7AAN2004 Early Modern Philosophy First Semester, 2014 15 Credits: 20 Module tutor: Jasper Reid, jasper.reid@kcl.ac.uk Formative assessment: 1 x 2,000 3,000-word essay. The firm deadline will be the last day of term, but there s no point leaving it till then: just write it whenever you re ready to write something, and send it in when it s done. Summative assessment: 1 x 4,000-word essay, deadline 12:00 (noon) on Tuesday, 20 January 2015. (For suggested essay titles, see the final couple of pages of the present document) General Summary Is all extension corporeal, or might there be such a thing as empty and/or absolute extended space? Might spirits such as God or the human soul themselves be extended? Is there really any such thing as extension at all, or does it only have an ideal existence in the mind? We will look at these and related issues, as they were handled by a range of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century authors, including Descartes, Gassendi, More, Newton, Malebranche, Spinoza, Bayle, Berkeley, Hume, Leibniz and Kant. Our focus will generally be a metaphysical one, but we will also touch on matters of physics, theology and epistemology. Lecture One: Background Aristotelian physics. Medieval developments thereof. No set text. Aristotle, Physics (especially books 4 and 5); Metaphysics (especially books 7 9); On the Soul; On the Heavens. Richard Sorabji, Matter, Space and Motion (London: Duckworth, 1988). A good study of ancient contributions in this area. Edward Grant, Much Ado About Nothing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). This book is mostly concerned with medieval debates that are only of marginal relevance to us, but it does (in chapter 8) also directly discuss the early modern developments that we will be examining and it s really good. Edward Grant, Place and Space in Medieval Physical Thought, in Peter K. Machamer and Robert G Turnbull, eds., Motion and Time, Space and Matter (Ohio State University Press, 1976). A more compact discussion of some of the same stuff, though here focusing on the medieval contributions alone. Pierre Duhem, Medieval Cosmology: Theories of Infinity, Place, Time, Void, and the Plurality of Worlds (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985). This was written a century ago, but it is still useful occasionally though, again, medieval rather than early modern.
Lecture Two: Atomism Classical and modern atomism: Democritus, Epicurus and Gassendi on atoms and void. Empirical evidence for the real existence of a void. Mechanical physics; atoms and corpuscles; primary and secondary qualities. Set texts for discussion: René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, second meditation (together with the first if you ve never read it before). John Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding, book 2, chapter 8. Fragments of Leucippus and Democritus in one of the various anthologies of Presocratic philosophy, such as Robin Waterfield, The First Philosophers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). Epicurus, Letter to Herodotus. The chief extant discussion of Epicurean atomism from the man himself. Lucretius, On the Nature of Things/On the Nature of the Universe (i.e. De rerum natura), especially books 1 and 2. A much more fully developed presentation of Epicurean atomism, written a couple of centuries later. Andrew Pyle, Atomism and its Critics: from Democritus to Newton (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1997). A really authoritative survey of the history of atomism. Robert H. Kargon, Atomism in England from Harriot to Newton (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966). Slightly more limited in its scope than the Pyle book, but still good. Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air-Pump (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985). This uses the exchange between Hobbes and the Royal Society to provide a route into various early modern debates, both scientific and philosophical, about the void and such like. Pretty much any introduction you can find to Descartes and Locke will include some discussion of their theories of bodies and primary & secondary qualities. Lecture Three: Descartes Res extensa and res cogitans. In(de)finite divisibility. Impenetrability and the impossibility of the void. Place and motion. Some criticisms. Set text: Descartes, Principles of Philosophy, part two, at least up to 36. Contained in volume 1 of Descartes Philosophical Writings, trs. Cottingham, Stoothoff & Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). The complete text of the Principles is also available in an alternative translation by Miller & Miller (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1983; reprinted Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1991). Daniel Garber, Descartes Metaphysical Physics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992). There are countless works available on Descartes philosophy,
