Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2019 - PHIL 854 G100

Selected Topics in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Philosophy (5)

17th C Mind in Context

Class Number: 7501

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 3 – Apr 8, 2019: Mon, Wed, 4:30–6:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

COURSE DETAILS:

Selected Topics: 17th Century Philosophy of Mind in Context

[Note: this course is to be taught concurrently with PHIL 451W.]

Important note regarding enrollment: instructor consent is required for all students apart from Philosophy graduate students.

The contextualization of early modern accounts of body has long been underway, as philosophical accounts of extended substance, causation, and laws of nature have been situated within early modern developments in the natural sciences. In this course, we will begin an analogous effort to contextualize early modern accounts of mind as essentially a thinking thing. Our starting point will be Descartes’s conception mind as a thinking thing, as presented in the Discourse on Method, Meditations, and Principles. Though we may look at Cartesian accounts of mental substance, as well as at competing mechanist accounts, the focus of the course will be on accounts of education. In philosophical writings on education, we find discussions of who can become a full-fledged thinking thing and of an individual can be taught to be, or become, a thinking thing. Of particular interest will be writings on women's education, including François Poulain de la Barre, Madame de Maintenon, Gabrielle Suchon and Mary Astell. In demanding an education for women, these authors demonstrate the centrality of thinking for oneself and owning one's thoughts in the common understanding of what it is to be a thinking thing. At the same time, they also pose two related questions:
(1) What is the relation of the inculcation of habits, and the emotions, to developing the capacity to think for oneself?
(2) What is the proper social structure through which to teach someone to become a full-fledged thinker?

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Successful completion of this course will satisfy the “History of Philosophy” distribution requirement toward the MA degree.

Students will

  • acquire an understanding of Descartes, a philosopher with whom many will already be familiar, that is both more broad and more in-depth
  • gain understanding of philosophers with whom they do not have prior familiarity
  • identify and frame philosophical questions contained in the readings
  • engage critically with both primary and secondary source materials to develop original analyses and interpretations that address the questions that have been identified
  • improve both written and oral presentation skills

Grading

  • Eight 1pg responses to reading 10%
  • One 15-20pp (5000-7000 word) paper. Students will propose a paper topic with select bibliography, and work with the instructor to refine the topic. Students will be expected to submit draft of the paper for review. 80%
  • One presentation to help facilitate discussion on readings 10%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

  • René Descartes, Philosophical Writings of Rene Descartes, Vol 1& 2 ed and trans. Cottingham, Stoothof, Murdoch Cambridge UP; Vol 1: 978-0521288071; Vol 2: 978-0521288088
  • The Equality of the Sexes: Three Feminist Texts of the Seventeenth Century. Ed and transl. Desmond Clarke. OUP, 2013. 978-0199673513
  • François Poulain de la Barre, On the Equality of the Two Sexes and Education of Ladies. Both in Three Cartesian Feminist Treatises, ed. Welch and transl. Bosley. University of Chicago Press, 2002. [Electronic edition available through the library]
  • Madame de Maintenon, Dialogues and Addresses., ed. and transl. John Conley. University of Chicago Press, 2004. [Electronic edition available through the library]
  • Mary Astell, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, ed. Patricia Springborg, Broadview Press, 2002. [Electronic edition available through the library]
  • Gabrielle Suchon, A Woman Who Defends all the Persons of Her Sex, ed. and trans Domna Stanton and Rebecca Wilkin. University of Chicago Press, 2010. [Electronic edition available through the library]

RECOMMENDED READING:

  • Richard Moran, Authority and Estrangement: An Essay on Self-Knowledge. Princeton UP. 2001 978-0691089454
  • Richard Moran, The Exchange of Words: Speech, Testimony and Intersubjectivity. Oxford 2018. 978-0190882907

Additional journal articles to be provided.


Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS