Philosophy 25B

This course will provide an introduction to six of the major philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Particular focus will be on close, critical reading of philosophical texts, written in a variety of philosophical genres. Students will examine a number of metaphysical and epistemological problems, and lectures will seek to locate these problems within a broader historical context, particularly emphasizing the influence of the Scientific Revolution on the development of modern philosophy. Topics covered will include: the debate about innate ideas, arguments for the existence of God, the nature of material substance, the relation between mind and body, the distinction between primary and secondary qualities, causation, induction, skepticism and the use of skeptical arguments in philosophical reflection, the nature of space and time, and the possibility of metaphysics. The philosophers to be studied are Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant.