Phil 211 History of Philosophy in the 17th & 18th Centuries

Understructure of the Enlightenment

Residential Students' Handbook 2004-5

MODULE TUTOR: VERNON PRATT

TERMS TAUGHT: MICHAELMAS AND LENT

AVAILABLE EACH YEAR

PREREQUISITE: PART 1 PHILOSOPHY

WHAT DOES IT COVER? - MODULE OUTLINE

The Modern world was created in the 17th Century by the riveting rise of Modern Science. Revolutionary thinkers built a new set of interlocking ideas, a framework which is still largely in place, still inspiring, guiding, constraining, what we should think of ourselves and the world around us. These are the core concepts of 'Modernity' we study here.

GIVEN THE NEW NOTION OF THE HUMAN BEING AS A MIND OR SOUL IN A BODY, AS PROMULGATED BY DESCARTES:

· What is the nature of the mind? How does it relate to the body? What is the nature of perception in particular? How do we 'make contact with' the world about us?

· What is the nature of human knowledge? Can we come to have any reliable knowledge of the world outside our minds?

· What is the nature of human language?

GIVEN THAT THE UNIVERSE IS (IN THE MODERN PERIOD) TO BE REGARDED 'SCIENTIFICALLY:

· Is there a God?

· What is fundamentally real?

· What is the nature of 'causality'?

· Are human beings subject to causality?

These problems (and others) are studied in this module by close consideration of a selection of the great classical texts of Western Philosophy: works by Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant.

By the end of the module you should be able to:

· Explain what is involved in (most of) the problems listed

· set out some of the influential argumentation that has been pursued in relation to each

· relate this argumentation to the philosophers of the period

· begin an independent evaluation of it

TEACHING AND LEARNING

One plenary session a week (usually about 50 people).

One seminar a week (10-15 in each group).

Two assignments.

Assessment by coursework and exam (or, depending on how many dissertations you are doing altogether, by coursework and dissertation.)

PRELIMINARY READING

A single volume history which you will find very useful to have by you throughout the course, but which can be read rewardingly at the outset is:

Roger Scruton, A Short History of Modern Philosophy, 2nd ed., London, 1995, Routledge.

A nicer book to handle and use (pictures as well as a panel of authoritative writers):

Anthony Kenny, ed., The Oxford Illustrated History of Western Philosophy, Oxford, 1994, OUP.

TOPICS SUMMARY

SCHOLASTICISM

• The 'Form'

DESCARTES

• Method of doubt
• The Cogito
• God: Descartes' Cosmological Arguments
• Descartes and the Modern concept of the Mind
• Substance

LOCKE

• The scientific revolution and the birth of the Modern world
• Ideas as mental atoms
• Ideas either from sense or from reflection
• The homunculus
• Reason
• Innate ideas
• Primary and secondary qualities
• Substance
• Nominal essences
• Real essences
• Generality

BERKELEY

• Berkeley's attack on Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities
• Immaterialism
• Berkeley's attack on Locke's account of abstraction

HUME

• The empiricist perspective on knowledge
• Causality and necessity
• The self
• Hume's attack on the possibility of miracles
• Hume's attack on the teleological argument
• The problem of induction
• Laws of nature
• The external world

KANT

• What concepts must we have in order to think at all?
• The thesis of objectivity
• Kant's account of Space
• Kant's account of Time
• Noumena and phenomena
• Kant's understanding of the self

LEARNING RESOURCES

CENTRAL TEXTS

The module proceeds by close consideration of a selection of the great classical texts of Western Philosophy. The texts are:

These are the main resource for the module and need to have very frequent access to them.

However all these texts are also freely available (in easily 'searchable' form) on the Internet. I have put simple editions on our server, where their editors allow, as well as pointing to others on the module web pages.

I suggest two secondary works as likely to help you understand the texts, and to place them in context. I look on them as 'textbooks', backing up the lectures, together covering the module as a whole. They are:

For copyright reasons these are not available on the Internet. They are in the library, but participants are recommended to buy their own copies.

