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PHIL 202, Modern philosophy, Fall 2026

9/18

Next week is Leibniz week.

I think you can read these two. They are not terribly long. They are, as I mentioned in class yesterday, dense, though.

I would like to talk about the preface to the Novissima Sinica, but it will depend on where we land at the end of class Tuesday.

9/11

Here’s what’s on the docket for next week.

More or less as a continuation of the questions animating Descartes and Scudery, the readings in this coming week have to do with questions about the nature of the self and of subjectivity (and of the mind as part of that broader set of questions). I think it is helpful to think of all of these texts as symptoms of a more general loss of authority and meaning. In this newly ‘modern’, fracturing world, the subject is losing a sense of what is genuinely meaningful and true, and attempting—in the various ways in which our authors this and last week are attempting—to put itself back together, and without the traditional guardrails of conventional religion.

Also, take note of your first commentary due date. It’s due 9/18, a week from today. Now might be a good time to decide which of the unit 1 readings you want to talk about in it. You could take as your more general perspective any version of the idea that modernity coincides with a sort of crisis of meaning and authority. My recommendation would be that you work out a draft of your essay and bring it by my office hours, in person or over Zoom, for discussion.

9/4

This coming week in modern philosophy is Descartes week.

  • Tuesday I want to read the first meditation and the first half of the second. Find notes here
  • Thursday I want to read the rest of the second meditation and the sixth meditation. The text is here; I’ll post notes later this weekend (and will update on Discord; see contacting me for details, in case you aren’t on the Discord).

8/28

Here’s what you can do to prepare for Monday:

  1. Make sure you don’t have any questions about the procedure of the course. Check out the syllabus. Make sure you know what the assignments are and when and how they’re due, and what my policies are for them. Make sure you know where to find readings, where to receive and read updates.
  2. Read some Las Casas. There are three readings up. What I want you to pay special attention are:
  3. Read the excerpts from Aristotle and Hobbes.

Here’s what you can do to prepare for Wednesday:

  1. Read the excerprt from Sepulveda, together with the context described in the notes.
  2. Read this brief excerpt from Aquinas.
  3. Read the excerpt from Vitoria.

I have marked the Vitoria reading as ‘optional’, but we will be discussing it in its entirety like any other reading. There is a trick to reading this that will make the four pages I’ve assigned look more like three paragraphs; we’ll talk about that in class.

The basic plan for next week will be to foreground the basic dispute about the American Indians in the more general arc from ancient to modern political philosophy, but then (on Wednesday) to introduce some nuance into how to understand issues of enslavement as they were articulated in the medieval and modern period, in Europe.

8/24

Welcome to the fall semester! A couple things you might take note of before class tomorrow:

  • Figure out how to reach me. I’m available over email, Zoom, Discord, and during office hours.
  • Figure out how to stay on top of what’s happening in the course.
    • Coming to class is the no-fail way of not missing out on anything.
    • I’ll update this page about once a week with a general overview of what’s going on.
    • Join the course Discord; I’ll post updates there more regularly.
    • All readings and notes are in the course outline.
  • Tomorrow we’ll do some light skimming of the syllabus and then we’ll get right into the material. Perhaps take a moment to read through the syllabus yourself and come with questions.
  • After discussing some assignments and policy stuff, we’re going to get right into discussion of Montaigne’s On the Cannibals.

Cool? Cool. I’ll see you all tomorrow.