PHIL 220.001 – Modern Philosophy

The theme for this course will be the nature and limits of human knowledge and our enduring aspiration to understand the ultimate structure of reality. How much and how can we know about the most fundamental features of reality – its causal order, time, space, God, our minds, etc.? We will examine the philosophical systems of some of the major philosophical figures in the modern period and consider their answers to this question. To this end, we will study in considerable depth their theory of cognition and epistemological doctrines. Authors include Descartes, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant.