13-1 DAY
PHILOSOPHY 352. 17th CENTURY PHILOSOPHY: LEIBNIZ
(AND LOCKE)
INSTRUCTOR: PHIL HANSON WMX 5658
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Philosophical Essays, G.W. Leibniz (trans., R. Ariew and D. Garber) (Hackett Pub., 1989)
The Cambridge Companion
to Leibniz, Nicholas Jolley (ed.), (Cambridge
U. Press, 1995)
An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding, John Locke (available on web)
New Essays on Human Understanding, G. Leibniz (available
on web).
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This
course will be in large part an introduction to the thought of Gotfried Wilhelm
von Leibniz, an intellectual giant of the 17th century, with special
emphasis on his metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophies of language and
logic. Although his thought was
systematic, Leibniz never wrote a single unified presentation of his
views. We are left to fit them together
from mostly unpublished papers and correspondence. Much of this interpretive,
integrative work has been done only in the 20th century. One of
Leibniz’s few monograph-length works is a detailed commentary on Locke’s Essay.
We cannot evaluate this commentary without familiarizing
ourselves with what Locke said. That is
where Locke comes in.
Leibniz’s view, in his Theodicy (which we will not look at), that “this is the best of all
possible worlds,” was mercilessly ridiculed by Voltaire, in Candide. Bertrand
Russell reports that F.H. Bradley added the sardonic comment, “and everything
in it is a necessary evil.” One recent commentator. Catherine Wilson,
characterizes Leibniz’s Monodology
(which we will take a look at) as “probably the falsest theory in the history
of philosophy.” And of course it was the
Leibnizian tradition that Kant largely had in mind when he inveighed against
the rationalist excesses of dogmatic metaphysics. So why study this guy, you
are no doubt asking? Because notwithstanding all of this, Leibniz’s theory of
necessity and contingency, his semantics of proper names and general terms, his
nuanced doctrine of innate ideas, his relational theory of space and time, his
theory of identity, and much else, are elements of a rich and enduring legacy
that remain benchmarks today that we still draw on and learn from.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: 2 shorter written assignments, worth 25% apiece, and
a term paper worth 40%. The remaining
10% is for course participation.
NOTES: Prerequisites are Phil 100 or
151, or permission of the instructor. A
substantive amount of secondary material will be placed on reserve in the
library.