PHI 140H - Self, Knowledge, and Society

What can I know for sure? What is the basis of the political society of which I am a citizen? And what do my answers to these questions say about my nature as a human being? This course presents the leading philosophers of the early modern period - Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, and Kant - as engaged in an ongoing historical dialogue to work out the dual problems of knowledge and politics. Living in a world unsettled by the Copernican Revolution and the religious and civil wars of the 17th C, these thinkers sought firm ground concerning what can be known and the legitimacy of political authority; along the way they changed our ideas about what it means to be a human being. As we will see, their work is just as relevant today as then. Course Typically Offered: Every 2 years in spring.

Prerequisite(s): None.

Credits: 4