近代西方哲学（17–18世纪）

In our ever more scientific activity today, a philosophical and logical thinking has become one of the basic tools and core competence for scientists. With analytical essay assignments (1,500 words twice, demonstrating deductive validity of an argument), this course will provide the students with knowledge of the roots of natural science or mechanical philosophy. The rise of mechanism—the picture of the material universe as a ‘grand machine’ whose motions can be explained geometrically—in the early 17th century required new approaches to a variety of philosophical problems, including free will, the nature of the human person, the existence and nature of God, sensory perception, knowledge, and causation. One philosophical school, known as ‘Cartesianism’ after its founder, René Descartes, sought to answer these questions by defending a radical distinction between mind and body. By this dualism, (relatively) traditional views about the human mind and about God could be combined with a staunchly mechanistic view of the material world. Cartesianism was the dominant philosophical school in Europe in the second half of the 17th century. We will examine the philosophy of Descartes and two of his 17th century critics, Margaret Cavendish and John Locke. On the other hand, philosophers in the 18th century continued to debate the impact of a mechanism on our view of the world and our place in it. While Cartesianism continued to be a major force, a worry that became increasingly prominent in the 18th century was that ‘the new philosophy’ might lead to radical forms of scepticism， especially that of David Hume. In this latter part, we will focus on three philosophers responding to Descartes and Locke: George Berkeley, David Hume, and Thomas Reid. We will continue to focus on views about mind and matter in (mechanical) causation.