Philosophy 202 - The Modern Period

This course examines the development of Western philosophy from the 17th through the 19th centuries by examining selected writings of Descartes, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Hobbes, Margaret Cavendish, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche. Topics include the emerging modern scientific background against which modern Western philosophy developed; the nature, extent, and limits of human knowledge (epistemology); the existence and nature of God, fundamental reality, and the mind (metaphysics and philosophy of mind); and debates concerning who gets the right and opportunity to exercise reason and freedom in the context of our sociocultural environment (practical philosophy).