but this is probably the best of those that focus specifically on his physics and (even more specifically) on the metaphysical foundation thereof. Another one that s also extremely good is Dennis Des Chene, Physiologia: Natural Philosophy in Late Aristotelian and Cartesian Thought (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996). This looks at Descartes physics in relation to late Scholastic theories, an approach that is often quite illuminating. Isaac Newton, De gravitatione, in his Philosophical Writings, ed. Andrew Janiak (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). First published in The Unpublished Scientific Writings of Isaac Newton, eds. Hall & Hall (1962), but Janiak s collection also includes pretty much every other text of Newton you could ever want, so that s the edition I d recommend. Only the opening portion of this text, containing Newton s critique of Descartes, is going to be directly relevant here. But the other parts will be relevant to other lectures later on (namely, lectures five and six), so you should certainly endeavour to read the whole thing at some point. Leibniz, De ipse natura ( On Nature Itself ), available in various collections of Leibniz s papers. Lecture Four: The Spatial Presence of Spirits The Medieval background. Cartesian views. Hobbes s materialism. Henry More and spiritual extension. Set text: Henry More, The easie, true and genuine Notion, and consistent Explication of the Nature of a Spirit. This text is an English translation of chapters 27 28 of More s Latin work, Enchiridion metaphysicum (1671). It was included as an appendix to the 1681 edition of Joseph Glanvill s (English) work, Saducismus Triumphatus, of which you can get a PDF via the KCL library catalogue. It was also included in The Philosophical Writings of Henry More, ed. Marjorie Nicholson (1925, reprinted 1969). Enchiridion metaphysicum itself is also available in its entirety in an alternative English translation by Alexander Jacob (Hildesheim: Olms, 1995). Francis J. Kovach, part 1 of The Enduring Questions of Action at a Distance in Saint Albert the Great, in Francis J. Kovach and Robert W. Shahan, eds., Albert the Great: Commemorative Essays (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1980). Medieval, but still some useful background material. Jasper Reid, Henry More on Material and Spiritual Extension, Dialogue, 42 (2003) 531 58. Jasper Reid, The Spatial Presence of Spirits among the Cartesians, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 46 (2008) 91 118. The material of these two papers is also included in Reid, The Metaphysics of Henry More (Dordrecht: Springer, 2012), spread across chapters 3 6. (And I apologise for so immodestly citing my own stuff it s just that I happen to have a certain familiarity with its contents!).
A. Rupert Hall, Henry More: Magic, Religion and Experiment (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990). Reprinted as Henry More and the Scientific Revolution Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Only half of this is actually about More himself: but the other half discusses Descartes, Newton etc., and so a lot of it is still relevant to us. I don t have any specific recommendations for secondary works on Hobbes there are plenty out there (albeit most of them focusing more on his politics than his metaphysics). But then, I m not going to be saying very much about Hobbes anyway. Lecture Five: Infinite Space Imaginary space; Gassendi on space; Newton on space. Set texts: Isaac Newton, the Scholium to the Definitions at the start of the Principia, also excerpted in Newton s Philosophical Writings, ed. Andrew Janiak (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). Newton De gravitatione. See lecture three above: it s the middle bit that will be relevant here. Pierre Gassendi, Syntagma (1658), pt. 2, bk. 2, ch. 1, translated in The Selected Works, tr. Craig B. Brush (New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1972). Alexandre Koyré, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1957). If you only read one work of secondary literature in association with this course, you d do well to make it this one. Ivor Leclerc, The Nature of Physical Existence (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1972). Covers much of the same ground as Koyré, as well as venturing both further back and further forward through the whole history of this cluster of debates; and it s certainly useful, not only to this particular lecture but to others too: but it does have its faults, as far as Leclerc s philosophical interpretation is concerned. J.E. McGuire, Existence, Actuality and Necessity: Newton on Space and Time, Annals of Science 35 (1978) 463 508. J.E. McGuire, Body and Void and Newton s De Mundi Systemate: Some New Sources, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 3 (1966 67) 206 248. McGuire has several other excellent papers on Newton too, many of which are reprinted alongside these two in his Tradition and Innovation: Newton s Metaphysics of Nature (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1995). Andrew Janiak, Newton as Philosopher (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), especially ch. 5. A little less scholarly than McGuire s works, but perhaps more approachable for that very reason. A. Rupert Hall, Newton and the absolutes: sources, in P.M. Harman and Alan E. Shapiro, eds., The Investigation of Difficult Things: Essays on Newton and the History of the Exact Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 261 286. Lecture Six: The Divinity of Space
