METAPHYSICS, SCIENCE & RATIONALISM (PL2036)

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This course explores the impact of modern science upon philosophy through an exploration of the fundamental texts of classical metaphysics - Descartes' Principles of Philosophy, Spinoza's Ethics, Leibniz's Discourse on Metaphysics and The Monadology - an examination guided by the question of what is it to act with freedom and grace in an infinite universe ruled by the laws of nature.

Code: 
PL2036
Name: 
METAPHYSICS, SCIENCE & RATIONALISM
Discipline: 
PL (Philosophy)
Type: 
Regular
Level: 
Undergraduate
Credits: 
4
Can be taken twice for credit?: 
No
Pre-requisites: 
None
Co-requisites: 
None

Learning Outcomes

  1. Define concepts and explain theses or positions developed by philosophers in response to fundamental questions of metaphysics. Critically reconstruct and diagram the key steps in an argument, or in the construction of a major concept, by means of the textual analysis of a work in the tradition of metaphysics
  2. Draft, write and rewrite a clearly organized and well-argued philosophical essay that poses a question and develops an answer to that question through the critical interpretation of a work in the tradition of metaphysics
  3. Stand up in class and without looking at one’s notes, speak clearly and succinctly when explaining the stakes of a problem or question in metaphysics
  4. Be able to place the philosophers taught in the course correctly and pertinently on a timeline, and in relation to four major historical, political or scientific events, during the epoch of European modernity

Offering(s)

Term Code Name
Fall 2023 PL2036 METAPHYSICS, SCIENCE & RATIONALISM

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