geoff pynn
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Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
Northern Illinois University
g pynn @ niu . edu
spring 2012
philosophy 322: modern philosophy
This course is a survey of European philosophy from 1641 to 1787, focusing primarily on issues in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind, with some discussion of philosophy of language and philosophy of religion.
Tests
Test 1: Tuesday, Feb. 7
Test 1 Questions
Test 1 Key
Test 2: Tuesday, March 6
Test 2 Questions
Test 2 Key
Test 3: Tuesday, April 10
Test 3 Questions
Handouts
Descartes
Handout 1: Scholasticism and Mechanism
Handout 2: The First Meditation
Handout 3: The Second Meditation
Handout 4: The Third Meditation
Handout 5: The Cartesian Circle
Handout 6: Meditations Four, Five, and Six
Handout 7: The Descartes-Elisabeth Correspondence
Spinoza
Handout 8: Introduction to Spinoza's Ethics
Handout 8 Supplement: Substance
Handout 9: Spinoza's Proof of Substance Monism
Handout 10: More on Spinoza's Metaphysics
Handout 11: Spinoza's Philosophy of Mind
Handout 12: God and Purpose
Leibniz
Handout 13: Leibniz's Optimism
Handout 14: The Predicate Containment Principle
Handout 15: Leibniz's Account of Freedom
Handout 16: Leibniz on Substance
Handout 17: Leibniz's Idealism and Philosophy of Mind
Locke
Handout 18: Locke's Empiricism
Handout 19: Locke on Bodies
Handout 20: Personal Identity
Berkeley
Handout 21: Berkeley's Immaterialism
Handout 22: Berkeley's Arguments for Immaterialism
Hume
Handout 23: Hume's Empiricism
Handout 24: Unobserved Matters of Fact
Handout 25: The Idea of Necessaty Connection
Handout 26: Hume's Compatibilism
Handout 27: The External World
Kant
Handout 28: Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Supplementary Readings
Gottfried Leibniz, Supplementary texts (pdf)
George Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge, secs. 34-59, 135-156 (pdf)
George Berkeley and Samuel Johnson, Letters (pdf)