Date

Topic

Reading    (Note: TGC = The Great Conversation by Norman Melchert (Eighth edition); TBA means To Be Announced later; page numbers for primary texts are from Bennett's versions)

January 15

Introductory Session

Hobbes and Locke on the state of nature (in class)

Hobbes and Locke on the Social Contract: the philosophical rationalization of colonial conquest and capitalist property rights (but also individual liberties and limited government)

1. The pages in Melchert dealing with Hobbes’ and Locke’s moral and political theories
1. On Hobbes, pages 411-415
2. On Locke, pages 424 to 426
   
   
2. In John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, please read
                  
   • Chapters 3, 4 and 5 (pp. 7-18)
   • The first five paragraphs (95-99) of Chapter 8 (pp. 32-33)
   • Then go back and read the last few paragraphs of Chapter 7 (89-94 for Locke’s initial critique of absolute (unchecked) monarchy. (pp. 29-31
   • The read Chapter 9 and Chapter 11 for further critique of absolute (or unlimited) and his account of the proper limits of governmental authority. Notice how these limits are justified by referring back to his account of natural rights in the state of nature. (pp. 40-46)
   • Finally, read paragraph 149 at the beginning of Chapter 13, which announces Locke’s scandalous doctrine that the people have the right to dissolve a government that is not serving its proper purposes. (p. 48)

January 29

Critical perspectives on the Social Contract tradition

Selections from The Racial Contract by Charles Mills (try to read from pp 1-62) and Decolonizing Freedom by Allison Weir

Optional extra readings: Hall, "Race in Hobbes"; Bernasconi and Mann, "Locke, Slavery, and the Two Treatises"; Robert Nichols, "Realizing the Social Contract: The case of Colonialism and Indigenous Peoples"

February 5

Descartes’ reboot of the search for knowledge: from radical doubt to rationalist certainties.

TGC Ch 17 first half (includes Descartes, Meditations) Stop when you get to the end of Meditation 3;

Read TGC Chapter 16 for background if you have time.

February 12

Read the rest of Melchert's Chapter 17, which includes Meditations 4, 5, and 6.

1. TGC 1st 13 pages of Chapter 19: 438-451 (8th ed.);

2. Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; Sections 1-7 (most important: sections 4, 5, and 7)

February 26

Hume on God, soul, and freedom

1. TGC 451-458 and 462-464 (8th ed);

2. Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; Sections 8-12 (most important: section 8 on “Liberty and Necessity”, Section 10 on “Miracles”, and Section 12 on “The Skeptical Philosophy”) ;

3. Some selections from Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

• Read from the bottom of page 10, column 1, where Cleanthes states the argument from design -- "Look round the world..." -- to the end of Part 2 (p.16).  This gives the main part of Philo’s critique of the argument.
• Part 5 (pp. 24-26) includes another of Philo’s criticisms.
• Part 7 (pp. 30-33) is another short section that includes one of Philo’s wittier criticisms (culminating in the idea that we might as well suppose that the world was spun into existence by a cosmic spider as that it was planned and created by an intelligent God).
• At the bottom of the second column of page 34 Philo begins a remarkable speech that seems to anticipate the theory of evolution by natural selection.  (“Philo went on: And this very consideration that we have stumbled on in the course of the argument suggests another hypothesis…”)  It runs through the first column of page 36.
• In Part 9 (pp. 38-40), Demea states and Cleanthes refutes the so-called cosmological or ‘First Cause’ argument.
• From the first column on page 44 to the end of section 11 (p. 53) Philo develops the so-called ‘problem of evil’ as an empirical argument against the existence of a God who is benevolent, omnipotent and omniscient.

March 5

No class

March 12

Hume on morality

1. TGC Chapter 19, pp.458-462 );

2. Hume, Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Sections 1, 2, 3, and 9, plus appendix.

3. Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, Book II, Part 3, section 3, "The Influencing Motive of the Will" (pp. 215-218)

4. Treatise of Human Nature,,Book III, Part 1, section 1, "Moral Distinctions Aren't Derived from Reason" (pp. 234-242)

Reminder: The first position paper is due next Monday, March 17 by 10AM

March 19

Kant on knowledge and reality

TGC, Chapter 20 (on Kant) pp. 465-485

March 26

 1. TGC Chapter 20, pp. 485-495

 2. Kant, selections from Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

April 2

 Hegel: Reason Historicized

 1. TGC Ch. 21; 

2. Hegel, The dialectic of master and slave (just read enough to get the flavor of Hegel's prose style. It won't take long.)

3. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, section 135) This brief selection contains Hegel's famous critique of Kant' moral philosophy;

4. Introduction to the Philosophy of History (in part); (This text is often recommended to beginning students of Hegel. Read as much as you can stomach.)

April 9

Enlightenment roots of racism

1. Andrew Valls, "Introduction" to Race and Racism in Modern Philosophy;

2. Charles Mills, "Kant's Untermenschen"

April 16

The woman question in early modern philosophy

1. TGC 555-561 (8th ed.) 521-527 (7th ed.)

2. Locke on "Conjugal Society" read just the first few pages of Chapter 7: Political or Civil Society" sections 77 to 83

2. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, discussion of the education of women (in the person of an imaginary "Sophie") from his book Emile

3. Kant, a few pages on marriage from the Metaphysics of Morals

3. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (selections from Bennett's version);

a. Response to Rousseau (read pp. 53-61)

b. Chapter 4 "The state of degradation to which woman is reduced by various causes" (Read at least to page 44.)

c. Chapter 13, "Examples of the harm done by women's ignorance" (This is the concluding chapter of the book.)

April 23

Marx

1. TGC, pp.510-517;

2. Marx, Theses on Feuerbach (very short);

3. Marx, Preface to the Critique of Political Economy; (super short)

4. from The German Ideology (skip section 3 and read just the first bit of section 4 on Social Being and Consciousness. );

5. Marx,"Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas";

6. Critique of the Gotha Program, Part 1

7. The Communist Manifesto

April 30

Nietzsche

TGC Ch. 24; Read as much as you can of Twilight of the Idols, at least the Preface,  The Problem of Socrates , "Reason" in Philosophy,
How the "True World" Finally Became a Fable, Morality as Anti-Nature, and The Four
Great Errors.

Second position paper due by 11pm on Monday, May 5.