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2021/2022

Modern Philosophy

Code: 100310 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500246 Philosophy OB 2 1
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Alejandro Mumbru Mora
Email:
Alejandro.Mumbru@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

External teachers

Àlex Mumbrú Mora

Prerequisites

None.

Objectives and Contextualisation

We understand by "modern philosophy" the set of philosophies produced in the Western world after the processes of the Reformation and the Counter-reform, and that they do not renounce the new mode of law that science has discovered in nature. The wars of religion give way to a period of relative peace, with the constitution of the nation state and national religions. On the other hand, the Galilean revolution makes it possible to think of a form of eternal law not tied to biblical revelation, but to the matematization of nature. The great naturalistic rhetoric of the Renaissance remains. The work of Descartes inaugurates a new era in philosophy. Indeed, where the Renaissance centered all thought on the centrality of the human figure, the last end of the divine creation, Descartes introduces a subject deduced in a purely rational way of his own thought, devoid of all subjectivity. The philosophy, in addition, is put to speak the national languages. That is why we describe, as English and French, some relatively national philosophical traditions. Always, however, distinguishing two great authors of rationalist philosophy that can not be restricted to their nation of origin. With them, the great effort to recover a metaphysics that is not slave to the theological revelation culminates and that it respects the new form of non-Aristotelian causality introduced by science. Thus, the extraordinary uniqueness of the substance in Spinoza and the infinite multiplicity of the substances of Leibniz prepare what will be the great critical work of reason in the following century.

Competences

  • Act within one's own area of knowledge, evaluating sex/gender-based inequalities.
  • Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Placing the most representative philosophical ideas and arguments of a period in their historical background and relating the most important authors of each period of any philosophical discipline.
  • Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Thinking in a critical and independent manner on the basis of the specific topics, debates and problems of philosophy, both historically and conceptually.
  • Using the symbology and procedures of the formal sciences in the analysis and building of arguments.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately using the specific lexicon of the history of philosophy.
  2. Analyse the sex-/gender-based inequalities and gender bias in one's own area of knowledge.
  3. Arguing about several issues and philosophical problems for the purpose of different works and the assessment of the results.
  4. Assess how stereotypes and gender roles impact professional practice.
  5. Carrying out a planning for the development of a subject-related work.
  6. Demonstrating a personal stance over a problem or controversy of philosophical nature, or a work of philosophical research.
  7. Discriminating the features that define the writer's place in the context of a problem and reorganising them in a consistent diagram.
  8. Distinguishing and outlining the fundamental content of a philosophical text.
  9. Effectively communicating and applying the argumentative and textual processes to formal and scientific texts.
  10. Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
  11. Explaining the specific notions of the History of Philosophy.
  12. Expressing both orally and in written form, the issues and basic problems of the philosophical tradition.
  13. Indicating and discussing the main characteristics of the distinctive thought of a period and contextualizing them.
  14. Indicating the main issues of the history of philosophy.
  15. Reading basic philosophical text thoroughly.
  16. Reading thoroughly philosophical texts of the History of Philosophy.
  17. Relating the various orders of the philosophical ideas of different authors and historical moments.
  18. Rigorously building philosophical arguments.
  19. Solving problems autonomously.
  20. Submitting works in accordance with both individual and small group demands and personal styles.
  21. Summarising the topics and arguments exposed in a classical philosophical debate.
  22. Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.

Content

I. General remarks on <<Modernity>> 

II. Descartes

III. The XVIIth century and the reception of cartesian philosophy: <<rationalism>> and <<empirism>>

IV. <<Rationalism>>: Spinoza and Leibniz

V. <<Empirism>>: Locke, Berkeley and Hume

 

Methodology

The classes are organized around the teacher's explanations, with space for questions and debates with the participation of students.

Students work from the expositions and the recommended bibliography.

In personalized attention, students can make questions, ask for clarifications or extensions of the bibliography.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Classroom sessions 50 2 12, 15
Type: Supervised      
Supervised Individual Assignments 30 1.2 3, 10, 5, 12, 9, 22, 14, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 1
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous individual work 50 2 7, 8, 10, 5, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 1

Assessment

The evaluation of the subject will consist of the delivery of one philosophical paper (45%) and the final exam (55%). The requirements of the paper will be indicated at the beginning of the course.

Students who have not submitted their paper will be non-assessable and must take the resitting exam directly.

Any work that is not submitted on the set date will not be accepted. Any indication of plagiarism will be penalized with a 0 in the activity presented.

In order to take the resitting exam, you must have taken a minimum of 3.5 out of 10 points.

