Justin E. H. Smith

PHIL 498/629: Race in Enlightenment Philosophy

Concordia University
Fall, 2008

RACE IN ENLIGHTENMENT PHILOSOPHY

Wednesday, 18.00-20.15

PR-100
Prof. Justin Smith

Race does not exist, and this is a course about it. That is, there is no scientifically interesting way in which humanity may be divided up into a handful of real sub-kinds; to speak of ‘Caucasians’, ‘Blacks’, etc., is to fail, as philosophers like to say, to carve nature at its joints. Yet in spite of their scientific bankruptcy --universally recognized by all mainstream anthropologists and biologists since the end of World War II-- these categories continue to seem very pertinent in the way we talk about our social reality. Why is this? The full answer has much to do with economics, sociology, etc., but also something to do with the history of science, and with the effort to lay conceptual foundations for science within the history of philosophy since roughly the beginning of the 17th century. It is on the early stages of this history, from Montaigne to Kant, that we will be focusing in this course. We will seek to understand how it is that the modern concept of race, and the accompanying ideology of racism, came into existence as a result, in part, of the theoretical reflections of some of modern Europe’s greatest thinkers upon that central philosophical question, Quid sit homo? (What is a human being?)

PHIL 360: Rationalism

Concordia University
Department of Philosophy

History of Modern Philosophy, Part I
Fall, 2008

This course will consist in a study of the philosophical school of Rationalism, the main current of philosophical thought in continental Europe in the 17th century. We will also touch on related movements of the period, such as Cambridge Platonism. We will pay particular attention to the metaphysical problems of cause, substance, and mind-body interaction, and freedom of the will, and will also consider early modern philosophy in its close relationship with the experimental sciences of the day, in particular with mechanical physics.

TJ 14:45-16:00
Hall Building 509

Instructor: Justin Smith
Office Hours: TJ 12:30-14:00
Address: PR-402, 2100 Mackay Street, SGW Campus
Telephone: 848-2424 x. 2504
E-mail: justismi@alcor.concordia.ca

Required text:

Roger Ariew and Eric Watkins (Eds.), Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Hackett).

Available at Concordia University Bookstore.

Means of evaluation:

• Two midterm exams consisting in short answer and essay questions (20% each).
• One final exam consisting in short answer and essay questions (20%).
• One final paper of 5-7 pages on an assigned topic (20%).
• Class attendance and participation (20%).

Schedule:

September 2. Introduction: What do we mean by ‘modern’?
September 4. The Scientific Revolution: Galileo, The Assayer(excerpts); Francis Bacon, Novum Organon (excerpts).

September 9. René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy. Meditation I.
September 11. Descartes, Meditations II and III.

September 16. Descartes, Meditations IV and V.
September 18. Descartes, Meditation VI.

September 23. Descartes, Correspondence with Elizabeth (excerpts).
September 25. Descartes, Passions of the Soul (excerpts).

September 30. Nicolas Malebranche, The Search after Truth (excerpts).
October 2. Malebranche, Search (continued).

October 7. Baruch Spinoza, Ethics, Part I.
October 9. Spinoza, Ethics, Part I., continued.

October 14. Spinoza, Ethics, Part II.
October 16. Spinoza, Ethics, Part II, continued.

October 21. Anne Conway, Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy (excerpts).
October 23. Henry More, The Immortality of the Soul (excerpts).

October 28. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics.
October 30. Leibniz, Discourse (continued).

November 4. Leibniz, Correspondence with Arnauld (excerpts).
November 6. Leibniz, Principles of Nature and of Grace (excerpts).
November 11. Leibniz, New System of Nature.
November 13. Leibniz, New System of Nature (continued).
November 18. Leibniz, Monadology.
November 20. Leibniz, Monadology (continued).

November 25. Open.
November 27. Review.