17th Century Rationalists

Undergraduate

A study of central themes in the works of the three most celebrated philosophers of the seventeenth century: Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz. Metaphysics and epistemology will be our focus, and the topics we’ll explore include mind, matter, necessity, contingency, truth, causation, space, time, knowledge, reason and the existence of God. We’ll approach their philosophy through a variety of their texts, in English translation, including treatises, papers, dialogues, letters and unpublished drafts and notes.