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Introduction to the History of Philosophy in the 17th and 18th Centuries

What is this?

The pages here are an attempt to introduce the interested to some of the major themes of Western philosophy in the Modern period.

They grow out of a lecture course, called with appropriate enigma, 211, and suffer I'm afraid from the gauchness of presenting material designed in the first place for one medium through a very different one. This is being addressed, but it will take time. Meanwhile, maybe there is something useful in the pages in their hybrid state, even to those who have not had the dubious benefit of attending the lectures from which the pages have sprung.

Discussion site

is here.

It invites you to log in, but you don't have to. Just hit Test Forum 1 and make your point / read others'.

Chatroom

to be installed on demand

Paintings by Mari Fujii-Pratt

Films by Roger Pratt

Furniture by Professor John Benson

Homepages / Blogs

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Presentations

Week 1: Descartes 1	Presentation	Books, websites etc for Descartes Notesheet	Descartes: Discourse on Method Sections 1, 2 Descartes: Meditations Meditation 1 The Rationalists, Chapters 1 and 2.
Week 2 Descartes 2	Presentation	Notesheet	Descartes: Discourse on Method Section 4 Descartes: Meditations Mediations 2 & 3 Cottingham: The Rationalists, pp. 78-84.
Week 3: Descartes 3	Presentation	Notesheet Seminar	Descartes: Meditations Meditation 2 Descartes: Objections and Replies, On Meditation 6. Cottingham ed. pp.143-150. The Rationalists, Chapter 4.
Week 4: Descartes 4	Presentation	Notesheet Seminar	Descartes: Principles of Philosophy Part 2 (Cottingham ed. pp.189-199).
Week 5: Consolidation	Presentation
Week 6: Locke 1	Presentation	Books, websites etc for Locke Notesheet Seminar	All Locke readings from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. BOOK I. OF INNATE NOTIONS I Introduction II No Innate Principles in the Mind III No Innate Practical Principles IV Other Considerations concerning Innate Principles
Week 7: Locke 2	Presentation	Notesheet Seminar	BOOK II. OF IDEAS I Of Ideas in General V Of Simple Ideas of Divers Senses XII Of Complex Ideas XXXIII Of the Association of Ideas BOOK III. OF WORDS 1 Of Words in General BOOK IV. OF KNOWLEDGE AND OPINION 11 Of the Degrees of Our Knowledge 111 Of the Extent of Human Knowledge IV Of the Reality of Human Knowledge XV Of Probability
Week 8: Locke 3	Presentation	Notesheet Seminar	BOOK II. OF IDEAS VIII Some. Farther Considerations concerning Our Simple Ideas XXIII Of Our Complex Ideas of Substances BOOK III. OF WORDS Ill Of General Terms IV Of the Names of Simple Ideas VI Of the Names of Substances
Week 9: Locke 4	Presentation	Notesheet Seminar	BOOK II VIII Section 9
Week 10: Locke 5	Presentation	Notesheet Seminar	BOOK II XXVII Para 10

Term 2

Week 11: Berkeley 1	Presentation	Books, websites etc for Berkeley Notesheet Seminar	George Berkeley's A Treatise Concerning The Principles Of Human Knowledge (Begin)
Week 12: Berkeley 2	Presentation text with sounds Presentation text without sounds (loads quicker)	Notesheet Seminar	George Berkeley's A Treatise Concerning The Principles Of Human Knowledge (Conclude)
Week 13: Hume 1	Presentation	Books, websites etc for Hume Notesheet	Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, XII, iii
Week 14: Hume 2	Presentation	Notesheet	Hume, Enquiry, V, I (Causality)
Week 15: Hume 3	Presentation	Notesheet	Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Continued
Week 16: Hume 4	Presentation with sounds Presentation without sounds (loads quicker)	Notesheet	Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Continued
Week 17: Kant 1	Presentation	Books, websites etc for Kant Notesheet Seminar	Over the next three weeks: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason. Have a go. I have suggested some extracts focussing on the topics we consider. Scruton: A Short History of Western Philosophy, Ch. 10.
Week 18: Kant 2	Presentation	Notesheet	Kant: Critique of Pure Reason, The Antinomy of Reason, A426 - 429 / B454 - 457. For those with copies of the Critique which don't include the A and B numbers: Transcendental Doctrine of Elements > Second Division The Trancendental Dialectic >Book II > Chapter II (The Antinomy of Pure Reason) > Section 2 (The Antithetic of Pure Reason) >First Antinomy (First Conflict of the Transcendental Ideas). It's here. Steven Palmquist's Kant site NASA
Week 19: Kant 3	Presentation	Notesheet	Kant: Critique of Pure Reason, Deduction of the Pure Concepts of Understanding (B130-B169) For those with copies of the Critique which don't include the A and B numbers: Transcendental Doctrine of Elements > First Division (Trancendental Analytic) > Book I (Analytic of Concepts) > Chapter II (Deduction of the Pure Concepts of Understanding) > Section 2 (Transcendental Deduction of the Pure Concepts of the Understanding > Subsection 15 The Possibility of Combination in General. Read to end of Subsection 27. It's here.
Week 20: Kant 4	Presentation	Notesheet	Kant: Critique of Pure Reason, The Analytic of Principles, Chapter III, A236 - 260 / B295 - 315. For those with copies of the Critique which don't include the A and B numbers: Transcendental Doctrine of Elements > First Division (Trancendental Analytic) > Book II (Analytic of Principles) > Chapter III (The ground of the Distinction of all Objects in General into Phenomena and Noumena). Read to the end of the chapter. It's here.
Week 21: Consolidation	Presentation
EXTRA! Introductory presentation on Kant's theory of ethics	Presentation	Notesheet	(This is my take on how the metaphysics and epistemology links with the ethics. - V)
Late Extra!! Introductory presentation on Aristotle's Ethics	Presentation	Notesheet
Even later Introductory presentation on Ethical Relativism	Presentation	Notesheet
Supplementary Presentations on Leibniz
Leibniz 1	Presentation
Leibniz 2	Presentation
Leibniz 3	Presentation
Leibniz 4	Presentation
Leibniz 5	Presentation

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		from The History of Philosophy in the 17th & 18th Centuries: The Understructure of the Enlightenment
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		A module of the BA Philosophy programme Institute of Environment Philosophy and Public Policy \| Lancaster University \| e-mail philosophy@lancaster.ac.uk