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ARLT 100: 35260R
Conceptions of God and Self
Fall 2009
MW 3:30 – 4:50
John Dreher
Office: MHP 211
x05173
HOURS:
Aug the 24th – Dec the 4th
Mon 10:30 – 11:30
Fri 11:00 – 12:00
and by appointment
Dec the 9th – Dec the 14th
Wed Dec the 9th 10:30 – 11:30
Fri Dec the 11th 10:00 – 11:00
Mon Dec the 14th 12 – 1:45
FINAL EXAMINATION:
Mon Dec 14th 2:00 – 4:00
Materials: Baird and Kaufmann, Philosophic Classics Volume III: Modern Philosophy,
fourth edition, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 2003
Description: This course involves an intensive examination of the writings of several great philosophers concerning the nature of our relation to God. The readings are drawn from, a period that is very rich in literature on this subject. Some of the major questions to be addressed will be obvious to you: Is it reasonable to believe that there is a God to whom we are related? If not, what difference does that make to our self-conception? If so, what is the nature of our relation to God? We shall examine the ingenious arguments for the existence of God presented by Descartes in Meditations III and V, the response by Spinoza to Descartes’ arguments for the existence of God and to Descartes’ conception of the soul, Leibniz’s response to arguments against the existence of God that are based upon the facts of suffering and evil, Leibniz’s remarkable conception of simple substances, the self and their relation to God, Hume’s controversial argument against the possibility of miracles and his assessment of the strength of traditional arguments for the existence of God, Kant’s famous claim that he denied ‘knowledge to make room for faith,’ and finally Kierkegaard’s dramatic ‘leap of faith.’
In addition, we shall be interested in a conceptual revolution that occurred over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During the early seventeenth century the medieval thesis that faith and reason are essentially complementary remained intact. By the end of the eighteenth century, however, natural science was thought to threaten religious belief, and by the middle of the nineteenth century many philosophers argued that religion and reason are actually incompatible. Religion, they claimed, requires a ‘leap of faith,’ presumably a leap over the chasm of doubt opened by reason. Many people have thought that substantive scientific doctrine, e.g., Newton’s theory of gravitation or Darwin’s theory of evolution undermined religion. Our course will consider the matter at a deeper level, looking to see how the scientific revolution occasioned crucial changes in concepts like substance, causation, existence and identity and how those changes threatened the medieval synthesis of faith and reason.
Requirements: There will be a midterm examination, which will test for knowledge of the reading assignments as well as the expository and supplementary information delivered during class. There will also be a final examination. The first part of the final examination will test for knowledge of the reading assignments as well as expository and supplementary information delivered during class sessions following the midterm examination. The second part of the final examination will be a comprehensive question dealing with the main theme of the course. The comprehensive question will be discussed towards the end of the semester. Class attendance is very strongly recommended. Please schedule at least one meeting with me during the course of the semester to discuss your work.
There will be three short papers, approximately five pages in length. Recommended topics are:
Paper #1: What is the philosophical problem known as the ‘Cartesian circle’? What is
Descartes’ proposed solution to it?
Paper #2: Compare Descartes’ and Spinoza’s conceptions of substance. Do they
mean the same thing by ‘cause,’ by ‘existence,’ by ‘identity’? How do their
differing conceptions of substance affect their views of God and of the self?
Paper #3: How does Leibniz attempt to show that the existence of God is compatible
with the existence of suffering and evil? Be sure to discuss all eight of the
objections and replies in the (abridgment) of the Theodicy.
You may substitute a paper topic of your choosing for the recommended topic with advance permission. Below are a few alternatives that may be of interest:
ALT Paper #1: What is Pascal’s wager? To whom do you think Pascal’s wager is addressed? What does the wager presuppose about the possibility of knowledge?
ALT Paper #2: How does Spinoza attempt to deal with the apparent impossibility that Cartesian philosophy faces in explaining how it is possible for mental and material substances to interact?
ALT Paper #3: What does Leibniz mean by the “pre-established harmony”? How does Leibniz rely upon it in reconciling his views about physical science with his famous monadology?