The Platonic receptacle. Newton on the creation of matter. Henry More on the reality of space. Divine real space. Set texts: The General Scholium at the end of Newton s Principia (also included in the same edition of his Philosophical Writings). The last few pages, at least, of Query 31 from his Optics (pp. 136 40 in the same collection). Newton, De gravitatione. Again! This time, it s the final portion that we want. Plato, Timaeus, 48e 52b. Isaac Barrow, The Usefulness of Mathematical Learning (1734; reprinted 1970), lecture 10, pp. 163 185. J.E. McGuire, Newton on place, time, and God: an unpublished source, British Journal for the History of Science 11 (1978) 114 129. A short piece by Newton himself, presented here in Latin and English with some commentary. Koyré, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe. Again. Amos Funkenstein, Theology and the Scientific Imagination (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), section II. If the Koyré book leaves you wanting more, then try this: but do start with Koyré. The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence. Available in multiple modern editions under that title (having first been published in 1717 by Samuel Clarke himself, as A Collection of Papers). Leibniz and Clarke discussed many topics, in the course of their correspondence of 1715 16, but among them was a close analysis of Newton s theory of space, in comparison with Leibniz s own. Ezio Vailati, Leibniz and Clarke: A Study of their Correspondence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), chapter 4. Alexandre Koyré and I.B. Cohen, Newton and the Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence, Archives internationals d histoire des sciences 15 (1962) 63 126. This probably isn t worth wading through properly, but it might be worth just glancing over. Koyré and Cohen, The Case of the Missing Tanquam: Leibniz, Newton & Clarke, Isis 52 (1961) 555 66. Relevant to the divine sensorium stuff in the queries to the Optics. J.E. McGuire, Space, Infinity and Indivisibility: Newton on the Creation of Matter, in Zev Bechler, Contemporary Newtonian Research (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1982), 145 90. Bennett and Remnant, How Matter Might First Be Made, in New Essays on Rationalism and Empiricism, Charles E. Jarrett, John King-Farlow and F. J. Pelletier, eds. (Canadian Journal of Philosophy, suppl. vol. 4, Ontario, 1978), 1 11. Discusses Locke in relation to Newton s theory of the creation of matter, as presented in De gravitatione. Jasper Reid, The Evolution of Henry More s Theory of Divine Absolute Space, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 45 (2007) 79 102. Lecture Seven: Malebranche and Spinoza
Nicolas Malebranche on intelligible extension and vision in God. Spinoza on extended substance. Set text: Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics and Religion, Nicholas Jolley & David Scott, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), dialogues 1 & 2 (and also dialogue 8, if you can manage it). Spinoza, Ethics, part 1, up as far as the scholium of proposition 15 do at least read that scholium itself, even if you can t get through the rest. There s also a related discussion in Spinoza s Letter 12 (to Meyer, 20 April 1663). Malebranche, The Search after Truth, Thomas M. Lennon & Paul J. Olscamp, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), book 3, part 2, chs. 1 8, and (especially) elucidation 10. Steven Nadler, Malebranche and Ideas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992). A good general overview of Malebranche s philosophy (or, at any rate, the relevant parts thereof). Jasper Reid, Malebranche on Intelligible Extension, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 11 (2003) 581 608. Jasper Reid, Henry More and Nicolas Malebranche s Critiques of Spinoza, European Journal of Philosophy ( early view published online, DOI: 10.1111/ejop.12008; print forthcoming). Correspondence between Malebranche and de Mairan, in Malebranche s First and Last Critics, trs. R.A. Watson and Marjorie Grene (Carbondale & Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1995). This correspondence of 1713 14 sheds important light on the philosophical differences between Malebranche and Spinoza. E.M. Curley, Behind the Geometrical Method (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988). Just one among many other useful works on Spinoza. Lecture Eight: The Existence of the External World Descartes s proof. Malebranche s response. Grounds for scepticism. Bayle s trilemma. Set texts: Descartes, Meditations, especially the sixth. Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary: Selections, ed. Richard H. Popkin (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991), 359 77 ( Zeno of Elea, notes G and H). Malebranche, The Search after Truth, elucidation 6. Charles McCracken, Stages on a Cartesian Road to Immaterialism, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 24 (1986) 19 40. Or alternatively Charles McCracken, Knowledge of the Existence of Body, in Daniel Garber and Michael Ayers, eds., The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 1:624 48. These
two works cover much the same ground, so one or other of them should be sufficient. Lecture Nine: Berkeley and Hume Immaterialism: the mind-dependence of extension. The rejection of the primary-secondary quality distinction. Minima sensibilia. Set text: Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge, 1 48, 110 117. David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, bk. 1, pt. 2, and 2 of pt. 4. Secondary works on both Berkeley and Hume are numerous and easy to find. Lecture Ten: Leibniz and Kant Monadology and well-founded phenomena Relativity. Space as a form of intuition. Set texts: Leibniz, Monadology. Leibniz, correspondence with De Volder and Des Bosses, e.g. as excerpted in Leibniz s Philosophical Essays, eds. Ariew and Garber (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1989). The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (see under Lecture Six above, together with Vailati s book as listed there). Kant, Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics, Preamble