 

In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Final exam 55% of the final mark 10 0.4 3, 18, 10, 11, 12, 9, 22, 15, 16, 1
One assignment to be delivered within the detailed deadline 45% of the final mark 10 0.4 2, 3, 18, 6, 7, 8, 10, 5, 11, 12, 9, 22, 14, 13, 15, 16, 20, 17, 19, 21, 1, 4

Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources:

BERKELEY, G., Tratado sobre los principios del conocimiento humano, trad. C. Mellizo, Alianza editorial, Madrid, 1992. 

--- : Tres diálogos entre Hilas y Filonús, trad. G. L. Sastre, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1996.

DESCARTES, R., Regles per a la direcció de l’enginy, trad. Salvi Turró, Barcelona, Edicions 62, 1998.

--- : Discurs del mètode, trad. Pere Lluís Font, Barcelona, Edicions 62, 1996.

---: Meditacions metafísiques, trad. Miquel Costa, Barcelona, Edicions 62, 2008.

--- : Libertad y generosidad. Textos morales, trad. i ed. Salvi Turró, ed. Proteus, 2010. 

HUME, D., Investigación sobre el entendimiento humano, ed. bilingüe, trad. V. Sanfélix y C. Ors, Madrid, ed. Istmo, 2004.

KANT, I., Crítica de la razón pura, trad. P. Ribas, ed. Alfaguara, Madrid, 1978.

---: Crítica de la razón práctica, trad. M. García Morente, ed. Sígueme, Salamanca, 1995. 

---: Crítica de la facultad de juzgar, trad. R. R. Aramayo, Madrid, A. Machado Libros, 2003. 

LEIBNIZ, G. W., Meditaciones sobre el conocimiento, la verdad y las ideas, trad. Miguel Candel Sanmartín (versión hipertexto en http://www.ub.es/telemac)

LEIBNIZ, G. W., Discurs de metafísica; Monadologia, trad. Josep Olesti, Barcelona, Marbot ed., 2018. 

LEIBNIZ, G.W., Nous assaigs sobre l'enteniment humà, trad. Josep Olesti, Barcelona, ed. 62, 1997.  

LOCKE, J, Ensayo sobre elentendimiento humano, trad. Edmundo O’Gorman, FCE, México, 1999.

SPINOZA, B., Tratado de la reforma del entendimiento, trad. Atilano Domínguez, Madrid, Alianza, 1988. 

--- : Ètica demostrada segons l’ordre geomètric, trad. J. Olesti, Marbot ed., Barcelona, 2013.

 

Secondary sources:

AA.VV., Estudis cartesians, Societat Catalana de Filosofia, Barcelonesa d’Edicions, Barcelona, 1996.

CASSIRER, E., La filosofía de la Ilustración, México, FCE, 1972.

--- : El problema del conocimiento en la filosofía y en la ciencia modernas, México, FCE, 1979 (vol. I y II).

--- : Kant. Vida y doctrina, México, FCE, 1993.

DELEUZE, G., Empirismo y subjetividad, ed. Gedisa, 1981. 

DUQUE, F., Historia de la Filosofía moderna: la era de la crítica, ed. Akal, 1998. 

FOUCAULT, “¿Qué es la Ilustración?” (diverses traduccions disponibles en línia) 

--- : Las palabras y las cosas. Una arqueología de las ciencias humanas, ed. Siglo XXI, 1968.  

HAZARD, P., La crisis de la conciencia europea, Madrid, Alianza, 1983.

--- : El pensamiento europeo en el siglo XVIII, Madrid, Alianza, 1985.

HEIDEGGER, M., “La era de la técnica” i “La época de la imagen del mundo” (Die Zeit des Weltbildes) en Caminos del bosque (Holzwege), trad. Helena Cortés y Arturo Leyte, Madrid, Alianza, 1995.

MARTÍNEZ MARZOA, F., Historia de la filosofía, Madrid, ed. Istmo, 1973y 1994, (vol. II).

--- : Cálculo y ser (Aproximación a Leibniz), Madrid, Visor, 1991.

--- : Releer a Kant, Barcelona, ed. Anthropos, 1992.

MORRIS, C.R., Locke, Berkeley y Hume, Oxford University Press, 1987.

TURRÓ, S., Descartes. Del hermetismo a la nueva ciencia, Barcelona, ed. Anthropos, 1987.

--- : Filosofia i Modernitat. La reconstrucció de l’ordre del món, Barcelona, Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, 2016.

 

On-line materials:

http://www.philosophica.info/

-http://plato.stanford.edu 

-http://frank.mtsu.edu/~rbombard/RB/spinoza.new.html (Studia Spinoziana)

-www.leibniz.es

-http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/Berkeley/

-http://www.davidhume.org

 

Software

None