Browse Hierarchy PHIL5002: Early Modern Philosophy: Descartes and Hume

This module is designed to introduce students to representative texts from the early modern period. The module is divided roughly into two parts. The first part is devoted to Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy and examines his attempts to provide a firm basis for knowledge. The second part is devoted to Hume's Treatise on Human Nature and his Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, examining his attempts to construct a theory of the workings of the human mind and explore the implications of that theory. The module also looks at related texts by Berkeley, Locke, Leibniz and Spinoza.