and First Part. Or alternatively Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, up to and including the Transcendental Aesthetic section. Secondary works on both Leibniz and Kant are also numerous and easy to find. For instance, part 3 (especially chapter 9) of Robert Adams s Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist (Oxford: OUP 1994). If you want still more ideas for things to read, try this: Feel free to ask me, Jasper Reid, for further guidance. Search PhilPapers: http://philpapers.org/ Search The Philosophers Index but, by the looks of things, you ll need to have registered with the Senate House Library first, for that s where the database list on the King s Library website sends you. Your KCL login details won t be enough. But then, you should already be using the Senate House Library anyway. There s a lot to be said for just browsing the shelves in the library, to see what happens to turn up. You might potentially find some value in the London Philosophy Study Guide: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/lpsg/contents.htm. Admittedly, the
Modern section isn t directly tied to the content of this particular module: but it s worth knowing about the Guide more generally, because it offers detailed reading lists for a wide range of areas of philosophy. It harks back to the old Federal University of London BA programme, and hasn t been updated for a few years now, but it often still proves useful. Suggested Essay Titles Try to do the formative essays as early as you reasonably can, and send them directly to me via email, jasper.reid@kcl.ac.uk, as soon as they re done. The summative versions (which can, and normally will, be based on the formative ones, merely revised and expanded in the light of the feedback you get) must be submitted through KEATS, and there the deadline is very firm indeed. You re still free to get them in early if you wish: but, whatever you do, don t be late with anything summative. If you want to adjust any of the below titles, or make up your own, then feel free: though it d be a good idea to run your ideas past me first. The lectures most relevant to each topic are indicated: but this should not be thought to imply either that you need to refer to material from all of these, or that there mightn t be further relevant material in others. Feel free to bring in more ancient ideas where you feel they are relevant: but do try to keep your main focus early-modern. But avoid overlap with other modules you re taking. Who had the better arguments, the atomists or those who favoured the infinite divisibility of matter? (Lectures 1, 2, 3) What is the mechanical approach to physics, and what are its main differences from the Aristotelian approach? (Lectures 1, 2) Is the distinction between primary and secondary qualities more or less right, or is it fundamentally misguided? (Lectures 2, 9) Is the essence of body better defined in terms of extension or in terms of solidity/impenetrability? (Lectures 2, 3, 4, 6) Critically discuss Descartes denial of the possibility of a vacuum. (Lecture 3) Critically compare the implications that the existence of a plenum and that of a vacuum would have for motion. (Lectures 1, 2, 3) Expound and assess one criticism of Descartes theories of place and/or motion. (Lecture 3) Critically assess the following argument: God could not act on spatial things unless his own substance was spatially present. But his substance could not be spatially present except by being corporeal. And yet he does act on spatial things. Therefore, he must be corporeal. (Lecture 4)
Does it make sense to claim that a spirit (or anything else) can be wholly present in different places at once? (Lecture 4) What (if anything) does Archytas argument, about an archer at the edge of the universe, show? (Lecture 5) What is Newton s whirling bucket experiment designed to show? How successful is it? (Lecture 5) Critically compare two-dimensional and three-dimensional conceptions of the notion of place. (Lectures 1, 3, 5) Let the parts of space move from their places, and they will move (so to speak) from themselves. (Newton). Discuss. (Lecture 5) In him we live, and move, and have our being. (Acts 17:28). Within the context of early modern discussions of God's omnipresence, how literally should this Biblical text be interpreted? (Lectures 4, 6) Can space be understood as merely the potentiality of body? (Lecture 6) Expound and assess Malebranche s theory of vision in God. (Lecture 7) [Spinoza] is mistaken, since he takes the idea of the world, the intelligible world, or intelligible extension, for the world, [and] ideas for the things themselves. (Malebranche). Discuss, with reference to both Spinoza and Malebranche. (Lecture 7) Could one and the same extension reveal itself to be both divisible and indivisible, according to the manner in which it is conceived? Discuss with reference to Spinoza. (Lecture 7) Do we have any good reason to believe that there is an external world? Do we have any good reason to believe that there is not? (Lectures 8, 9) Expound and assess Pierre Bayle s trilemma argument for the impossibility of extension. (Lecture 8) Critically discuss the doctrine of minima sensibilia, as presented by Berkeley and/or Hume. (Lecture 9) Is Leibniz an immaterialist? (Lecture 10) What does Leibniz understand by a well-founded phenomenon? Is this a good way of characterising extended things? (Lecture 10) Expound and assess Kant s theory of space as a form of sensibility. (Lecture 10) * Don t do this one if you re also taking the first Kant module *