PHIL 352: LEIBNIZ (AND LOCKE). SPRING 2013

SYLLABUS (TENTATIVE) FOR PHIL 352, WEEKS 6-13

Week 6

Feb. 20:  New Essays on Human Understanding  Bk. I (on innateness) Philalethesà Locke,   Theophilusà Leibniz.

Secondary Reading (to be scanned and e-mailed to you): “Where Do Our Ideas Come From?” – Descartes vs. Locke”  R.M. Adams; “The Locke-Leibniz Debate”,  R.M. Adams.  Both from Innate Ideas, (ed.) Stephen Stich U of California Press (Berkeley 1975).

Other salient background readings for topics we look at in the New Essays: Cambridge Companion chs. 6 and 8.

Feb. 22:  New Essays Bk. II chs. 1 (ideas), 2(simple ideas), 9 (perception), 10 (retention), 16 (number) 17(infinity).

Week 7

Feb 27:  Bk II cont’d chs. 21 (power and freedom) 23 (substance) 27 (identity and diversity)

                Note: 2nd written assignment topics distributed

Mar 1:  Bk. III chs. 3 (general terms) 6 (names of substances)

Week 8

Mar 6: Bk IV chs. 1-4 (on knowledge)

Mar 8: “New System of Nature” (1695), “On Nature Itself” (1698). 

Week 9

Mar 13: “Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason” (1714), “Monodology” (1714) Background reading: Cambridge Companion, chs. 5 and 7.

                Note: 2nd assignment due; final assignment topics distributed.

Mar 15:  “Monadology” cont’d.

Week 10

Mar 20:  Space and Time.  Letters to Clarke (1715-16);  Cf. also New Essays Bk. II, chs. 13-15 (re. our ideas of space and time), and relevant sections of Cambridge Companion, ch. 9

Mar 22:  Clarke Correspondence cont’d

Week 11

Mar 27:  Clarke Correspondence cont’d

Mar 29:  Good Friday.  SFU closed

Week 12

April 3: Leibniz’s late work on forces and on the metaphysical status of body: Letters to Bernouilli (1698-99), de Volder (1699-1706), Des Bosses (1712-16)  Background: “A Specimen of Dynamics”(1695) especially its taxonomy of forces.  Cf. also Cambridge Companion, ch. 9 “Physics and Philosophy” Daniel Garber.

April 5:  cont’d

Week 13

April 10: cont’d

April 12:cont’d

Note:  last day of classes.  Final assignment due, if not in class, then in my mail box in the Philosophy Department by 3:30 PM.

 

 

Tentative Assignment Schedule

Assignment #1: 

Topics distributed January 25th

                                 Papers due in class February 8th

                [Reading Week: Week of February 11th]               

  Returned February 20th

Assignment #2: 

Topics distributed: February 27th

                                 Papers due March 13th

                                 Returned March 20th

                  [Easter Break: March 29th through April 1st ]

Final Assignment: 

     Topics Distributed March 13th

                                     Due by 4:00 PM April 12th (the last day of classes)

 

PHIL 352: LEIBNIZ (AND LOCKE).  SPRING 2013

LIBRARY RESERVES

REQUIRED READING

 24 hr reserve

*G.W.Leibniz, Philosophical Essays (trans. Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber ) (1989) B2558 L625 1989

*Nicholas Jolley (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz  B 2598 C3335 1995

John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (ed. P.H. Nidditch) B 1290 1975 (Note: There are also many WEB editions of this available; e.g., there is the John Yolton edition)

WEB book

G.W. Leibniz, New Essays Concerning Human Understanding (trans. Peter Remnant Jonathan Bennett) 1981

RECOMMENDED READING

3 day reserve

A.      Easier

G. MacDonald Ross, Leibniz (1984) B 2598 M24

Nicholas Rescher, Leibniz: An Introduction to his Philosophy (1979) B 2598 R48

C.D. Broad, Leibniz, An Introduction (1975) B 2598 B73

B. Harder

Hide Ishiguro, Leibniz’s Philosophy of Logic and Language, (2nd Ed.) (1990) B 2599 L8 I83

Cathrine Wilson, Leibniz’s Metaphysics (1989) B 2599 M7 W55.

B.      Challenging

Nicholas Jolley,  Leibniz and Locke (1984) B 2581 Z7 J64

Robert C. Sleigh, Jr., Leibniz and Arnauld: A Commentary on Their Correspondance (1990) B 2599 M7 S53 1990

*Robert Merrihew Adams,  Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist (1994) B 2598 A23