In general, a different passage from a central text is set as the reading for each week (on the topic of the lecture and seminar) (see Topics and Reading Week by Week, below), and you are encouraged to draw on the relevant textbook as you encounter the need for help. A longer list (but highly select) of books is provided, and you are encouraged to turn to this to enrich your reading for their written assignments. You are also encouraged to go on to explore for yourselves the remainder of the library holdings

The assignments and assessment are designed so that it is possible for a sufficiently able student to achieve first class marks even though they restrict their reading to the central texts. (This is not difficult.)

LIBRARY

There are multiple copies in the Library of the central texts (though in a variety of editions).

The full holdings are not listed systematically for you - deliberately so that you have the occasion to develop independent library-use skills. Included are holdings of relevant research journals. You are encouraged to explore these.

The assessment design is such that if you make good use of the materials beyond the central texts and the textbooks you receive credit (with the implication that a wider reading base may compensate for or supplement other qualities of an essay - see Assessment Policy).

BOOKSHOPS

The campus bookshop is advised of the central texts, with cheap editions identified, and of the textbooks. It is also given a short list of other generally useful books and a longer list of books identified as for 'further and background' reading. It takes orders of course.

Waterstones have another branch in town. Ottakars is also in town. Blackwells and Amazon et al are currently providing a tremendously competitive service via the internet. For second-hand books there is nothing much locally (now Atticus has gone) unless you get to Preston; in the global village though there is the brilliant abe books, http://www.abebooks.com.

WEB SITE

There is a website for the module. This is the gateway to it:

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/depts/philosophy/courses/211/211%20Notes.htm

The webpages are designed to

• make lecture presentations fully available for consultation after the lecture.
• offer supplementary material to those who seeks further depth or coverage through material of mine
• encourage people to make use of the great wealth of other people's material now available across the net (by incorporating a select links)
• encourage people to develop their encounter with primary texts by giving links at the end of quotations to their specific occurrence in full e-texts.
• to offer prompts for thought, linking directly to the module discussion site, and sometimes linked to the response to the prompt offered by me.
• to offer juvenile quizzes to help consolidation.
• to offer eye candy to make life sweeter.
• to be used as a visual aid instead of 'PowerPoint' (which on the whole I hate as all glitter and closed technologically) or the overhead transparency.

The full pages are available to participants if they give me a blank cd rom.

BROADCAST MATERIALS

There are broadcast materials that are highly relevant from time to time. If you notice any coming up, please tell us.

DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR

Papers given to the Institute seminar are sometimes directly relevant. Module members are always welcome.

PHILOSOPHY SOCIETY

This group, when enjoying onticity, is invaluable in offering informal course-related 'support' discussion.

TOPICS AND READING WEEK BY WEEK

Term 1

WEEK 1 DESCARTES 1: A NEW APPROACH TO ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE.

• Descartes: Discourse on Method Sections 1, 2
• Descartes: Meditations Meditation 1
• The Rationalists, Chapters 1 and 2.

WEEK 2 DESCARTES 2: I CAN AT LEAST BE CERTAIN THAT I EXIST; AND THAT GOD EXISTS.

• Descartes: Discourse on Method Sections 4
• Descartes: Meditations Mediations 2 & 3
• The Rationalists, pp. 78-84.

WEEK 3 DESCARTES 3: THE MIND IS A GHOST IN A MACHINE

• Descartes: Meditations Meditation 2
• Descartes: Objections and Replies, On Meditation 6. Cottingham ed. pp.143-150.
• The Rationalists, Chapter 4.

WEEK 4 DESCARTES 4: WHAT THERE IS.

• Descartes: Principles of Philosophy Part 2 (Cottingham ed. pp.189-199).

WEEK 5 CONSOLIDATION

WEEK 6 LOCKE 1:

All Locke readings from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

Locke's sharpening up of 'idea'

• Book II Chapter 1 Sections 1-5

Association of ideas

• Book II Chapter 12; Book II Chapter 33 Sections 5, 6, 19.

WEEK 7 LOCKE 2

The origin of ideas

• Book I Chapter 2 Sections 1-28

WEEK 8 CONSOLIDATION

WEEK 9 LOCKE 3

Generality

• Locke's Essay, Book III Chapter 3 Sections 1-7

Substance

• Locke, Essay, Book II Chapter 23 Sections 1-6

WEEK 10 LOCKE 4

Essence and essences

• Book III Chapter 3 Sections 15 -20

Primary and Secondary Qualities

• Book II, Chapter 8, Sections 7-26.

