Selected Topics in Early Modern Philosophy

The course is an intensive study, detailed analysis and interpretation of selected philosophical texts of one or more authors of the philosophy of Continental Rationalism (Descates, Spinoza, Leibniz) and their contemporaries (Malebranche), British Empiricism (Locke, Berkeley, Hume), French Enlightenment (Bayle, Diderot, Condillac, Rousseau), and British Utilitarianism (Bentham). Possible topics to be studied include: philosophy of language in the 17th and 18th century; Leibniz's logic, encyclopedia and the idea of universal characteristic; metaphysics and natural science in the period of the 17th century Scientific Revolution, e.g.: Descartes and Leibniz; Spinoza's metaphysical theory; selected philosophical articles in Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary; Locke and French materialism: matter and thought; Malebranche, Hume, and acausal ontology; Hume on Natural Religion; Deism, materialism, and clandestine philosophical literature; Diderot's and d'Alembert's Encyclopedia and the modern idea of knowledge society; Descartes's Meditations and Diderot's D'Alembert's Dream; early modern philosophy and speculative realism.

Required reading:
Descartes, Pravila kako naravnavati umske zmožnosti, Slovenska matica, Ljubljana 1957. COBISS.SI-ID - 278531
Descartes, Principi filozofije I/II, ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana 2023, str. 65-119 (2. del) COBISS.SI-ID - 140038147
Leibniz, Metafizični diskurz, v: Izbrani filozofski spisi, Slovenska matica, Ljubljana 2004, str. 21-63. COBISS.SI-ID - 214773760

Suggested reading:
Bennett, J., Learning from Six Philosophers, OUP, Oxford 2001, str. zv. 1: 66-111; 151-85; 224-56; zv. 2: 1-58; 74-107; 146-96; 245-306.
Rutherford, D. (ur.), The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, CUP, Cambridge 2006, str. 11-66; 95-169.
Božovič, M., Telo v novoveški filozofiji, Založba ZRC, Ljubljana 2002, str. 75-146 in 190-254.