Selected Topics in Early Modern Philosophy

The course is an intensive study, detailed analysis and interpretation of selected philosophical texts of one or more authors of the philosophy of Continental Rationalism (Descates, Spinoza, Leibniz) and their contemporaries (Malebranche), British Empiricism (Locke, Berkeley, Hume), French Enlightenment (Bayle, Diderot), and British Utilitarianism (Bentham). Possible topics to be studied include: metaphysics and natural science in the period of the 17th century Scientific Revolution: Descartes and Leibniz; Spinoza's metaphysical theory; Spinoza and Spinozism in the 18th century; Spinoza and the 17th and 18th century philosophical novels; selected philosophical articles in Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary; Locke and French materialism: matter and thought; Berkeley and the philosophy of French metaphysical egoism; Malebranche, Hume, and acausal ontology; Hume on Natural Religion; Deism, materialism, and clandestine philosophical literature; Diderot's and d'Alembert's Encyclopedia and the modern idea of knowledge society; Descartes's Meditations and Diderot's D'Alembert's Dream; early modern philosophy and literature; heritage of the Enlightenment in British Utilitarianism: Diderot and Bentham; early modern philosophy and speculative realism.