First Essay: to be handed in by the end of this week (5 pm Friday).

TERM 2

WEEK 11 BERKELEY 1: IDEALISM: 'THERE ISN'T ANYTHING OUTSIDE THE MIND'.

• George Berkeley's A Treatise Concerning The Principles Of Human Knowledge (I suggest you have a go at the whole thing).

WEEK 12 BERKELEY 2: ATTACK ON THE PRIMARY/SECONDARY QUALITY DISTINCTION.

And again, focussing on the interesting bits.

WEEK 13 HUME 1: KNOWLEDGE

• Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, XII, iii

WEEK 14 HUME 2: NECESSITY

• Enquiry, V, I (Causality)

WEEK 15 HUME 3: EXTERNAL WORLD

• Enquiry - Have a look at the rest.

WEEK 16 HUME 4: THE SELF; RELIGION

• Enquiry Concentrate on the relevant bits

WEEK 17 KANT 1: REJECTION OF MENTAL ATOMISM; SYNTHETIC A PRIORI; COPERNICAN REVOLUTION; ONE PROJECT: WHAT EXPERIENCE HAS TO BE LIKE

Over the next three weeks:

• Kant: Critique of Pure Reason. Have a go. I have suggested some extracts focussing on the topics we consider.
• Scruton: A Short History of Western Philosophy, Ch. 10.

WEEK 18 KANT 2: TIME AND SPACE

• Critique of Pure Reason, The Antinomy of Reason, A426 - 429 / B454 - 457.

WEEK 19 KANT 3: THE THESIS OF OBJECTIVITY

• Critique of Pure Reason, Deduction of the Pure Concepts of Understanding (B130-B169)

WEEK 20 KANT 4: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS; KANT IN THE CONTEXT OF ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHY; NOUMENA AND PHENOMENA; THE SELF.

• Critique of Pure Reason, The Analytic of Principles, Chapter III, A236 - 260 / B295 - 315.

Second Essay: to be handed in by the end of this week (5 pm Friday).

Assignment 1

Please write a study defined according to the following formula:

"Set out as clearly and accurately as you can the arguments Descartes uses to demonstrate p. What is your response to them?"

Within this formula, please choose p yourself, e.g. the existence of God, that mind is distinct from body, or that matter is extension ...

The point is, I would like your first assignment to be an exercise in studying Descartes directly, but I am anxious for you to work on the topic which interests you most.

Aim for 2,500 words. Devote about two thirds of the study to exegesis and a third to critique.

To go on the title page of your essay you are asked to construct a 'synopsis'. This is a paragraph-length summary of the essay, reflecting its structure as well as its content. You should construct it by going through your draft a paragraph at a time and writing a single-sentence summary of each paragraph in turn. Preparing a synopsis helps you refine your sense of structure, and gives you practice in helping your reader follow your presentation.

A recent selection of Descartes' writings is: Descartes: Selected Philosophical Writings, Translated by Cottingham, Stoothoff and Murdoch, Cambridge, 1988, CUP.

But there are plenty of others. The Penguin selection (also suggested to the bookshop) is cheaper. All the main texts are also on the net.

I really want you to engage with Descartes directly, so only reluctantly refer to the recommended commentary by John Cottingham, The Rationalists (see reading list).

By 5 pm on the last Friday of Term 1 please (post-box in the Institute foyer) Length guideline 2,500 words. If you wish to seek an extension you will need to fill in a form with the reason beforehand and get it accepted. Please do remember that there are normally damaging penalties for work handed in late without prior agreement.

Assignment 2

For your second assignment the structure of the essay is left for you to devise (for the first it was given by saying you should expound Descartes for two thirds and develop a critique in the final third.) This time I am asking you to set yourself an interesting question related to our period and discuss it at least partly by drawing on the work of one or more of the philosophers we are reading.

The questions I suggest are also designed to encourage you to develop your thinking on much wider-ranging (more interesting?) questions than ones of detailed textual analysis.

