Philosophy 225: “Early Modern Philosophy.” If you are like most people, you probably believe that the world consists of either physical stuff alone or both physical and immaterial things. But you probably haven’t thought much about why you believe this. And you most likely have never considered yet another possibility – that the world is entirely immaterial. This course explores all of these options by considering what some of the greatest minds in the early modern period have said about them. Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant are our guides. Along the way, we examine a number of related issues in metaphysics, including the nature of persons and personal identity, causation, and freedom. We also study the nature and limits of knowledge. Sometimes, at the end of the term, we take a bit of a detour and focus for a bit on what morality demands of us.
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