| Unit name | The Rationalists |
|---|---|
| Unit code | PHIL30034 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Pyle |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Philosophy |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
In many ways, Leibniz is the most difficult of the Rationalists to teach. There is no single text that provides a definitive expression of his views. Instead, we have lots of smaller works, written at different times over his long career, plus a major body of philosophical correspondence. Scholars are thus faced with serious problems of interpretation, especially concerning the consistency or otherwise of Leibniz's views across time, and as expressed in different contexts and to different correspondents.
Text. With these difficulties in mind, the class will work its way through the Ariew & Garber collection of Leibniz's Philosophical Essays (Hackett, 1989), which gives a good selection of Leibniz's works, arranged in chronological order. Students will be expected to buy a copy of this reader - fortunately, it's by Hackett, so quite cheap. The Ariew & Garber collection provides about 90% of the material we will need for the course; any additional materials will be provided by means of photocopies, e.g. from the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, the Theodicy, and the New Essays).
Classes will consist of a mixture of lectures and seminars. In the lectures, I will seek to explain key themes and principles of Leibniz's philosophy, and to locate Leibniz's work in its philosophical context, with reference to Descartes, Spinoza, Arnauld, Malebranche, Locke, Newton and Bayle. In the seminars, we will look in more detail at particular texts and letters, exploring together one of the most profound and (sometimes) puzzling of the great rationalist metaphysicians.
Topics will include the following:
Individual Substances (Monads) Mind and Body: The 'Pre-Established Harmony' The Ontological Proof of the Existence of God The Principle of Sufficient Reason Truth and the Predicate-in-Subject Principle Necessity and Contingency Human and Divine Freedom Innate Ideas and Innate Principles (vs Locke) Space and Time (vs Newton & Clarke) Theodicy (Best of all Possible Worlds).