Another part of the exercise is to get you to identify and make good use of relevant and good reading. I am deliberately not listing items myself (apart from the works of our philosophers), but I expect you to seek some out (one or two will be enough) and make use of them in your discussion. (As part of the exercise also you should document your references systematically. Some notes on this are available from the office.)

Please provide a synopsis, as for the first assignment.

1. How did early Modern thinkers conceive of reason and its place in human life? Is there another way?

(Suggestion: Locke's account of reason, and Hume's)

2. To what extent do human beings themselves create the world they think of themselves as living in? Discuss in relation to the ideas put forward in the early modern period.

(Suggestions: the distinction between primary and secondary qualities could be one aspect of this; Berkeley's thesis that to be is to be perceived could be another; Descartes' notion that we are directly in touch with 'ideas' and not the world beyond our minds a third.)

3. To what extent is there a world of appearance and a world of reality behind it? Discuss in relation to the ideas put forward in the early Modern period.

(Suggestions: this could be just a different way of getting into the issues raised in (2). But also relevant is the idea that science reveals patterns in events, not connections between them.)

4. Is there a Modern God?

(The early moderns seemed often to rely on God in their theories. But you might also argue that those theories actually undermined belief.)

5. What is the early Modern conception of the Universe?

(Possible issues include: Ideas of substance in Descartes and Locke, issues raised by (1).

6. What is the early Modern conception of the human being?

(Possible issues include: Locke, and Hume, on the self; the nature and significance of reason; the relation between the human being and God; the Cartesian Mind, the Individual, 'privacy'; the soul; Berkeley's ideas about the dependence of the human being on God.)

7. What is 'the scientific world-view'? Do we still have it?

You are welcome to devise your own topic, but if you do, it would be safest to write the title down and show me beforehand. Please formulate it in the form of a tightly worded question.

By 5 pm on the last Friday of Term 2 please. Length guideline 2,500 words. If you wish to seek an extension you will need to fill in a form with the reason beforehand and get it accepted. Please do remember that there are normally damaging penalties for work handed in late without prior agreement.

Example of what I mean by a 'synopsis'

1. From John Ruskin's Modern Painters, 1843. Electronic edition, local produce.

I. OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

SECTION I.

OF THE NATURE OF THE IDEAS CONVEYABLE BY ART.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTORY.

• § 1. Public opinion no criterion of excellence, except after long periods of time
• § 2. And therefore obstinate when once formed.
• § 3. The author's reasons for opposing it in particular instances.
• § 4. But only on points capable of demonstration.
• § 5. The author's partiality to modern works excusable.

CHAPTER II DEFINITION OF GREATNESS IN ART.

• § 1. Distinction between the painter's intellectual power and technical knowledge.
• § 2. Painting, as such, is nothing more than language.
• § 3. "Painter," a term corresponding to "versifier".
• § 4. Example in a painting of E. Landseer's.
• § 5. Difficulty of fixing an exact limit between language and thought.
• § 6. Distinction between decorative and expressive language.
• § 7. Instance in the Dutch and early Italian schools.
• § 8. Yet there are certain ideas belonging to language itself.
• § 9. The definition.

Some Sources for further reading

CATEGORIES (COLUMN 1)

C: Recommended as well worth buying if resources are there

D: For background/further study

Policy on Assessment

Assessment for this module is based on two assignments, one in each of the two terms, and a 3 hour closed-book exam.

I set out the different skills and abilities the module is designed to develop for you in the table. Alongside I explain how these are assessed through assignments and exams.

How your developing skills are assessed

ASSIGNMENTS

The primary point of writing essays is to help you develop skills, not to test them. But they do play a central role in assessment on this module nonetheless.

They ask you to engage in a sustained bit of philosophising.

The first gives you a structure: it asks you to give a careful exposition of a position/line of argument and to follow this with a critique. The second does not specify a structure but invites you to address a problem, creating a structure which best suits it and your approach.

For the first essay, though the general area and format is set, you are asked to specify a particular question within that yourself. This is to maximise your freedom to choose a topic of real interest to you while fulfilling the learning objectives of the course. Allowing wide freedom of choice also spreads the load on the library so it is easier for you to find the reading you need.

