PHIL 616.600: Modern Philosophy Graduate Seminar

Dr. Stephen H. Daniel, Spring 1996

The Modern Philosophy seminar examines 17th and 18th century philosophy with special emphasis on contemporary continental strategies of interpretation. Each member of the seminar focuses on how an early modern thinker is interpreted by a current poststructuralist, deconstructionist, feminist, or critical theorist.

The selection of thinkers and works to be discussed in this particular way will be determined by choices made by members of the seminar during the first week of class. A list of choices is given below. Each student's choice determines the topic and timing of his or her in-class presentation and term paper.

Texts:

  • Garrett Thomson, An Introduction to Modern Philosophy (Page numbers below.)
  • Supplemental readings will be available to students at Notes-n-Quotes or from the instructor.

    Each student is expected to have (for purposes of reference) a copy of the major works discussed in the text: Descartes' Meditations, Spinoza's Ethics, Leibniz's Monadology and Discourse on Metaphysics, Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding, Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge, Hume's Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

    Jan. 16 Introduction, Postmodernist Historiography (1-6) 18 Bacon, Montaigne (supplement) 23 Descartes: Self (8-23) 25 Descartes: God (24-34) 30 Descartes: World (35-48) Feb. 1 Hobbes (supplement) 6 Spinoza: God (49-61) 8 Spinoza: Mind (62-70) 13 Spinoza: Knowledge (71-76) 15 Leibniz: Truth (77-88) 20 Leibniz: Monads (89-96) 22 Leibniz: God (97-108) 27 Locke: Ideas (110-26) 29 Locke: Substance (127-35) Mar. 5 Locke: Knowledge (136-46) 7 Berkeley: Immaterialism (147-62) 19 Berkeley: God/Minds (163-72) 21 Hume: Ideas (173-82) 26 Hume: Causality (183-94) 28 Hume: Identity (195-207) Apr. 2 Condillac & Diderot (supplement) 4 Vico, Rousseau, & Herder (supplement) 9 Kant: Sensation (210-222) 11 Kant: Concepts (223-31) 16 Kant: Principles (232-42) 18 Kant: Dialectic (243-55) 23 Kant: ethics (supplement) 25 Kant: aesthetics (supplement) May 8 (Wednesday) Term Paper due in office 10 a.m.

  • Office Hours (Blocker 510): Tuesday 11:00-12:30, 2:00-5:00; Thursday 2:00-5:00
  • Office phone: 845-5619
  • E-mail address: sdaniel@tam2000.tamu.edu

    Assignments/Grading: Outline (30% of grade; presentation in class is included in the grade): Each student will prepare a seminar report on a selected work or body of work. The report, presented and discussed during the semester, is an outline of the main term paper (to be turned in at the end of the semester). The outline should have the following structure:

    1. Contents (a table of contents of all headings and subheadings, pages) 2. Main sources (primary sources, locations of translations, biblio info) 3. Studies (annotated bibliography of secondary sources of most use in this paper) 4. Abbreviations 5. Introductory remarks about the historical context of the texts) 6. The actual outline, with appropriate divisions and subdivisions 7. Conclusions 8. Personal Evaluation

    Short Research Paper (30% of grade): Each student will complete an 8-10 page research paper on a topic covered during the first half of the semester. The topic must be on a thinker other than the one with whom the student's outline is concerned. It should be turned in by March 1.

    Both the short research paper and the term paper should have the following structure:

    a) after the title, there should be one or two paragraphs indicating the topic of the paper, the problems it plans to address, and the order of the main points to be made. b) each section of the paper should have a title and should be at least 3-4 pages long. c) a final brief (less than a page) section, entitled "Concluding Remarks," indicating how the issues you raise clarify the problems raised by the philosopher you are studying. d) endnote citations should adopt the following format: (author, book) Pamela Major-Poetzl, Foucault's Archaeology of Western Culture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 32-35. (translator) Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, tr. Sheridan Smith (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 122. (essay in book) Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Freud, Marx," in Transforming the Hermeneutic Context: From Nietzsche to Nancy, ed. Gayle L. Ormiston and Alan D. Schrift (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983), 66-67. (journal article)Daniel Stempel, "Blake, Foucault, and the Classical Episteme," PMLA 96 (1981), 389.

    Any citations of a work referred to in a previous note should list simply the author's last name and an abbrieviated title (for example: Stempel, "Blake, Foucault," 391). The exception to this rule: when the previously referred to work is in the note immediately prior to a subsequent reference, type Ibid. if it is from the same page, and Ibid., if from the same source but from another page.

     Term Paper (40% of grade): turned in at the end of the semester, the term paper is the fulfillment of the promise offered by the class outline.

    Topics on which presentations and papers can be done:

  • Foucault/Derrida on Descartes
  • Le Doeuff or Irigaray or Kofman on Descartes
  • Deleuze or Negri or Althusser on Spinoza
  • Deleuze on Leibniz
  • Derrida on Condillac
  • Gadamer or Adorno on Vico
  • Lacoue-Labarthe on Diderot
  • Deleuze on Hume
  • Derrida or Starobinski on Rousseau
  • Deleuze or Gadamer on Kant
  • Foucault or Lyotard on Kant
  • Derrida on Kant

    Attendance and participation can affect the grades of the outline and papers.

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