Course Schedule
Philosophy 302—Mind and Knowledge: Descartes to Kant
Spring 2025

(revised 15 January 2025)

[The “A&W” below refers to our book for the class, edited by Ariew & Watkins.]

For the thinkers and issues we’ll be discussing this semester, consider consulting as needed:

· Wikipedia—a good place to start; rarely, though sometimes, a good place to end.

· the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (peer-reviewed, hence trustworthy)

· the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (peer-reviewed, and its articles are even more detailed than those of the IEP…sometimes more than one’d bargained for)

These latter two are both reputable sites; the articles are put there by people who know what they’re talking about.

I. Descartes
Jan. 14	Come having read Francis Bacon’s paragraphs 30-46 of the New Organon (A&W, pp. 18-20).
Jan. 16	Descartes’ dedication, preface, synopsis, and Meditation I (A&W, pp. 35-43)
Jan. 21	Meditation II
Jan. 23	Meditation III
Jan. 28	Meditation IV
Jan. 30	Meditation V
Feb. 4	Meditation VI & Correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia [handout]
Feb. 6	“Third Set of Objections with the Author’s Replies,” “Fourth Set of Objections,” & “Reply to the Fourth Set of Objections” (A&W, pp.76-92)
Feb. 11	Borges’ “The Circular Ruins,” Peterson’s “Is It Good for Them Too? Ethical Concerns for the Sexbots,” & more on mind/brain dualism [handouts]
Feb. 13	Mopping up
Feb. 18	Paper due emailed to me by noon. No class, due to tutorials.
II. Post-Cartesian Continental Rationalism
Feb. 20	Pascal’s Wager, from Pensées (A&W, pp.106-109)
Feb. 25	Spinoza’s The Ethics, Part I (Read all, but merely skim Propositions 21, 33, and skip the “Appendix.”)
Feb. 27	The Ethics, Part II: Propositions 1-7, 10-12, 19-35, 45-48
Mar. 4	Leibniz’s Monadology
Mar. 6	Examination
Spring Recess
III. 18^th Century British Empiricism
Mar. 18	Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II: · ch. I (1‑6), “Of Ideas in General, and Their Origin” [= A&W, pp.322-4] · ch. II, “Of Simple Ideas” [= A&W, pp.328-9] · ch. VII, “Of Simple Ideas of Both Sensation and Reflection” [=A&W, pp.331-2] · ch. VIII (1-21), “Other Considerations Concerning Simple Ideas” [= A&W, pp.332-5] · ch. XXIII (1‑7, 30‑37), “Our Complex Ideas of Substances” [= A&W, pp. 359-361, 365-7]
Mar. 20	Berkeley’s A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, “Introduction” (§§1-25) & “Part I” (§§1-33)
Mar. 25	No class; all-day advising
Mar. 27	Berkeley’s Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, preface & dialogues 1 & 2; Borges’ “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” [handout]
Apr. 1	dialogue 3
Apr. 3	Paper due at start of class; set-up for Hume, so no new reading.
Apr. 8	Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, §§I-V
Apr. 10	Enquiry, §VII; §X (part i and final 2 paras. of part ii); §XII, appendix from Treatise, about personal identity [handout]
IV. Kant
Apr. 15	Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, "Prefaces" & "Introduction" [A&W, pp.717‑729]
Apr. 17	“Transcendental Aesthetic” [A&W, pp.729‑737]
Apr. 22	“Analytic of Concepts” [A&W, pp.738‑742] “Second Analogy” [A&W, pp.772-9] “Refutation of Idealism” [A&W, pp.781-3]
Apr. 24	“The Antinomy of Pure Reason” and Kant’s solution [A&W, pp.792-804] “On the Impossibility of an Ontological Proof of the Existence of God” [A&W, pp. 819-823, ending with “…by adding a few zeros to his cash balance.”]
May 3	Saturday: Final examination, 2:00-5:00 p.m.

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