meets in person, takes place
outside of regular class times. For this
class, we have very difficult readings that will take sustained engagement to
work through. I am providing reading
guides for these readings. My
expectation is that you will work through these reading guides in your own time
off-line. In at least some cases, I will
provide prerecorded lectures that you can view once you have completed the
reading guide for that particular day.
We can then focus our discussions in (zoom) class on discussion, including challenging
questions about the reading, rather than mere presentation of material. Because our class meets on Mondays and
Wednesdays, I’ll have larger assignments due for Monday classes and shorter
ones for Wednesdays. If you put off the
Monday assignments until Sunday night, you will not be able to complete them,
so break them up into smaller bits and complete them over the course of several
days. This will keep you engaged with
the material and improve your overall experience of the class.
Online Office Hours: I’ve built an office on GatherTown,
where I will be available on Tuesdays from 8-9 and Thursdays from 1-2:30. Go there and take a look at the room. You’ll see that it has different areas. I will usually hang out on the comfy couches
in the middle of the room. When you get
to the room, come on over. If I’m
meeting with another student, you can hang out on the periphery of the room, or
you can come closer and listen in to what we are talking about. If a student needs to talk to me about
something private, we will go to the desks in the lower left corner of the
room. If you see me meeting with someone
at those desks, please do not disturb us or listen in. I feel like this room is a fun simulation of
an office I wish I had, but we’ll see how it goes. I can add or amend office hours over the
course of the semester depending upon your needs, and you should feel free to
ask for meetings outside of these hours, and I will set those up, probably on
google meet (which I find easier for one-on-one preplanned meetings), and I may
also hang out in GatherTown at various other times while I’m doing other work
at my computer. If you see me there and
want to chat, come on over.
(Alternatively, I
have set up a zoom
meeting for regular office hours every Thursday from 1:00-2:30 PM, Pacific
Standard Time. The password is
“Wonder”. We will only use this if
GatherTown ends up not working well.)
Accommodations: My goal is to meet the learning needs of all my students while requiring you to do the work needed in order to meet the learning goals for this course. If you have a documented disability, please meet with Antonia Keithahn, Assistant Director of Academic Resources: Disability Support (Memorial 326, 509.527.5767, keithaam@whitman.edu) for assistance in developing a plan to address your academic needs. All information about disabilities is considered private; if I receive notification from Ms. Keithahn that you are eligible to receive an accommodation due to a verified disability, I will provide it in as discreet a manner as possible. If you are a student without a documented disability but who needs special consideration, please let me know what your specific needs are and we can discuss how best to promote your learning in this class.
Required Texts:
We
are going to be meeting online. Many of
you will have most of your reading online.
You will be looking at screen a lot.
I have ordered physical books for this course, and I recommend that you
give yourselves a break from screens in order to read material in physical
form. I also recommend that you grab a
pencil or pen and take notes in the margins.
Let your hands and eyes move in different ways. It will help you weather a semester with a
lot of electronic stimulation.
Roger Ariew, Eric
Watkins, eds., Modern Philosophy: An
Anthology of Primary Sources
(Indianapolis:
Hackett, 2009). Page
numbers in the timeline refer to the THIRD edition (2019) of this book,
which is the
edition we will use in this class.
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of
Morals, Ed. E. Steinberg, Indianapolis:
Hackett, ISBN: 978-0915145454
Sor Juana Iñez de la Cruz, Poems, Protest, and a Dream: Selected Works, trans. M. Peden, Penguin Classics, ISBN: 978-0140447033.
Goals: With respect to content, this course
focuses on central epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical arguments of
three philosophers of the modern period (1600-1800). The philosophers on whom we will focus are
Rene Descartes (1596-1650), David Hume (1711-1776), and Sor Juana Inéz de la
Cruz (1648-1695). We will do additional
readings from and have presentations on other major European philosophers of
the period, including Elizabeth of Bohemia, Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, Anne
Conway, and Immanuel Kant.
Throughout our study
of these philosophers, we will focus on five key philosophical problems:
(1)
To what extent is it possible to have knowledge of anything?
(2) How should we philosophically
address the (epistemological) problem of human diversity, that is, that people
see the world in different (and incompatible) ways?
(3) What is the ultimate nature of all
reality? (For example: Is there a God,
and if so, what is God’s nature? And/or: What is the nature of causation?
How does one thing cause changes in another?)
(4) What is the human being? (In
particular: Are human beings free? and What is the connection between the mind
and the body?)
(5) What
is the good life for human beings?
Relatedly, what is what is the nature and status of morality and moral
claims?
With respect to
skills,
this course will help you develop as a philosopher in four key respects.
First and most importantly, you will learn
to philosophize better. A philosopher
pursues wisdom through careful reflection.
