Date

Topic

Reading    (Note: TGC = The Great Conversation by Norman Melchert; TBA means To Be Announced later; page numbers for primary texts are from Bennett's versions)

Aug. 23

Introductory Session

None

Aug 30

From Medieval to Modern: the revolution begins

TGC, Ch. 12, Ch 13 to page 346 (Includes the first three Meditations by Descartes)

Sept. 13

Descartes’ dualism and Hobbes’ materialism

TGC, Ch. 13, the rest (Includes Descartes Meditations 4-6), Ch. 14 to p. 369, Hobbes, Leviathan, Intro and Book 1, Chs. 1-6; Princess Elizabeth, letters to Descartes (pp. 1-8)

Sept. 20

Hobbes and Locke on the Social Contract

TGC 369-371;  Hobbes, Leviathan, Chs. 13-15(pp. 56-74),  17, 18, 21 (pp. 77-85, 96-102); TGC 382-385; Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Chs. 1-5, 7-11 (pp. 2-18, 26-46)

Sept. 27

1^st paper due (instructions) ;

Selections from Leibniz:

1. The Monadology

2. The first five sections of the Discourse on Metaphysics (pages 1-3 in Bennett's version) and also sections 23 ( starts on page 16 -- in which Leibniz discussed the Ontological Argument, which we encountered in Meditation #5) and sections 30-33 (pages 20-23 -- with a bit more on the problem of evil and Leibniz's account of the relation of soul and body)

If you want more background on Leibniz and some help with his puzzling ideas , this Wikipedia article isn't bad. The following sections are especially relevant:

# 2.1 The Principles
# 2.2 The monads
# 2.3 Theodicy and optimism

For a lot more on Leibniz's metaphysics there is a good article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

For a thorough discussion of his treatment of the problem of evil there is this from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

Oct. 4

Locke’s theory of knowledge and Berkeley ’s

TGC 372-382, 385-396; Locke,Essay Concerning Human Understanding, selections:

Book I, Of Innate Notions
---Chapter 1, Introduction
---Chapter 2, No Innate Principles in the Mind
---Chapter 4 Further Considerations on Innate Principles, just sections 8 and 9

Book II, Of Ideas
---Chapter 1, Ideas in General and Their Origin, sections 1-9
---Chapter 2, Simple Ideas
---Chapter 3, Ideas of One Sense
---Chapter 4, Solidity
---Chapter 5, Simple Ideas of Different Senses
---Chapter 6, Simple Ideas of Reflection
---Chapter 7, Simple Ideas of Both Sensation and Reflection
---Chapter 8, Further Considerations..., Sections 1-19
---Chapter 11, Of Discerning and Other Operations of the Mind, sections 1, 4, 6, 8. 9, 17
---Chapter 12 Complex Ideas
---Chapter 21, Power, Sections 1-29 plus sections 73-74
---Chapter 23, Complex Ideas of Substances, Sections 1-12, 30, 33, 35, 37
Chapter 27 Identity and Diversity, Sections 1-6, 9-10, 16-20, 22, 25

Book IV Knowledge and Opinion
---Chapter 1, Of Knowledge in General
---Chapter 2, The Degrees of Our Knowledge
---Chapter 3, The Extent of Human Knowledge, Sections 1-5
--- Chapter 10, Our Knowledge of the Existence of God, Sections 1-6
---Chapter 11, Our Knowledge of the Existence of Other Things

Oct. 11

Hume on knowledge and causality

TGC 397-409; Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Chs. 1-7

Oct. 18

Hume on God, soul, and freedom

TGC 409-419;Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Chs. 8-12 ; Also some selections from Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion:

Read from the bottom of page 10, column 1, where Cleanthes states the Argument
from design -- "Look round the world..." -- to the end of Part 3 (p.19)

In Part 4, Read Philo's reply to Cleanthes (pp. 21-23)

Read the first couple of pages of Part 6
Read the first couple of pages of Part 7

Read Part 9, in which Demea states the Cosmological Argument and Cleanthes replies.

Read the last few pages of Part 10 (start with Philo's speech on page 44) and all of Part 11 (on the problem of evil)

Oct. 25

Hume on morality

TGC 419-425; Hume,Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Sections 1, 2, 3, and 9, plus appendix 1. Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, Book II, Part 3, section 3, "The
Influencing Motive of the Will" (pp. 215-218)
2. Treatise of Human Nature,,Book III, Part 1, section 1, "Moral Distinctions Aren't Derived from Reason" (pp. 234-242)

Nov. 1

Kant on knowledge

TGC 426-441; Kant,The Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysic through section 39; "Transcendental Deduction" from The Critique of Pure Reason (pp. 57-88 in Bennett's
version).

Nov. 8

Kant on God, soul, and freedom

TGC 442-450; Kant, The Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysic (the rest: sections 40-60, and the 'Solution') Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, arguments for the existence of God (pp
272-291 in Bennett's version, B619-B670 in the standard pagination, in Chapter 3 of the Dialectic); 2^nd paper due (instructions)

April 2

Kant on morality and freedom

TGC 450-460; Kant,Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals ; Short version of Chapters one and two with notes;  (Optional) Critique of Practical Reason

Nov. 22

Mill

TGC Ch. 19; Chapters 1 and 4 from Liberty and Chapter 1 from The Subjection of Women ; for a contrasting early modern view of the status of women, take a look at this selection from Rousseau's Emile

Nov. 29

From Hegel to Marx

TGC Ch. 17; Hegel, The dialectic of master and slave; Critique of Kant (Philosophy of Right sections 133-135); Introduction to the Philosophy of History, Chapter III (optional); TGC, pp.507-514; Marx, Theses on Feuerbach; Preface to the Critique of Political Economy; from The German Ideology (through section 4 on Social Being and Consciousness); "Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas";

Dec. 6

Nietzsche

TGC Ch. 20; Read as much as you can of Twilight of the Idols, at least the Preface,  The Problem of Socrates , "Reason" in Philosophy,
How the "True World" Finally Became a Fable, Morality as Anti-Nature, and The Four
Great Errors  and in The Genealogy of Morals, read sections 5 and 6 of the Prologue and as much of the First Essay as you can.

Dec. 13

3rd paper due (send by email)