Origins of modern philosophy
Aubrey Townsend and Richard Hanley
8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First semester at Caulfield and
Peninsula
* Second semester at Clayton
* Prerequisites: A first-year
sequence in philosophy
Objectives On completing the subject students will have a grasp of some main topics in metaphysics and epistemology discussed by the great philosophers of the early modern period. They should then be in a better position to understand contemporary philosophical work in these areas. This should serve as a sound foundation for more advanced work in both the history of philosophy and contemporary epistemology and metaphysics.
Synopsis This subject aims to provide an introduction to the main issues in metaphysics and epistemology. Topics to be covered include scepticism, perceptual knowledge, language and meaning, concepts of substance, identity and causation, minds and persons. The discussion of these topics will be introduced through the work of the major rationalist and empiricist philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - especially Descartes, Locke and Hume - but the emphasis will be on issues of contemporary relevance.
Assessment Written (5000 words): 70%
* Examinations (1 hour): 30%
* Optional replacement of one essay by a 2-hour examination
* The
Keller Plan assessment program is offered as an alternative (see above for
details)
Prescribed texts
Descartes R (tr. J Cottingham) Meditations on first philosophy CUP
Hume D A treatise of human nature: Book one Penguin
A collection of readings available from the Monash Bookshop
| Published by Monash University, Clayton, Victoria
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