DESCARTES TO KANT
PHI3DTK
Not currently offered
Credit points: 15
Subject outline
This subject will discuss the questions, problems, and issues that preoccupied philosophers in the 17th-and 18th-centuries. What is the nature of our world, and how do we know about it? Are there limits to what our senses can tell us about the world? What is the relation between mind and body? Is there an objective basis for moral and political obligation? This is a period with much interaction between science and philosophy, and whose core ideas influenced subsequent metaphysics and epistemology, as well as ethics and political philosophy. Students will grapple with the ideas of at least four of the following philosophers of the period--Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant--and can expect to read original texts those thinkers wrote, and exchanges between them and critics such as Princess Elizabeth and Mary Astell. In discussing these exchanges we will also raise questions about the historiography of this period of philosophy, including the maleness and whiteness of philosophy and science, and the relationships between dead philosophers and contemporary thinking.
School: Humanities and Social Sciences (Pre 2022)
Credit points: 15
Subject Co-ordinator: Yuri Cath
Available to Study Abroad/Exchange Students: Yes
Subject year level: Year Level 3 - UG
Available as Elective: Yes
Learning Activities: class discussion and class preparation; reading logs, essay writing.
Capstone subject: Yes
Subject particulars
Subject rules
Prerequisites: N/A
Co-requisites: N/A
Incompatible subjects: N/A
Equivalent subjects: N/A
Quota Management Strategy: N/A
Quota-conditions or rules: N/A
Special conditions: N/A
Minimum credit point requirement: N/A
Assumed knowledge: N/A
Learning resources
Various
Resource Type: Book
Resource Requirement: Prescribed
Author: Various
Year: N/A
Edition/Volume: N/A
Publisher: Various
ISBN: N/A
Chapter/article title: N/A
Chapter/issue: N/A
URL: N/A
Other description: N/A
Source location: N/A
Career Ready
Career-focused: No
Work-based learning: No
Self sourced or Uni sourced: N/A
Entire subject or partial subject: N/A
Total hours/days required: N/A
Location of WBL activity (region): N/A
WBL addtional requirements: N/A