PHI301: Modern Philosophy
Key details
| Accredited towards | Bachelor of Arts in the Liberal Arts |
| Unit type | Elective unit |
| Credit points | 6 |
| Indicative contact hours | 3 hours per week |
| Prerequisites | None |
| Offered in | Semester 1 |
| Tuition fee | Learn more |
Overview
This unit will focus on various threads in the development of philosophy since the 17th century, near the beginning of what we call the Modern Era. By tracing these particular lines of development, we’ll come to see what makes the philosophy of the Modern Era distinctive. One element of this distinctiveness, for example, is a certain sort of emphasis on the human subject or self, and on what is truly knowable by it, as opposed to what might transcend it. Starting with the rationalist Descartes, the father of Modern philosophy, we’ll follow the development of a foundationalist world-picture, predicated on the ‘idea’-idea, through the empiricisms of Locke, Berkeley and Hume. The course will end with a discussion of the transcendental idealism of Kant and its philosophical legacy.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this unit of study, students will be able to:
- Understand the distinctive nature of the philosophical world-view that characterises the Modern Era prior to the 20th century
- Examine the debates between proponents of various sorts of rationalism and empiricism (e.g. Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume)
- Analyse the attempt by Kant to sublate these debates within his transcendental idealism, and the manner in which this informs his ethical and anthropological doctrines
- Apply knowledge of standard philosophical concepts and theories, in the course of engaging in research on, critical reading of, reflection on, and analysis of presented texts
- Produce clear, logical and precisely argued answers in written and oral forms to questions arising from the works examined
- Exhibit in written work clarity of expression, logical essay structure and appropriate use of referencing and bibliography
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