Brief |
This is a course devoted to exploring the Philosophy of René Descartes and its significance and influence in Modern as well as Contemporary Western Philosophy. The classes will offer you a detailed study of some of the main passages in Descartes’ works, which can be considered at the basis of ideas and debates concerning Knowledge, Metaphysics and Subjectivity, as well as Philosophy itself and its relationships to other Sciences and to Religion, in the following centuries. The careful examination of Descartes’ works will enable you to gain a better understanding of some main concepts of Western Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, such as Substance, Subject, Idealism, Realism, Knowledge, Freedom, Mind and Body. After considering Descartes’ works, we will consider the developments of the aforementioned concepts in some some of the main figures of Modern Western Philosophy. In particular, we will carry out a brief survey of the positions of Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant; following, we will critically assess the legacy of Descartes in some the more recent debates in Epistemology, Metaphysics and Philosophy of Mind, with particular regard to the Phenomenological and the Analytic traditions. |