The same reasons lie behind the design of the second essay. In this case you are simply are asked to choose a question from a list.

In each case you are asked to construct a 'synopsis' of the essay (to go on the title page). This helps you refine your sense of structure, and gives you practice in helping your reader follow your presentation.

The length guideline for each essay is 2,500 words.

EXAM

We use exams to test for much the same capacities as are shown in essays, though with different emphases - see table. They test also your capacity to work under a very special kind of pressure (!). The University insists on your taking a minimum number of exams in your total assessment profile in part because they are thought to act as a check against plagiarism.

Across all your undergraduate programme as a whole, you are meant to develop a range of knowledge, some of it on restricted topics but deep-going and some of it shallower but relating to a wider sweep. If you are using this module to develop breadth, you should opt for the exam. If you are getting breadth elsewhere, as it were, you should consider writing a dissertation in lieu of an exam. (The University rules that you can be assessed via dissertations in up to four of your 16 units of assessment.)

If you opt for the dissertation you will not be assessed for 'coverage'.

A function of an exam, as we use it in this course, is to test for 'coverage'. It tests, among other things, the breadth of your knowledge of the subject. It does this by setting questions (12 in all) which range across the whole course, by requiring you to answer three questions, and by requiring you to choose those questions so as to display knowledge of at least three of the major philosophers covered by the course. This strategy clearly allows a good deal of latitude. It is designed so that you can choose within limits to specialise by, say, ignoring a figure that does not attract you. On the other hand you can only expect to fail if you 'specialise' too much.

CRITERIA FOR THE AWARD OF MARKS ON AN ESSAY, DISSERTATION OR EXAM ANSWER

CLASS 2 DIVISION 1

There is

• clarity of thought and expression
• ability to marshal arguments into a sustained and well-organised statement
• a good grasp of the philosophical problem being addressed
• critical awareness
• a tight sense of relevance

and normally

• knowledge and understanding of relevant literature.

Particular strength under one of these heads is seen as compensating for weakness under another.

FIRST

The work meets the criteria for a 2/1 and in addition shows at least some of:

• exceptional lucidity of argument
• exceptional strength of structure
• exceptional mastery of problem being addressed
• a thorough and critical familiarity with challenging literature
• an original approach
• a creative line of argument

Marks within this class may vary reflecting

• a capacity to develop arguments beyond those in the relevant literature
• depth and sophistication of the argument
• critical acumen

CLASS 2 DIVISION 2

the majority of the text is clear enough to be understood

the answer has a structure

a basic grasp of the question is demonstrated

There is

• critical awareness
• some coherent argumentation
• evidence of serious study
• a sense of relevance is exercised

and normally

• some knowledge is shown of relevant literature.

distinguished from a 2/1 therefore by

• lower level of coherence
• lower level of critical awareness

and normally

• lower level of knowledge and understanding of relevant literature.

THIRD

The majority of the text is clear enough to be understood

There is

• a degree of structure
• some grasp of the question is demonstrated
• some attempt at argument is made
• some evidence of serious study
• some sense of relevance

and normally

• some knowledge of relevant literature

Particular strength under one of these heads is seen as compensating for weakness under another.

Thus distinguished from 2/2 by some of

• limited knowledge of relevant material
• limited powers of organisation of material
• absence of critical discussion
• lack of clarity
• lack of relevance

PASS

The work shows

• some clear text
• some evidence of study
• some evidence of an attempt to provide a relevant answer

and

• some attempt at argument

So distinguished from 3rd by

• relative weakness in the features listed and
• lack of structure

FAIL

Work that fails to meet the criteria for a Pass.

The work will thus be characterised by all of:

• inadequate or no knowledge of relevant material
• no critical discussion
• little or no structured argument
• endemic lack of clarity

or

• complete irrelevance

NOTES

Every effort will be made to construe the work as relevant to the question set.

These criteria only come into play when the work is accepted as the student's own.

GLOSSARY

'critical', as in 'critical argument':

argument that shows awareness that claims are open to test and evaluation

'critical awareness':

awareness that claims are open to test and evaluation.

'material':

arguments and discussion on the topic derived from books or independent thought.

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