Modern Philosophy: Descartes & Hume

Over the next few weeks we'll be dealing with the problem of skepticism, both in the work of Descartes and Hume. You can find here assigned readings from Hume's Treatise on Human Nature.

For next week's class pertaining to Descartes Meditations, chapters III-VI, be sure to consider how he arrives at his certain, foundational truths (which he counts as knowledge) and by chapter VI, how it is that he finally establishes the truth of sense-certainty.



Additionally, if you really want to get a full sense of the book, check out these films I've posted trailers to here and, even better, watch them in the entirety! You'll feel the force of the arguments much more clearly if you do so.

The Individual and the Kallipolis

After our discussion today, consider the following issues:

1. Does the conception of education that Socrates presents in Book II make sense to you for the purpose of the auxiliary/guardian class? Does it make sense to extend this approach to education to the other classes in the Kallipolis as well (i.e. the ruler(s) and the craftspeople)?

2. Is this an anti-democratic state in which the individual is treated badly (whether we say their rights are violated or security is paramount and requires the curtailment of individual freedoms)? If you say yes, can it be both and anti-democratic city as well as a just city? If you say no, how does the individual flourish in this context?

3. Does Socrates' conception of the individual cohere with your own sense of what it means to be you, what it means to have an "I" perspective and how you see that "I" relating to the larger community of "I's" you are a part of?

4. Must we be ruled over?

5. Why not the city of pigs, Socrates' healthy city (371e-372e), as the basis for a theory of justice?

6. Can a city, in terms of its being a whole entity, be happy?