Course Overview
How is it possible for us to have knowledge of the world and of others with whom we seem to inhabit it? From Descartes’ doubt of everything with the lone exception of his own self, Hume’s questioning of even that, radical doubts about our knowledge of the world animate the modern era of philosophy in the 17 and 18 centuries. In this class, we will consider these skeptical questions, as they arise in the work of Descartes and Hume, as well as in Shakespeare’s Othello. We will also briefly look at issues of Cartesian in the information age, with fake news and deep fakes, we’ll compare Hume’s denial of self to the Buddhist theory of no-self, and we’ll conclude with a brief consideration of Kant’s famous responses to Humean and Cartesian skepticism. pdf of syllabus.

Class 1: Introduction

Class 2: The Meditations

• Reading: Descartes, “Dedicatory Letter,” “Synopsis,” and “First Meditation”
• Class 2 Handout

Class 3: The Meditations, continued

• Reading: Descartes, "Second Meditation"
• Class 3 Handout

Class 4: The Meditations, continued

• Reading: Descartes, “Third Meditation”
• Class 4 Handout

Class 5: The Meditations, continued

• Reading:
  • Descartes, “Sixth Meditation”
• Class 5 Handout

Class 6: Group Presentations on Objections and Replies 

• Readings: 
  • ​Descartes, “Objections and Replies,” Meditations 1, 2, 3, and 6. Only required to read the set of objections/replies you signed up for—the others are optional.

Class 7: Cartesian Skepticism in the Information Age: Fake News and Deep Fakes

• Readings:
  • Hounshell et al. – A Journey Into the Misinformation Fever Swamps
  • Rini – Deepfakes Are Coming: We Can No Longer Believe What We See.
  • Cote – Fake News and Deepfakes Pose a Growing Threat to Democracy, Experts Warn
• Optional Supplementary Reading:
  • Rini – "Deepfakes and the Epistemic Backdrop"
• ​Class 7 Handout

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Class 8: Othello

• Reading: Shakespeare, Othello, acts 1 and 2.  Alternately, Watch the Play (and follow along)
• Class 8 Handout

Class 9: Othello, Continued

• Reading: Shakespeare, Othello, acts 3, 4, and 5
• Class 9 Handout

Class 10: Othello, Skepticism, and Gender

• Reading: Scheman, “Othello’s Doubt/Desdemona’s Death: the Engendering of Skepticism”
• Class 10 Handout

Class 11: The Enquiry

• Reading: Hume, Enquiry §I-III
• Class 11 Handout

Class 12: The Enquiry, continued

• Reading: Hume, Enquiry §IV
• Class 12 Handout

Class 13: The Enquiry, continued

• Reading: Hume, Enquiry §V, §XII Part 1
• Class 13 Handout

Class 14: The Enquiry, continued

• Reading: Hume, Enquiry §VII
• Class 14 Handout

Class 15: Hume and Buddhist Philosophy

• Readings:
  • Hume, excerpt from Treatise on Human Understanding “Personal Identity”
  • Garfield, “Candrakīrti and Hume on the Self and the Person."
• Class 15 Handout

Class 16: Kant

• Readings:
  • Kant Prolegomena, Preface pp. 5-14
  • Kant, excerpt from the preface to the Second Edition of the Critique of Pure Reason, pp. 143-146
• Class 16 Handout

Class 17: Kant, continued

• Reading: Kant, Prolegomena “How is Pure Natural Science Possible?” §14-30 pp. 46-65 (can skip §24-26).
• Class 17 Handout

Class 18: Wrap Up

• Reading:
  • ​Taylor and Dreyfus, Retrieving Realism, Chapter One