Philosophy 202 - The Modern Period

This survey course studies the development of Western philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries by examining, as possibilities, selected writings of Descartes, Hobbes, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Cavendish, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Conway, Masham, Astell, Hume, and (barely) Kant. Topics include the emerging modern scientific background against which early modern Western philosophy developed; the nature, extent, and limits of human knowledge (early modern epistemology); and the nature of God, fundamental reality, and the mind (early modern metaphysics).