Course Description
Philosophy 302—Mind and
Knowledge: Descartes to Kant
Michael Taber
St. Mary’s
College of Maryland
One hundred and forty years is not a
long time in human history. It is about
two consecutive human lifespans, two whirls of Halley’s comet. Yet we will spend this semester studying
philosophical writings produced within the boundaries of such a span, from but
a slice of the world: western
Europe. So philosophically fruitful a
time was this, in fact, that we will be able to read but a portion of the
material from there and then. The time
from the publication of Descartes’ Meditations
on First Philosophy in 1641 to the publication of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason in 1781 is such
an extraordinarily rich period in the history of philosophy that we could spend
years studying the works and themes of that era’s dozen most influential
thinkers. On a scale of about one week
per decade, we will do our best to understand some of the very creative and
penetrating claims, arguments, and theories proposed by men and women of that
day.
I do not know why you are
interested in understanding and discussing these thinkers, but instead of
reading them as ends in themselves, I
am interested in studying them as a way of addressing some very important and
fundamental issues. For example, how and
of what can humans have knowledge? Is
there good reason to think that a god exists?
Or to think that we have minds?
Are there fundamental bits of matter, or are things divisible “all the
way down”? Are we ever justified in
believing that A causes B, when all we ever see is the
occurrence of A followed by
the occurrence of B? If “5+7=12” is true only because of some
linguistic conventions, and so is not about anything in the world (about what
anyway? Fivehood?),
then how is it that learning mathematics can help us build better bridges?
Matters such as these are as important to think about as they are difficult. So we need all the help we can get. First, we will need each other’s help in
class and in continuing discussions outside of class. This is not a lecture class. Second, it would
be foolhardy of us to ignore the ideas of some bright people who addressed
these matters, even if (perhaps especially
if) these bright people lived long ago and far away. Hence, we will be mining the riches of that
century and a half in
The learning objectives for this course are that at the completion,
students:
1.
will be able to situate 17th- and 18th-century Western
philosophers' arguments as responses to other thinkers, as demonstrated by
explaining their similarities and divergences from other thinkers;
2.
will be able to apply views of 17th- and 18th-century Western
philosophers to issues of continuing relevance, as demonstrated by applying
them to metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, or political issues of today;
3.
will be able to construct critiques of the reasoning used for
various arguments in 17th- and 18th-century Western philosophy, as demonstrated
by being able to object to thinkers' reasoning in support of their positions;
4.
will be able to ground claims about 17th- and 18th-century Western
philosophical positions in primary sources, as demonstrated by anchoring their
attributions to thinkers by citing relevant texts;
5.
will be able to demonstrate effective oral communication of ideas
in 17th- and 18th-century Western philosophy, as demonstrated by contributing
to class discussion or giving class presentations;
6.
will be able to demonstrate effective written communication of
ideas in 17th- and 18th-century Western philosophy, as demonstrated by writing
well-organized essays.
Land acknowledgment pledge:
We acknowledge that the land on
which we are learning, working, and gathering today is the ancestral home of
the Yacocomico and Piscataway Peoples. We also
acknowledge that St. Mary’s City was partly built and sustained by enslaved
people of African descent. Through this acknowledgment, we recognize these
communities and all those who have been displaced and enslaved through
colonization.
The goal of the land
acknowledgment pledge is not only to respect and honor the contributions of
Indigenous Peoples and enslaved people of African descent, but to support and
learn from all diverse communities in order to build a
more sustainable future.
Go
to the home page for this
course.
Send me comments: mstaber at smcm dot edu
Go to Michael Taber's
home page.
Go to SMCM's home page.