Grades will be calculated as follows:
Paper #1 – 1/6
Paper #2 – 1/6
Paper #3 – 1/6
Midterm Exam – 1/6
Final Exam: Part I – 1/6
Final Exam: Part II – 1/6
Please remember that the University strictly prohibits plagiarism, which can be the mere failure to acknowledge the work of another as well as the deliberate misrepresentation of the work of another as your own. You must acknowledge your indebtedness not only to the ideas of others but also to their words.
Schedule of Readings, Assignments and Examinations:
1. Mon, Aug 24: Introduction: Background of 17th and 18th century philosophy,
influence of the scientific revolution on epistemology, the rise of
naturalism: Descartes: Dedicatory letter, Preface, Synopsis of the
Meditations, MP: 13 – 19
2. Wed, Aug 26: Descartes, Meditation I: “Demons, Dreamers and Madmen”:
MP 19 – 22
3. Mon Aug 31: Descartes: Meditation II: Essence and existence: MP 23 – 28
4. Wed, Sep 2: Descartes: Meditation III: Argument for the existence of God from
the fact of our idea of him: MP 29 – 38
5. Mon, Sep 7: Labor Day: University Holiday
6. Wed, Sep 9: Descartes: Meditation IV: Error as intellectual sin: MP 38 – 47
7. Mon, Sep 14: Descartes: Meditation V: The nature of material things, the
ontological argument: MP 43 – 47
8. Wed, Sep 16: Descartes: Meditation VI and Correspondence of Princess Elizabeth
Self-knowledge and knowledge of the ‘external world’:
MP 47 – 61.
9. Mon, Sep 21: Spinoza: Overview of Spinoza’s Ontology
10. Wed, Sep 23: Spinoza: Ethics I: Definitions and axioms: MP 118 – 120.
Paper #1
11. Mon, Sep 28: Spinoza: Ethics I: P1 – P11: Infinite substance: MP 120 – 124.
12. Wed, Sep 30: Spinoza: Ethics II: Parallelism MP 125 – 155.
13. Mon, Oct 5: Review for Midterm Examination
14. Wed, Oct 7: Midterm Examination
15. Mon, Oct 12: Leibniz: Monadology: 1 – 13: MP 284.
16. Wed, Oct 14: Leibniz: Monadology: 14 – 90: MP 285 – 292.
17. Mon, Oct 19 Introduction to Propositional and Syllogistic Logic: Arguments and
argument forms, truth tables, syllogistic logic, contraries,
subcontraries, contradictions, existential presuppositions, Venn
diagrams. Anticipating the Theodicy and the Critique of Pure Reason
18. Wed, Oct 21: Leibniz: Theodicy: Objections V, VI, VII, VIII: MP 281 – 283.
Paper #2
19. Mon, Oct 26: Leibniz: Theodicy: Objections I, II, III, IV: MP 277 – 281.
20. Wed, Oct 28: Hume: (recommended reading) Treatise of Human Nature, ‘Of the
Immateriality of the Soul’
21. Mon, Nov 2: Hume: Skepticism I: Causation, Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding (ECHU), Sections IV and V, MP 359 -74
22. Wed, Nov 4: Hume: Skepticism II: Miracles, ECHU Section X and XI,
MP 398-417.
23. Mon, Nov 9: Hume: the Cosmological Argument and the Ontological Arguments,
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Parts IX – XII,
MP 457 – 479.
24. Wed, Nov 11: Kant: Critical Philosophy, Preface to the Critique of Pure Reason,
MP 507 – 514.
Paper #3
25. Mon, Nov 16: Kant: On Substance and Self, The Psychological Ideas,
Prolegomena, MP 545 – 47.
26. Wed, Nov 28: Kant: The Determination of the Bounds of Pure Reason,
Prolegomena, MP, pp 584 – 93.
27. Mon, Nov 23: Kierkegaard and the “Leap of Faith”
28. Wed, Nov 25: Question and Answer Session
29. Mon, Nov 30: Review for Final Examination
30. Wed, Dec 2: Review for Final Examination