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Instructor: Rob Smithson. This course meets MWF 1:00 – 1:50 p.m. in CW 105.

This course will introduce students to main philosophical questions and themes of the early modern period (from Descartes to Hume). Is there an external world? If so, what is the nature of material objects? How do material bodies interact? How do the material world and the mind interact? What is the nature of the mind and human thinking? Do humans have souls? Does God exist? In this course, we will read selections from René Descartes, Elizabeth of Bohemia, Gottfried Leibniz, George Berkeley, and David Hume.