Early Modern Mid-Term: Topics for Study

 

General Topics (see intro paragraph in syllabus):

  • To what extent is it possible to have knowledge of anything?
  • What is the ultimate nature of all reality?
  • What is the human being?
    • Are human beings free?
    • What is the connection between the mind and the body?
  • What is the nature of causation?
    • How does one thing cause changes in another?
    • How do the mind and body interact?
  • Does God exist? If so, what is the nature of God and (how) can one have knowledge of God?

 

Descartes

  • Arguments for skepticism (know what each argument is, what it shows and what it doesn’t, and how Descartes eventually responds to that argument later in the Meditations)
  • Proof of D’s own existence
  • The nature of the self and how D proves that this is his nature
  • D’s proofs of God’s existence(2 in Med 3, 1 in Med 5); you need to know at least one of these well
  • The problem of error in Descartes (Med 4)
  • D’s proof of the reality and nature of the external world
  • D’s view of the relationship between mind and body (distinct substances but substantially united); Elizabeth’s objections to D’s account; and D’s response to Elizabeth

 

Spinoza

  • You should be able to explain the meaning and significance of any of Spinoza’s definitions, axioms, or propositions (that we discussed)
  • You should be able to give, at least in outline, the arguments for Book I, P11, P14, and P28, and Book II, P7.
  • You should be able to explain Spinoza’s account of the nature of God, including the definition of God, God’s monism, and at least some properties of God
  • You should be able to explain Spinoza’s account of the nature of particular things and how these relate to God
  • You should be able to explain the (double) necessity of particular things (dependence upon both God and prior things)
  • You should be able to explain the three sorts of knowledge
  • You should be able to offer a Spinozist account of the relationship between mind and body
  • You should be able to offer a Spinozist account of the relationship between metaphysics and epistemology

 

Conway

  • The necessity for three and only three substances
  • Why/how reincarnation is possible and what its eventual result must be
  • Substance-substance interaction
  • Mind-body relationship

 

Leibniz

  • The difference and relationships between perception, apperception, and appetite
  • The nature of monads (indivisible, mirror of the world, etc).  Where appropriate, be prepared to defend Leibniz’s claims.
  • The types of monads (substances, souls, minds)
  • “Interactions” among monads (including mind-body interaction)
  • Leibniz’s account of personal identity (monads, entelechy, haeceitty)
  • Pre-established harmony
  • The identity of indiscernibles
  • Leibniz’s account of the distinction between necessity and contingency
  • Human freedom, human motivation
  • The best of all possible worlds (meaning of this, proof of it, justification against criticisms)