Self and World: Early Modern Philosophy

Harvard FAS

An introduction to some of the major topics and figures of 17th- and 18th- century Western philosophy, and to the skills of close reading, argument construction, and clear writing. We will focus on such metaphysical and epistemological topics as the natures of mind, body and self, the quality of the sexes, the existence of the external world and God, the nature and limits of human knowledge, and the changing relationship between science and philosophy. We will read such philosophers as…