In this course, we use modern philosophers to help our own philosophical
reflection, philosophizing with them and offering philosophical critique
of them. By the end of this course, you will learn how to follow through
on philosophical insights in historical and systematic ways.
Second, we will read difficult texts and read
them carefully. Reading (and the related skill of listening) to complex
arguments expressed in unfamiliar terms will prepare you for engaging with
those who hold viewpoints or forms of expression different form your own and
thus for thriving in an increasingly diverse world. Because learning to read difficult texts for
yourself is one of the goals of this course, you should not consult any internet resources in order to clarify the
meaning of the primary texts we read in this class.
Third, you will learn both to explain the
ideas of others and to articulate your own ideas orally and in writing. Everyone is expected to participate in class
discussion in a respectful way, and one of the goals of this course is to help
all students develop confident, articulate, respectful modes of oral
communication. This will be a special
challenge in the context of online discussions.
One thing we must learn together is how to be attentive listeners and
respectful participants in online discussions.
Everyone will also prepare two class presentations over the course of
the semester and everyone will write two papers, with opportunities to submit
drafts of written work for feedback.
Finally, woven throughout the other goals, you
will develop some basic knowledge of the history of philosophy and you will
learn to consider and reconsider questions and problems as they are raised and
transformed by a succession of thinkers.
This course is an opportunity to learn and improve, not
primarily an opportunity to show how good you already are.
Assignments
Descartes Reading
Guide: For
the first main philosopher we will focus on (Rene Descartes), I’ve provided a
Reading Guide on our Canvas site. This
guide provides a way for you to actively read the material on your own time in
preparation for our synchronous class meetings.
My hope is that starting class with this reading guide will establish
good patterns of close reading and rereading that you can extend into your
readings of Hume, Sor Juana, and others.
I will check to see that you are completing this reading guide in good
faith. Anyone who stays actively engaged
with the reading guide in a timely way will get full credit for this
assignment. At present, I do not plan to
require completion of special assignments for Hume or Sor Juana. If you or I feel like such assignments would
be necessary or helpful in order to keep you engaged in the reading and
prepared for class, I will add them.
Papers. Over the course of the semester, you
will write two papers, one short paper on Descartes, and one longer paper that
will engage with several different philosophers, including Sor Juana.
Presentations. Over the course of the semester, each
of you will give two presentations on 16th-19th-century
philosophers other than Descartes, Hume, and Sor Juana. These presentations can be done in groups of
up to three, presented either synchronously or asynchronously, and can take any
of a variety of formats. The timeline
below has various suggestions of philosophers you might present on along with
ideal dates by which those presentations should be given/posted. Presentations in bold are particularly
recommended.
Final Exam. At present, I plan to have a final exam
for this course during the regular final exam period. Hume will be a significant part of this final
exam.
Timeline of Readings
|
|
Readings (Except where
noted, page numbers refer to the 2019 3rd edition of Ariew and
Watkins, Modern Philosophy) |
Presentation
Option(s) |
|
Aug24 |
Descartes, Meditation 1 (pp. 40-43) |
|
|
Aug 26 |
Descartes, Meditations 1-2 and intro (pp. 35-7) Get started on the Descartes Reading Guide Discourse on the Method, Parts 1-2 (pp.
25-33) |
|
|
Aug 28 |
Meditations 2-3
(43-54) Critiques of Med 2
(76-79a) |
|
|
Aug 31 |
Meditation 3
(47-54) (with Objections
and Replies, pp. 70-75, 79-92) |
Francis Bacon Marie de Gournay Montaigne |
|
Sept. 2 |
Meditations 3-4
(47-58) |
|
|
Sept. 7 |
Meditation 4
(54-58) I also strongly recommend
that you get started on the reading for Sept. 9th, particularly
Spinoza. |
Pascal Leibniz Voltaire |
|
Sept. 9 |
· Meditation 5: God
(58-61) · Anselm, Proslogium, chapter two, available here. · Spinoza Ethics, Propositions 1-14 &
Appendix (pp. 172-77, 188-92) |
Spinoza
Anne
Conway Kant’s Philosophy of Religion |
|
Sept. 14 |
· Meditation 5: Math
58-61) · Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (I.1-2;
II.1, pp. 346-53) · Leibniz, New Essays, selection (pp. 463-466a) |
John Locke W. G. Leibniz Malebranche Arnauld Gassendi |
|
Sept. 16 |
· Meditation 6: Proof
of external world (61-8) · Berkeley, Principles
(p. 487) |
George Berkeley Galileo Samuel Clarke |
|
Sept. 21 |
Meditation 6: Mind
and Body (61-8) · Correspondence
between Descartes and Elizabeth, pp. 93-99. · Also read the Synopsis of Meds II and VI (pp. 39,
40) and the related proof from the Discourse
on the Method, available here (go to Part 4, the paragraph starting “In
the next place, I attentively examined what I was”) |
Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia Margaret Cavendish French
Cartesiennes (Anne del la Vigne, Marie Dupre, and Catherine Descartes) |
|
Sept 23 |
Read pp. 11-19 of the attached pdf, a
dissertation on Descartes written by Anton Wilhelm Amo. |
Anton Wilhelm Amo |
|
Sept 28 |
Mind and Body Day: · Correspondence
between Descartes and Elizabeth, pp. 93-99. · Anton Amo, dissertation. · Hobbes, Leviathan,
introduction and chapters 1, 2, and 5, pp. 120-125, 131-135. · Spinoza, Ethics, pp. 184, 192-200 (Part One,
Prop. 28; Part Two, Definitions, Axioms, and Props 1-3, 7, 11-13). · Conway, Principles of Philosophy, pp. 154-64. · Margaret Cavendish,
Philosophical Letters 30, 35-36, pp. 143-145, 148-149. · Malebranche pp.
