EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY MA 2010-11 Time and Place: Wednesday: 6 8; Room: Lecture Room, Philosophy Building, KCL Course Convenor: Sarah Patterson (BBK) Lecturer Term 1: Reid (KCL) Lecturer Term 2: Patterson (BBK) Term 1: Theories of Extension in Early Modern Philosophy 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. 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). 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, which can be downloaded from http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home with an ATHENS password. 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. (Apologies 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 particular recommendations for secondary works on Hobbes 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 (Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1972). Alexandre Koyré, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe (1957). If you only read one work of secondary literature in association with this course, you could do much worse than to make it this one. 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. 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). Plato, Timaeus, 48e 52b. Newton, De gravitatione. Again! This time, it s the final portion that we want. 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. 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. 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. 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). Explores 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. 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). 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). Term 2: Reason and Imagination This term we will look at the contrasting roles assigned to reason, senseperception and imagination in the work of Descartes, Malebranche and Hume. The Aristotelian philosophy that Descartes sought to supplant regarded sense-perception as the fundamental source of knowledge: the imagination
stores likenesses received by the senses, and the intellect grasps universal natures by abstracting from these images. Descartes sees this prejudice in favour of the senses as a relic of the errors of childhood. He maintains that the intellect is innately supplied with the ideas of extension and thought that enable it to understand God s creation. Sense-perception is relegated to a pragmatic role in the preservation of the human body. Malebranche s Cartesian philosophy contains an extensive discussion of the errors due to sense-perception and imagination, which he connects with the fallen state of human nature. Hume deliberately opposes such rationalist views, declaring that belief is more properly an act of the sensitive than of the cogitative part of our natures. The imaginative and sensitive nature which for Malebranche is a source of dangerous error is for Hume the source of the beliefs that regulate our lives. Why do these philosophers take such different views of the roles of sense-perception, imagination and reason? How are their positions related to the new mechanical physics of the early modern period? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this part of the course. Schedule of Topics and Core Readings Week 1: Week 2: Week 3: Week 4: The Aristotelian Background Descartes I Meditations on First Philosophy, First and Second Meditations Principles of Philosophy I.66-75 Descartes II Meditations on First Philosophy, Third and Fourth Meditations Principles of Philosophy IV.189-198 Descartes III Meditations on First Philosophy, Fifth and Sixth Meditations Week 5: Malebranche I The Search after Truth, Preface, Book I, Chs. 1-5, 10-20; Elucidation 6 Week 6: Malebranche II The Search after Truth, Book III, Part I Ch. 1, Part II; Book VI, Part I, Chs. 1-2, Part II, Chs. 1-3; Elucidation 15 Hume I A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Parts I and II Hume II A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Part III, Sections i-x and xiv- Hume III A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Part IV Conclusion Week 7: Week 8: xvi Week 9: Week 10:
Background reading: Gary Hatfield, The Cognitive Faculties in M. Ayers and D. Garber (eds.), The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, vol. 2 (CUP, 1998) Michael Moriarty, Early Modern French Thought: The Age of Suspicion (OUP, 2003), Chapters 3 and 5 Further reading on Descartes: Daniel Garber, Semel in vita: The Scientific Background to Descartes Meditations in A. O. Rorty (ed.), Essays on Descartes Meditations (University of California, 1986) and in Garber, Descartes Embodied (Cambridge University Press, 2001) Gary Hatfield, The Senses and the Fleshless Eye: The Meditations as Cognitive Exercises in A. O. Rorty (ed.), Essays on Descartes Meditations (University of California, 1986) John Carriero, The First Meditation Pac. Phil. Q. 68 (1987): 222-248, reprinted in V. Chappell (ed.), Descartes s Meditations: Critical Essays (Rowman & Littlefield, 1997) Gary Hatfield, Routledge Philosophy Guide Book to Descartes and the Meditations (Routledge, 2003) Martha Bolton, Confused and Obscure Ideas of Sense in A. O. Rorty (ed.), Essays on Descartes Meditations (University of California, 1986) Alison Simmons, Are Cartesian Sensations Representational? Nous (1999) 33: 347-69 Margaret Wilson, Descartes on the Perception of Primary Qualities and The Representationality of Sensation in her Ideas and Mechanism: Essays on Early Modern Philosophy (Princeton, 1999) Sarah Patterson, How Cartesian was Descartes? in History of the Mind-Body Problem, eds. T. Crane and S. Patterson (Routledge, 2000) Lex Newman, The Fourth Meditation Phil. Phen. Res. 59 (1999): 559-91 John Cottingham, Descartes, Sixth Meditation: The External World, Human Nature and Nature in V. Chappell (ed.), Descartes s Meditations: Critical Essays (Rowman & Littlefield, 1997) Further reading on Malebranche: Steven Nadler (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Malebranche (Cambridge University Press, 2000) Steven Nadler, Malebranche and Ideas (Oxford University Press, 1992) Andrew Pyle, Malebranche (Routledge, 2003) Further reading on Hume: Don Garrett, Cognition and Commitment in Hume s Philosophy (OUP, 1997), especially Ch. 1 David Fate Norton (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hume (CUP, 1993) Elizabeth Radcliffe (ed.), A Companion to Hume (Blackwell, 2008)