Spring, 2004

Instructor: Jack Temkin
Office: Smith House
Phone: 351-1568
E-mail: jack.temkin@unco.edu
Office Hours: 9:00-10:00 MWF and by appointment

Course Objectives

It is the purpose of this course to acquaint the student with the major issues and characteristic methods of modern European philosophy. To this end, we will study, in depth, the major works of the following figures: René Descartes, Benedict de Spinoza, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant.

Texts

• The Rationalists
• The Empiricists
• Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

Readings

• In The Rationalists:
  • Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
  • Spinoza, Ethics Part I
  • Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics
• In The Empiricists:
  • Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (selections)
  • Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge
  • Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
• Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

Method of Evaluation

Letter grade

Course Requirements

Students will submit a midterm paper and a final paper. Each will count for one third of the final grade. Class participation will count for the remaining third of the grade.

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