My classroom is rated R: lectures & discussion may include adult themes and language.

REQUIRED TEXTS: W. T. Jones, A History of Western Philosophy Volume 3: Hobbes to Hume (2nd edition); A History of Western Philosophy Volume 4: Kant and the Nineteenth Century (2nd edition revised).
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES: Primary sources online at LH's Online Philosophy Bookshelf | LH's Mostly Modern Philosophical Glossary | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Modern philosophy grapples with issues raised by our attempts to understand reality scientifically, by our need to reconcile such attempts with traditional moral and religious conceptions and practices, and by our need to reconcile all of this with our commonsense understanding of our world and ourselves. Issues and problems that arise in these connections – and this course – include the following.  Mental representation: How does the mind reflect – if it does reflect – reality? Do all our concepts arise from sense experience or does the mind contain innate ideas which inform our understanding prior to all experience, informing, perhaps, experience itself? Does all knowledge derive from sensory experience or are some things known a priori (independently of experience)? The existence of external reality: Are some realities mind-independent (as realists maintain), or are things-themselves thought-dependent (as idealists say)? Concerning substance: Are there two fundamentally different sorts of realities, mental and material (as dualists hold), or just one; and if one sort, is that one mental (idealism), or physical (materialism), or what (Spinoza)? Other topics include free will and causation; God; the mind-body problem; the meaning of life; and the nature of value.