Course: Rationalism (Phil 1100)
Room: CL 239
Time: 11:00 - 12:15
Instructor: Rick Grush (grush+@pitt.edu)
Office: CL 1028J
Office Hours: Thursday 1:30 - 2:30
Office Phone 624-5790
Note: Email is BY FAR the easiest way to reach me.
Answers to selected questions from Midterm One.
A partial list of the questions for Midterm Two.
Texts:
The Rationalists.
Kenny, Anthony (1995). Descartes:
A study of his philosophy.
In addition to these texts, a small number of books and articles will be on reserve in the Philosophy Reading Room (CL, 14th Floor). These additional texts and articles are not required, but some students may find them helpful.
Class Organization:
In this class, we will cover the main ideas of the three most historically significant rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. The semester will be divided into thirds, roughly, and we will spend about 5 weeks on each philosopher. Because of this time constraint, we will also focus exclusively on each philosopher's most central text: Descartes Meditations, Spinoza's Ethics (mostly Books I and II), and Leibniz' Monadology.
Schedule:
The schedule is somewhat flexible, but to a first approximation it will be as follows. The material listed under readings should be read before the class session in question. We will be discussing it in class. If you do not fully understand the material when you read it, don't worry. That's what the class sessions are for. But make sure that you read it beforehand, and try to make as much sense of it as you can. If it becomes apparent that students are not doing the readings before class sessions, I will start instituting short quizzes at the beginning of class.
Session 01 (01/07): Intro to course, intro to Descartes, the Meditations, and some discussion of the structure of Meditation I.
Session 02 (01/12): MI, K1, K2 (Mediation I, Kenny Chapters 1 and 2)
Session 03 (01/14): MII, K3
Session 04 (01/19): MII, K4
Session 05 (01/21): MIII, K5
Session 06 (01/26): MIII, K6
Session 07 (01/28): MIV, K8
Session 08 (02/02): MV, K7
Session 09 (02/04): MV, K9
Session 10 (02/09): MVI, K10
Session 11 (02/11): Midterm I (Descartes' Meditations)
Session 12 (02/16): EI (Ethics, Book I)
Session 13 (02/18): EI
Session 14 (02/23): EI
Session 15 (02/25): EI
Session 16 (03/02): EII
Session 17 (03/04): EII
Session 18 (03/16): EII
Session 19 (03/18): EII
Session 20 (03/23): Second Midterm (Spinoza's Ethics)
Session 21 (03/25): M (Monadology)
Session 22 (03/30): M
Session 23 (04/01): M
Session 24 (04/06): M
Session 25 (04/08): M
Session 26 (04/13): M
Session 27 (04/15): M
Session 28 (04/20): M
Session 29 (04/22): Third Midterm (Leibniz' Monadology)
Homework:
There is no homework except for the readings.
Quizzes:
There will be a small number (5 - 10) of quizzes on the readings at the beginning of some of the class sessions (chosen randomly). The quizzes will be very short, and will not require that you have understood all the material, only that you have read it and tried to understand it. An example question would be:
In the First Meditation, Descartes considers the possibility that:
a) He is dreaming.
b) He is deceived about the existence of the world by God or an Evil Genius.
c) His parents and all the books he has read have lied to him about his origin, and the facts about the world.
d) The earth might in fact be hollow.
e) (a), (b), and (d).
f) (a) and (b).
g) (a) - (d).
Anyone who has read the First Meditation will know immediately that the answer is (f). The quizzes will have 5 questions such as this, and you will have only 3 - 5 minutes to complete the exam.
NOTE: I don't want to make and administer these quizzes any more than you want to take them, so as long as it is clear that everyone is doing the reading before class, we will be able to dispense with them.
Exams:
There will be 3 midterm exams, and no final exam. Each midterm will focus on the philosopher covered in that section of the class, though the 2nd and 3rd midterms will to some extent require a comparison of the ideas of the featured philosopher to those of his predecessor(s) that we covered previously. All exams are in-class.
The format of the exams is as follows: During lecture, I will from time to time point out that a certain phrase or issue may appear on the exam. At that time, I will make clear what the question will consist of. There will be 2 kinds of question: sort answer/definition, and essay questions. The exam that I will hand out in class for the midterm will consist of some subset of these questions. I don't have the exact numbers worked out yet, but it will be something not too far from this:
During each 5 week period, I will point out in lecture something like 15 - 20 potential short answer/definitions, and something like 4 - 6 potential essay questions. For the actual midterm, I will select about 7 short questions, and of these, students will be required to answer 5 of their own choosing from those 7. I will also select 3 essay questions, and students will be required to answer any 2 of those 3. There will not be any questions on the exam there are not explicitly flagged as such during the lectures, so there should be no surprises, provided you attend all class sessions.
An example of a short answer question would be: Descartes adopts a foundationalist epistemology. Give a brief definition of a foundationalist epistemology.
An example of an essay question would be: In Meditation II, Descartes concludes that he is a thinking substance. What does he mean by a 'thinking substance', and how does he reach this conclusion? Be sure to explain the relevance of Descartes' wax example.
Final Paper:
In addition to the three exams, a final paper of 6 - 9 pages is required. The paper will be due on the day of the scheduled final exam (though this class will not have a final exam as such), and can either be emailed to me, or turned in at the philosophy department office. No later than the end of March I will hand out in class a sheet with a number of suggested paper topics. Students are also free to write on a topic of their own choosing, provided they get the topic approved by me beforehand. The papers will specifically require grappling with material from at least two of the three philosophers we will have discussed in class.
Class Participation:
Students are required to attend class, and join in the discussion to some extent. If you have read the material carefully beforehand, then you shouldn't worry at all about asking a 'stupid' question -- the only questions that bother me are the ones that make it clear that you have not read the material. But much of this material is difficult and obscure, and so I expect may student that have read it to still have questions on even the basic aspects of it. Also, students are welcome to email questions or points of discussion (even answers to questions raised in previous classes) to me, and I will bring them up in class, anonymously if you prefer. For students who are uncomfortable joining in the discussion verbally in class, using email is my recommendation for making sure that you do well on the 'class participation' component of the class.
Grades:
Grades will be based on the 3 exams, the final paper, and class participation. Each will count for roughly 20% of the final grade.
Make-up exams:
Make-up exams are offered only with a very good excuse, such as a doctor's note. Make-up exams will also consist of a selection of short-answer and essay questions, but a different selection that those given for the normal exam. Also, since students taking a make-up exam will have had more time to prepare, in order to be fair to the students who took the regular exam the make-up will be a bit longer -- 2 additional short-answer questions per week delay.
Recommendations:
1. Be sure to read the assigned material before class. This will help to insure that our class time is quality time, and not wasted with me and some of the students reiterating the material to those who haven't read it. Again, if it becomes clear that students are not reading the material before class, I will institute quizzes at the beginning of class.
2. While you are reading the material, before class, make notes about the reading, and especially any parts that do not make sense to you.
3. During class, make sure that your questions get answered. This may require you to actually raise the question yourself. But this is fine, and what I want. Don't be shy.
4. The idea is that 3 things will happen during class. You will gain a better understanding of the material, your questions will be answered, and you will learn about some of the questions that may appear on the exam.
5. After class, re-read the material for the session, paying special attention to the questions that you had before. Hopefully the material will make much more sense to you now.
6. As you are re-reading, keep the possible midterm questions in mind, so that you can nail the answers. In fact, you might want to write out the answers for each question at this point. If you do, then before the midterm, you will have all the answers to all the questions already in your notes, and studying for the exam will be easy.