The Modern Philosophy Graduate Seminar examines significant figures of 17th- and 18th-century philosophy, with emphasis on a careful examination of texts. Although the seminar provides a general overview of philosophic issues of the period, it also focuses on a particular theme. This year's theme centers on the concept of representation.

Texts:  The Longman Standard History of Modern Philosophy, ed. Daniel Kolak and Garrett Thomson.
          Classical Modern Philosophy, Jeffrey Tlumak
 

Class date		Topic	Kolak/Thomson reading	Tlumak reading	Presenter
Jan. 16		Class cancelled due to weather
Jan. 23	A. B.	The Background: Galileo, Bacon Descartes: Meditations I - III	17 - 29, 180 - 203 38 - 57	1 - 38	Dr. Daniel
Jan. 30	A. B.	Descartes: Meditations IV - VI Meditations: Objections and Replies II-IV: Mersenne, Hobbes, Arnauld	57 - 72 72 - 97	38 - 76	Dr. Daniel Michael Deem
Feb. 6	A. B.	Hobbes: Leviathan Part I, Ch. I - VII Malebranche: Search after Truth III.2.1-7, VI.2.3; Elucidations 15	205 - 210 (click on title on left)		Jonathan Jones Zach Rathke
Feb. 13		Spinoza: Ethics I-II (Method, God, Mind)	106 - 117	77- 88	Michael Long
Feb. 20	A. B.	Spinoza: Ethics III-V: Passions, Actions, Freedom Leibniz: Primary Truths, Arnauld letters, works up to 1686	117 - 144 144 - 154	88 - 105 133 - 155	Autumn Hamilton Travis Hobbs
Feb. 27	A. B.	Leibniz: 1686 - 1700 writings (e.g., Discourse on Metaphysics) Leibniz: post-1700 writings (e.g., Monadology)	155 - 68 168 - 77	155 - 173	Ryan Kemp Preston Stovall
Mar. 2 (Friday)		First paper due in office 5:00 p.m.
Mar. 6		Locke: Essay, Books I and II	222 - 255	106 - 122	Dr. Daniel
Mar. 20	A. B.	Locke: Essay, Books III and IV Berkeley: Principles: abstraction/existence	255 - 268 278 - 294 §21	122 - 132 174 - 180	Michael Deem Michael Long
Mar. 27		Berkeley: Principles and Dialogues: matter/spirit/nature	294 §22 - 320	180 - 192	Zach Rathke
Apr. 3		Hume: Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, secs. I - VI	321 - 343	193 - 200	Ryan Kemp
Apr. 10	A. B.	Hume: Enquiry (continued): secs. VII - XII A Treatise of Human Nature (on skepticism and the self)	343 - 369 358 - 371	199 - 208 208 - 226, 238 - 243	Autumn Hamilton Travis Hobbs
Apr. 17		Kant: Critique of Pure Reason: Space/time, categories of the understanding	389 - 428	244 - 291	Jonathan Jones
Apr. 24		Kant: Critique of Pure Reason: Transcendental Ideas, metaphysics	428- 463	291 - 352	Preston Stovall
May 9 (Wednesday)		Term paper due in office, 5:00 p.m.

Office: Bolton 302 B
Office hours: Tuesday 2:15 - 5:00 p.m.; Thursday 2:15 - 3:30 p.m.
Phone: 845-5619 (office), 846-4649 (home)
Email:   sdaniel@people.tamu.edu
Website: http://people.tamu.edu/~sdaniel/616sy07a.html
 

Seminar Theme

Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophers differ significantly on what how what they know can be said to "represent" objects in the world. Most agree that our ideas are "of" something, but they disagree on what such a claim means, how it is justified, and whether the "way of ideas" opens the door to skepticism or guarantees the possibility for knowledge by providing immediate access to a world that is inherently organized according to mental structures. This focus on representation is central to classical modern philosophy, and it informs much of later philosophical discussions in metaphysics and epistemology, including the current realist/anti-realist debate.

Assignments/Presentations/Papers/Grades

At each class meeting a member of the seminar will prepare a 4- to 6-page outline of selected passages from the text and other writings by the philosopher under discussion that shed light on the seminar theme. Each student will lead the discussion twice during the semester. Together, these outline presentations count for 30% of the semester grade.

By mid-semester you will also be responsible for completing a 10-page paper on the concept of representation as addressed by one of the philosophers studied (another 30% of the final grade).

The final term paper will be a more in-depth (20-page) paper on that same topic dealing with a different philosopher than the one addressed in the short paper. For this paper, most students end up writing on a figure for whom they have prepared a presentation, but it is not required that the selected thinker be one that we study studied in class. The final paper is worth 40% of the final grade.

Go to Dr. Daniel's Home Page

Send Dr. Daniel a message: sdaniel@people.tamu.edu
(If you are sending a message from a campus terminal, don't forget to include your email address in the message so that he can reply to you.)

Go to the Texas A&M Philosophy Home Page

Students with disabilities are guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Department of Student Life, Disability Services, Koldus Bldg. 126, or call 845-1637.

Students are bound by the Aggie honor code not to cheat. Submitting another student's work as one's own, copying from another student's test, and modifying a previously graded test to improve the grade are acts of scholastic dishonesty. For the definition and sanctions regarding cheating and plagiarism, see http://www.tamu.edu/aggiehonor/definitions.php.