PHIL31180

In this module, we will study central topics in early modern philosophy with special focus on debates in philosophy of mind and in metaphysics.
The first part of the module will focus on philosophical debates concerning the human mind and we will discuss questions such as the following: What is a mind exactly? How is it possible that thoughts materialise in actions? How can we explain that material processes in the brain give rise to conscious mental states? Are the mind and body truly distinct, or are we simply describing the same thing in two different ways? These questions came to the forefront in early modern philosophy. We will begin our consideration of these questions by examining with René Descartes Meditations, before continuing through the work of Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, Baruch Spinoza, Anne Conway, and G.W. Leibniz. Here we will be interested to understand how these thinkers developed radically different accounts of the relationship between mind and body, and how the mind–body problem came into philosophical focus in this period.
In the second part of the module we will turn to metaphysical issues concerning first principles, theories of causation, and human freedom. We will examine questions such as the following: What is the subject of metaphysics? What are first principles and why are they first principles? What is the relation between cause and effect? Is causation contingent or necessary? What is human freedom? Why is human freedom important? Is freedom in the intellect or in the will? We will focus on the discussion about first principles, specifically the Principle of (Non-)Contradiction and the Principle of Sufficient Reason. In her Foundations of Physics, Émilie Du Châtelet, an outstanding woman philosopher of the French Enlightenment, defends that these are co-foundational principles of knowledge and metaphysical reality. In his New Elucidation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Cognition, Immanuel Kant explicitly challenges a view like Du Châtelet’s. We will then explore the debate about causation, specifically Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s theory of pre-established harmony (in his A New System of Nature) and his critique of occasionalism as best exemplified by Nicolas Malebranche (in his Search After Truth). Finally, we will pay close attention to the debate about freedom versus necessity drawing on Thomas Hobbes’ controversy with John Bramhall On Liberty and Necessity.
You will be invited to critically reflect and approach the views of the philosophers we study in this module assess strengths and weaknesses of their views and develop your own position.