Module Directory

This module will introduce students to the historical figures, texts and debates that lay the foundation for modern philosophy. When philosophers talk about “Modern Philosophy,” they do not mean anything recent.  The modern period is generally understood to begin with 17^th century writings of Renée Descartes, famous for his cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am).  We will study Descartes carefully, but our approach will take his contemporary 17^th figures such as Grotius and Galileo.  We will think about the philosophical significance not only of Descartes’ cogito, but of the contributions that he made with his invention of the Cartesian Coordinate Plane. After studying these founding figures of the “modern” period, we will move on to consider contributions from Spinoza, Locke and Hume.  We will focus, among other things, on the following questions. What is the nature and limit of human knowledge? What role does human subjectivity have to play in the foundation of knowledge about the external world? What role, if any, does God play in knowledge? Does our common-sense view of the world have a philosophical foundation? Does sensory experience provide the only path to knowledge of the world, or can we gain knowledge through the exercise of pure reason? What is the relation between the body and the mind?  Where do human rights come from?

The aims of this module are:

• To introduce students to selected texts of some of the leading philosophers of the early modern period.


• To introduce students to core issues in rationalism and empiricism and through the study of these texts.


• To give students some impression of how the texts and authors selected contributed to the theoretical framework underlying developments in philosophy.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Summarise and expound in their own words theories and arguments from early modern philosophy.


2. Expound and criticise commentaries on the traditional authors and texts.


3. Expound and criticise some of the theories proposed by philosophers to cope with problems raised by selected authors.

Skills for your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)

By the end of the module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:

1. Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant.


2. Seek and organize the most relevant discussions and sources of information.


3. Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments.


4. Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.


5. Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.


6. Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them.


7. Think 'laterally' and creatively - see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly rather than as vague hunches.


8. Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong.


9. Think critically and constructively.

Incoming Study Abroad students must have already taken an introductory module in Philosophy at their home institution.

This module will be delivered via:

• 1x two-hour session each week, combining lecture and discussion of assigned readings.
• In addition, there will be a weekly one-hour optional collaborative reading session, in which we will read and discuss excepts from the assigned readings.

Week 8 will be a reading week, during which no scheduled teaching events will be held.