PHI 232 Course Outline

Caption: The heading row descibes the categories of information about the course, while the row in the table body holds the course information itself.
Course Prefix	Course Number	Course Title	Lecture/Lab Hours	Credit Hours
PHI	232	History of Philosophy: Modern	3 Lecture/Demonstration Hours	3 Credit Hours

Course description

Surveys the major figures and schools in Western philosophical tradition from the 15th to the 20th century. Emphasizes interpreting philosophical reflection in light of the social, political, religious and cultural context from which it arises. IAI H4 902

Topical outline

I. The Transition from Medieval to Renaissance and Modern Philosophy

A. General characteristics of the time

B. Medieval backgrounds

C. Renaissance humanism: Machiavelli, Erasmus, Thomas More

D. The rise of natural science: Francis Bacon

E. The reformation

II. Rene Descartes--The Father of Modern Philosophy

III. Continental Rationalism

A. Spinoza

B. Leibniz

IV. British Empiricism

A. John Locke
B. George Berkeley
C. David Hume

V. The Enlightenment: Kant

A. Characteristics of the enlightenment

B. Voltaire

C. Rousseau

D. Immanuel Kant

1. Kant's heritage from his predecessors

2. The modern problematic: Epistemology
3. The synthetic a priori
4. The Critique of Pure Reason
5. The Critique of Practical Reason
6. The impossibility of metaphysics
7. The significance of Kant

VI. German Idealism

A. The legacy of Kant
B. The romantic reaction
C. Fichte
D. Schelling
E. Hegel
F. Others -- Schleiermacher, Schopenhauer, Karl Marx

VII. Existentialism

A. General characteristics
B. Nietzsche
C. Kierkegaard
D. Century existentialism

1. Heidegger
2. Sartre
3. Others

VIII. French and English 19th Century Philosophy

A. Utilitarianism of J.S. Mill nad Jeremy Bentham
B. Spencer's Evolutionism: Darwin
C. Henri Bergson
D. British Idealism

IX. American Pragmatism

A. General characteristics
B. C.S. Pierce
C. William James
D. John Dewey
E. The speculative cosmology of A.N. Whitehead

X. Anglo-American Analytic Philosophy

A. General characteristics
B. Roots in empiricism
C. G.E. Moore
D. Bertrand Russell
E. Logical positivism
F. Ludwig Wittgenstein

XI. Phenomenology

A. Edmund Husserl and the phenomenological movement
B. Existentialist appropriations of the phenomenological method

XII. Recent trends in Philosophy

Method of presentation

Other:

1. Lecture/discussion method
2. Films, A-V units, visiting lecturer, when appropriate and available
3. Student presentation, when appropriate

Student outcomes

explain the central philosophical issues or questions of the period.
explain the relationship between philosophy and the social, political, religious and cultural
contexts of the period.
analyze the development of philosophy within the period.
evaluate the main arguments or ideas of at least three seminal sources from the period.
support a position with research and argumentation.

Method of evaluation

Typical classroom techniques

Class participation

Course content learning outcomes

Additional assessment information (optional)

1. Written examinations, primarily interpretive and critical essay
2. Short term papers on approved topics

Textbooks

Optional

Ayer. Language, Truth & Logic 2nd Edition. Dover Publications, 1952
Scruton. A Short History of Modern Philosophy: From Descartes to Wittgentstein 2nd Edition.
Routledge, 2001

Supplementary materials

Required

Descartes, Discourse on Method & Meditations on First Philosophy
Dewey, Common Faith
Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Software

None

Updated: Fall 2020