PHL 210Y
17th- and 18th-Century Philosophy

For those of you who still have not made arrangements to research the context of the Objections and Replies, I have found online the immediate context for the three topics:

Arnauld (scroll down)
Caterus
Hobbes

Keep in mind that for this essay online sources can account for no more than 1/3 of your sources.

Today we briefly discussed Baruch Spinoza (also known by his Latin name Benedict).

Readings for next week: Required: Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section VII Part I; online selections from Malebranche.

Optional: Malebranche, Dialogues II and III (NB: this is a PDF file).

Office Hours: My office hours are from 2:30-4:00 p.m. this Friday in SS2115. I am also usually available by appointment at just about any other time of the week. However, you should expect only to be able to make appointments several days in advance. To make an appointment, contact me at phl210y@branemrys.org . Note that I will not have office hours November 4.

Today we finished up the Meditations, discussing Meditations V and VI.

Readings for next lecture: Required: Spinoza, Ethics, Part I. Optional: Spinoza, Ethics, Part II.

Readings for Malebranche lecture: Required: Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section VII Part I; online selections from Malebranche. Optional: Malebranche, Dialogues II and III (NB: this is a PDF file).

This is discussion of Descartes at a somewhat more advanced level than we are discussing him in class, but some of you might be interested in the paper “Contemporary Skepticism and the Cartesian God” (this is a PDF file) by the University of Toronto’s own Jennifer Nagel. The paper looks at one element of Descartes’s appeal to God (i.e., to clarify the limitations of human reason), and suggests ways in which this particular element (emphasizing the limitations of human reason) can still have some ‘bite’ against skepticism today. Highly recommended, for those who are interested.

Today we continued our discussion of Descartes’s Meditations. Most of the lecture was devoted to looking at the primary argument of Meditation III, which is perhaps the Meditation whose reasoning is most difficult to follow.

Next Week’s Reading: Meditations V and VI (required);
Anselm’s Proslogion prologue to chapter 16; Gaunilo’s Reply; Anselm’s Reply to Gaunilo (optional)

Readings for Spinoza Lecture (after Descartes): Ethics, Part I (required);
Ethics, Part II (optional)

Office Hours: My office hours are from 2:30-4:00 p.m. this Friday in SS2115. I am also usually available by appointment at just about any other time of the week. However, you should expect only to be able to make appointments several days in advance. To make an appointment, contact me at phl210y@branemrys.org . (Don’t forget the ‘y’!) Feel free to ask me any questions by e-mail as well; as long as I’m given sufficient time to answer, I am very good at getting back to students who have questions about the reasoning of the texts we are discussing.

Today we began our discussion of Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy, looking in particular at the First and Second Meditation.

Reading for Next Week:For next class, continue reading the Meditations, particular the Third and Fourth.

Office Hours: Don’t forget, my office hours this week are Friday, 2 pm to 4 pm, in SS2115, and you can contact me by e-mail at:

phl210y@branemrys.org

Found: Someone forgot a recording device and a water bottle in the lecture room. If you’re the one who has lost them, see me Friday during my office hours.