PHIL-194 Rationalism, Empiricism, Skepticism
A play in two acts. Act One: Descartes--Locke--Hume. The power of mathematical reasoning--deduction from the phenomena--the terror of induction. Intermezzo: Mill and Whewell. Certainty in the midst of chaos? Act Two: Cassirer--Carnap--Quine. Remaining Kantian--constructing the world--caught in a web of belief. We will try to understand the basic ideas of rationalism, empiricism and skepticism during this course. But we will also try to understand how these categories have evolved since the 17th century even while the progression through them has largely repeated itself. Fall and Spring.
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Spring '06: MATTINGLY, J (description)
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