Degree | Type | Year |
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Philosophy | OB | 2 |
You can view this information at the end of this document.
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By Early Modern Philosophy we refer to the body of philosophical thought produced in the Western world following the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, which does not reject the new concept of law discovered by science in nature. The religious wars give way to a period of relative peace marked by the consolidation of nation-states and the establishment of national churches. At the same time, the Galilean revolution enables the conception of an eternal law no longer grounded in biblical revelation, but in the mathematization of nature. The grand naturalistic rhetoric of the Renaissance fades away.
Descartes’ work inaugurates a new era in philosophy. Whereas Renaissance thought centered on the human figure as the ultimate purpose of divine creation, Descartes introduces a subject derived through purely rational deduction. Philosophy, moreover, begins to be expressed in national languages. The ambitious effort to recover a metaphysics no longer subordinated to theological revelation reaches a turning point—one that is aligned with the new, non-Aristotelian conception of causality introduced by modern science.
In this context, Spinoza’s vision of a single, unique substance and Leibniz’s conception of an infinite multiplicity of substances pave the way for the critical project of reason that would define the philosophy of the following century.
1. General remarks on Early Modern Philosophy
2. Descartes
3. The XVIIth century and the reception of Cartesian philosophy: rationalism and empiricism
4. Rationalism: Spinoza and Leibniz
5. Margaret Cavendish
6. Empiricism in Historical and Philosophical Perspective
Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
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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 |
The course is structured around the professor’s lectures, which are complemented by open spaces for questions and discussion, encouraging active student participation.
Students work based on the material presented in class and the recommended bibliography, which serves as a foundation for further exploration of the topics covered.
Through personalised guidance, students may raise questions, request clarifications, or ask for suggestions to expand the bibliography or delve deeper into specific aspects of the syllabus.
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.
Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
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Assignment | 25% | 6 | 0.24 | 2, 3, 18, 6, 7, 8, 10, 5, 11, 12, 9, 22, 14, 13, 15, 16, 20, 17, 19, 21, 1, 4 |
Final exam | 45% | 8 | 0.32 | 3, 18, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 9, 22, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 1 |
Partial Exam | 30% | 6 | 0.24 | 3, 18, 8, 10, 11, 9, 22, 14, 13, 15, 16, 19, 21, 1 |
The assessment for this course will consist of the submission of a paper (25%), a midterm exam (30%), and a final exam (45%). The format of the paper and the dates of the exams will be announced at the beginning of the course.
No papers will be accepted after the established deadline. Any indication of plagiarism will result in a grade of 0 for the corresponding activity.
To be eligible for the resit exam, students must have been assessed in at least two-thirds of the evaluative components.
The assessment for this course will consist of the submission of a paper (30%) and two written exercises (45% + 25%). The format of the assignments and the exam date will be announced at the beginning of the course.
No papers will be accepted after the established deadline. Any indication of plagiarism will result in a grade of 0 for the corresponding activity.
The Department of Philosophy agreed that the first-semester students would have two periods dedicated to assessment activities and one week during which students could specifically prepare for the exams, in the format that each instructor will specify at the beginning of the course. The dates for the review week and the assessment periods are:
On carrying out each evaluation activity, lecturers will inform students (on Moodle) of the procedures to be followed for reviewing all grades awarded, and the date on which such a review will occur.
Students will obtain a Not assessed/Not submitted course grade unless they have submitted more than 1/3 of the assessment items.
If 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 discussions on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students can 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.
USE OF AI
This subject allows the use of AI technologies as an integral part of the submitted work, provided that the final result reflects a significant contribution from the student in terms of analysis and personal reflection. The student must clearly (i) identify which parts have been generated using AI technology; (ii) specify the tools used; and (iii) include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the
process and final outcome of the activity. Lack of transparency regarding the use of AI in the assessed activity will be considered academic dishonesty; the corresponding grade may be lowered, or the work may even be awarded a zero. In cases of greater infringement, more serious action may be taken.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources:
BERKELEY, George, 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.
CAVENDISH, Margaret, Philosophical Letters, or Modest Reflections Upon some Opinions in Natural Philosophy, 1664 (disponible en línia)
DESCARTES, René, 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, David, Investigación sobre el entendimiento humano, ed. bilingüe, trad. V. Sanfélix y C. Ors, Madrid, ed. Istmo, 2004.
KANT, Immanuel, Crítica de la razón pura, trad. P. Ribas, ed. Alfaguara, Madrid, 1978.
LEIBNIZ, Gottfried Wilhelm, Meditaciones sobre el conocimiento, la verdad y las ideas, trad. Miguel Candel Sanmartín (versión hipertexto en http://www.ub.es/telemac)
--- : Discurs de metafísica; Monadologia, trad. JosepOlesti, Barcelona, Marbot ed., 2018.
--- : Nous assaigs sobre l'enteniment humà, trad. Josep Olesti, Barcelona, ed. 62, 1997.
LOCKE, John, Ensayo sobre elentendimiento humano, trad. Edmundo O’Gorman, FCE, México, 1999.
SPINOZA, Baruch, 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.
AYER, Alfred J., Hume, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 1980.
BELAVAL, Yvon (dir.), Historia de la filosofía, Siglo XXI, Madrid, 1974. Vol. 6: Racionalismo, empirismo e Ilustración.
CASSIRER, Ernst, El problema del conocimiento en la filosofía y en la ciencia modernas, México, FCE, 1979 (vol. I y II).
COTTINGHAM, John (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Descartes. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992 (disponible en línia)
DELEUZE, Gilles, Empirismo y subjetividad, ed. Gedisa, 1981.
DUQUE, Félix, Historia de la Filosofía moderna: la era de la crítica, ed. Akal, 1998.
DUSSEL, Enrique, 1492. El encubrimiento del otro. Hacia el origen del “mito de la modernidad”, Plural editores, La Paz, 1994.
--- : El primer debate filosófico de la Modernidad, Clacso, 2020.
FOUCAULT, Michel, Las palabras y las cosas. Una arqueología de las ciencias humanas, ed. Siglo XXI, 1968.
GARRET, Don (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Spinoza. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,1996 (disponible en línia).
HAZARD, Paul, La crisis de la conciencia europea, Madrid, Alianza, 1983.
--- : El pensamiento europeo en el siglo XVIII, Madrid, Alianza, 1985.
HEIDEGGER, Martin, “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.
JOLLEY, Nicholas (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Leibniz. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995 (disponible en línia).
MARTÍNEZ MARZOA, Felipe, Historia de la filosofía, Madrid, ed. Istmo,1973 y 1994, (vol. II).
--- : Cálculo y ser (Aproximación a Leibniz), Madrid, Visor, 1991.
MILLS, Charles W., The Racial Contract, Cornell University Press, 1997.
MORRIS, Charles, Locke, Berkeley y Hume, Oxford University Press, 1987.
TURRÓ, Salvi, 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.
WALTERS, Lisa i SIEGFRIED, Brandie R., Margaret Cavendish: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022 (disponible en línia).
Internet Resources:
- https://loliba.cat/
- http://www.philosophica.info/
-http://frank.mtsu.edu/~rbombard/RB/spinoza.new.html (Studia Spinoziana)
-http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/Berkeley/
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Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
---|---|---|---|---|
(PAUL) Classroom practices | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |
(TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | first semester | morning-mixed |