Topic: Philosophy, Religion, Science, Ethics, and Politics in the
Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries

This course is about the development of early modern philosophy.  The
period we will focus on begins in the sixteenth century, with the
Reformation and the Renaissance, and concludes in the eighteenth
century and the age of Enlightenment.  Modern philosophy in these
centuries includes figures like Descartes, Hobbes, Malebranche,
Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and others.  We will look at
some of these figures and others who influenced intellectual culture
during these years.  Our goal is to understand what early modern
philosophy is, what problems and issues it investigated, how problems
arose and why, the arguments and analyses that were used, the debates
that mark the period, and overall the ways in which religion,
science, philosophy, ethical thought, and political thinking
interacted and produced various pictures of the world and the place
of human beings in it.

The Reformation and the fragmentation of Christianity in the
sixteenth century, the age of discovery that led to world-wide
empires and vast mercantile networks, the rise of the new science,
and the revolutions in politics that involved conflict between those
committed to monarchies and advocates of constitutionalism - all of
this is the setting for the emergence of what we now think of as
early modern philosophy.  We shall begin by looking at these
developments and especially at texts by John Calvin, Justus Lipsius,
and Michel de Montaigne that represent important religious and
philosophical themes that reverberate throughout the next century.

We will then turn to a series of major philosophical figures - Rene
Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz.
They represent part of the tradition of Cartesianism that is a
centerpiece of the seventeenth century.  In each case we will study
central texts and examine key issues that have become classic
components of the tradition of Western Philosophy.  We shall try to
understand ideas and arguments in the historical and intellectual
setting of the author and the work and try to appreciate why the
issues were of such great significance and the strengths and
weaknesses of the solutions proposed.  The issues that we shall focus
on will cover a wide range, from metaphysics and epistemology to the
philosophy of religion, ethics, politics, and the very nature of
philosophy itself.

I conceive of this course as an introduction to major texts, ideas,
and themes in modern philosophy, both for philosophy majors and for
those with a strong interest in philosophy, religion, politics, and
their interaction in the modern world.  While there are no
prerequisites, it would be helpful to know something about Western
European history, philosophy, the history of religion, or something
else.  Students will be evaluated on the basis of papers and
examinations.  The class will meet twice a week.  I will lecture a
good deal, but much of class time, especially as the semester
proceeds, will be taken up with careful examination of key passages
in the texts we will be reading.  I doubt that this class is for the
weak of heart, but it will be fun.