248-251 (6th proof and reply) · Locke, Essay, pp. 389-90, 394-96, 423-24
(II.xxiii.1-5, 22-32; IV.iii.6). |
Anne Conway Hobbes Malebranche Spinoza Cavendish Locke |
|
Sept. 30 |
Part Three of Discourse on Method, available here. Preface and
Dedicatory Letter to The Principles of
Philosophy, available here. |
Machiavelli Guillaume du Vair Pierre Nicole Hugo Grotius |
|
Oct. 5 |
Descartes’s ethics
correspondence with Elizabeth and Passions of the Soul, selections. |
Damaris Cudworth, aka Lady Masham |
|
Oct. 7 |
Hume Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding §§1-2,
[pp. 579-87] Also read Locke’s Essay, pp. 353-4, 357-9, 369-70 (Bk
II, Chap. I §§1-8, 24-25; Chapters II, XI (entire)) |
Francis
Bacon |
|
Oct. 12 |
Hume, Understanding,
§§1-7 [pp. 579-610] |
Malebranche and/or Mary Shepherd
and/or Robert Boyle |
|
Oct. 14 |
Hume, Understanding, §6-8 [pp. 601-621] [Optional but
incredibly interesting: Locke’s Essay,
pp. 378-87 (II.xxi)] |
Henry More or Ralph Cudworth |
|
Oct. 19 |
Hume, Understanding, §9-12 (focus on §10) · [pp. 621-646] |
Samuel Pufendorf Emilie du Chatelet Mary Astell |
|
Oct. 21 |
· Focus on Hume, Treatise, Part One, Chapter 4, §7,
available here.
· Review Hume, Understanding, §12 Get started on the next reading, which will take a long
time and be quite difficult. |
Robert Boyle Isaac Newton or
Thomas Reid |
|
Oct. 26 |
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, selections
from B-Preface, Introduction, Second Analogy, pp. 776-83, 830-832. For the first reading, focus expecially on
the long paragraph that starts on p. 779 with “I would think…”. For the reading on pp. 830-32, start at
“Second Analogy” and read to “solely and exclusively under this
presupposition.” |
Kant’s Theoretical Philosophy Thomas Reid |
|
Oct. 28 |
Hume, Enquiry
Concerning the Principles of Morals, Appendix II and Chapters I-II. |
Thomas Hobbes Thomas Reid’s Moral Theory |
|
Nov 2 |
Hume,
Morals, Chapters II - V. |
Joseph
Butler and/or
Shaftesbury and/or Hutcheson Immanuel Kant’s Moral Theory |
|
Nov. 4 |
Hume,
Morals, Chapters VI – IX |
Thomas
Reid Hutcheson Butler Adam Smith |
|
Nov. 9 |
Hume,
Morals, Chapter IX Mill,
Utilitarianism, http://www.utilitarianism.com/mill1.htm.
For Mill, read chapters 1, 2, and 4. (Chapters 3 and 5 are interesting and
important, but you should consider these “optional”.) |
J. S. Mill |
|
Nov.
11 |
Sor Juana, Primero Sueño (entire) (For an audio
recording of the entire poem in Spanish, click here.) |
Rousseau Teresa of Avila |
|
Nov
16 |
Sor Juana, Primero Sueño (entire) |
Mary Astell Mary Wollstonecraft Hegel |
|
Nov.
18 |
Sor Juana, Primero Sueño (entire) |
Nietzsche Kierkegaard |
|
Nov.
23 |
Sor Juana, Primero Sueño (entire) Paper Workshop |
Final Presentations |
|
TBD |
FINAL EXAM |
FINAL EXAM |