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Summary Great Minds 2 - Modern Philosophy
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Lecture and Seminar summary for Great Minds 2. Philosophers: Descartes, Hume, Kant, Hegel
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Week 1...................................................................................................................................................1
Lecture 1............................................................................................................................................1
Descartes Discourse on Method........................................................................................................2
Seminar Descartes.............................................................................................................................4
Week 2-3...............................................................................................................................................5
Lecture 2 Hume.................................................................................................................................5
Seminar Hume...................................................................................................................................6
Week 4-5...............................................................................................................................................6
Seminar Kant (Transcendental Idealism)...........................................................................................6
Summary: Critique of Pure Reason....................................................................................................6
Lecture Kant.......................................................................................................................................8
Week 6-7.............................................................................................................................................10
Hegel................................................................................................................................................10
Week 1
Lecture 1
Lecture (additional information) and seminars (text)
Lecture Introduction to modern philosophy
After the medieval church
- Wanting to find the normative sources in stead of religious sources.
o Inwardness (reformation)
o Classical antiquity (renaissance)
o Nature
- Modern era as ‘the discovery of the subject (agent)’: Reason as source of normativity,
autonomy
Changes through the time
- Renaissance: anthropocentric, human autonomy (this was something for the intellectual
elite)
o 1300-1600
o Art revolution
o The idea was a rebirth of humans, harmonies all around universal developed human
instead of a child of God. You need to take your life in your own hands and develop
yourself.
o Is different from enlightenment (this was later, around 1800, and focussing on social
changes)
- Reformation: Christocentric (Protestantism)
- Classical natural science: mechanization of the world picture
, o Aristotle explains natural sciences in normal language = common sense physics. He
rejects mathematics because things have a purpose (telos).
This was historical background modern philosophy.
Characteristics of the philosophy of the 17 th century:
- Societal relevance of science, autonomy of thought, dominance of rationalism.
Rationalism: in line with renaissance, rejected religious and searched for theoretical normativity
(what is the truth). Through thinking and human understanding, reason and rationality. In stead of
emotions. Mathematical method is the universal method of science.
- Dominance of a mechanical view of reality. Infinity in cosmology vs. earthly/heavenly
- Normativity: What does it mean to be human and why is this the case. In addition to the
question: why are you doing this? You ask the question ‘what is the purpose or the value’.
We need a natural and normative comprehension. We apply norms to certain things, but
where do these norms come from.
- Philosophers:
o Descartes
o Spinoza
o Leibniz
- Reason is not something that is inside us but to what we are complied. It is general
structure.
Descartes: autonomy of human reason. Doubt as the method to achieve certainty of cognition. The
certainty of the ‘I think’ as the foundation of cognition, but God does not deceive. Thinking and
extensive substances.
Min-body problem
Occasionalism: denies any real interaction between mind and body. Mental and physical
events do not directly influence each other. They argue that God serves as the occasional
cause, coordinating mental and physical events when they appear to interact.
Hobbes: (materialist philosopher) everything, including mental phenomena, can be reduced
to physical processes. Mental events are nothing more than the motions of particles in the
brain, and the mind is not a distinct substance.
Spinoza: (monistic perspective) He argued for the identity of substance, suggesting that mind
and body are two attributes of the same underling substance (God or Nature). Mental and
physical events are different expressions of the same reality.
Leibniz: (parallelism) The mind and body are distinct substances that run in parallel without
direct interaction. God harmoniously preestablished mental and physical events to
correspond with each other without causally influencing one another.
Descartes Discourse on Method
Descartes, Discourse on Method (many editions available, e.g., Hackett Publishing: Indianapolis
1998), Part I, Part II, Part IV, Part V paragraph 1-4
PART ONE:
- Applying reason correctly is the most important thing.
- Differences of degree is not in nature or individuals of the same species but in accident.
- Descartes was educated in the classical studies. Through books and best teachers. He did not
derive any benefit from it, other than revealing himself to be ignorant.
- It was however worthwhile to have studied these branches (Philosophy, poetry theology,
etc.) because you learn their thru value and avoid being deceived by them.
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