| Assignments | First paper topics, second paper topics, third (research) paper topics, fourth paper topics. |
|---|---|
| Class notes | My perspective on each session. |
| Contact | How to get in touch with me. |
| Grades | Qualitative and quantitative explanations of what grades mean. |
| Photo | What we looked like in 2007 and 2011. |
| Sakai | Use Sakai for announcements, due dates, the roster, and e-reserve readings. |
| Syllabus | The plan for each session in glorious PDF. |
| Writing | My advice about philosophy papers. Worth every penny it costs to click. |
What is your philosophy, that is, what you believe about the place of humanity in the universe? Most of us don’t think we have such a thing. Perhaps this is because philosophies are often unstated and assumed. They are what underlie our beliefs rather than being the sorts of things we deliberately think about. The philosophy that dominated intellectual life in the early modern period, roughly from 1600 to 1900, was that human beings were made in the image of God. Being made in the image of God meant having the ability to understand the universe as God does even though this ability was lost or obscured in Adam’s fall from Eden. In this seminar, we will trace the rise and decline of this idea. How did it shape expectations for the natural sciences as well as for philosophical reasoning? How was it reflected in the arts and literary works? Finally, how was the idea that we are made in the image of god ultimately displaced by David Hume and Charles Darwin? By understanding the philosophy of the early modern period, we will try to gain insight into the philosophy of our own time.
