Topics in 16th- & 17th-Century Literature
Topic: "Objections and Replies: Early Modern Philosophy and/as Literature."
Class Information
Instructor: Connally, Kenneth
CRN: 57370
Time: TR 4:40-6:00pm
Location: TLC 1214
Description
Objections and Replies: Early Modern Philosophy and/as Literature
Modern philosophy was born in the early modern period, and much of the most daring philosophical work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was presented in self-consciously literary genres, including dialogues, essays, didactic poetry, and fictional narratives. The distinction between "philosophy" and "literature" in this period is thus difficult, if not impossible, to draw. In this course, we will investigate this blurred boundary, asking what happens when we approach early modern philosophical texts as literature or read early modern literature like philosophers.
The course is divided into halves organized thematically around "questions of knowledge" (epistemology) and "questions of action" (ethics and political theory). In the first half of the course, we will consider texts engaged with issues related to skepticism and the philosophy of science, including Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, Margaret Cavendish's atomic poems, and selections from Plato, Montaigne, Francis Bacon, and Lucretius. In the second half, we will explore ethical questions surrounding friendship and justice as we read Thomas More's Utopia, Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, and selections from Aristotle, the Nahuatl Discourses of the Elders, and Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Eminent Philosophers.
Grading
Quizzes: 10%
Midterm: 10%
Final Exam: 15%
Short Essays: 15%
Term Paper: 30%
Discussion Section: 20%
Texts
Meditations, Objections, and Replies, Rene Descartes
Utopia, Thomas More
Timon of Athens, William Shakespeare