Professor Patrick J.J Phillips E-mail: PJJP@Yorku.ca

(I will be holding virtual Q & A throughout the term).

T.A. Jef Delvaux jozefdelvaux@gmail.com  Office hours TBA

That is: this course was not originally designed to be enacted online, but rather was designed to be a face-to-face lecture class which has now been located online. Accordingly, this course is a work in progress. I therefore beg your indulgence and appreciate your patience.   Please know that both the course director and the TA are here to support you.

The Empiricists

Anchor Books

A Division of Random House

New York

ISBN 978-0-385-09622-5

Locke, Berkeley and Hume manifested an approach to philosophy that emphasized sense experience and the development of all knowledge from it. This course explores this tradition and its impact on our current world view. Course credit exclusions: GL/PHIL 2620 6.00

A particular Emphasis will be placed on the theme of Epistemology specifically our knowledge of the world as individuals  ‘What Can We Know?’ ‘What Can We Know For Certain? ‘Are there Limits to Our Knowledge?’ These questions will be aligned with classic problems of philosophy e.g. ‘Is there a God?’ and “Are Philosophical Questions Answerable?”

In the Summer SU term 2021 emphasis will be placed on contextualizing the work of George Berkeley in his book Three Dialogues  through an examination of the work of John Locke and also taking into account the skeptical problems raised for Berkeley in the work of David Hume. The works of Locke and Hume will be sampled. Berkeley’s Three Dialogues will be read in its entirety

The development of critical skills and competence in logic, argument and rhetoric to be gained are foundational in character and the analytical techniques employed will be exportable to other courses.   Students will apply a range of theories and methods to modern problems in contemporary and classical texts in order to gain an understanding of the texts, to appreciate the context within which they are set, and to engage with the texts in critical ways. 

Information and updates will be posted on Moodle or sent via Moodle directly to your York email account (be sure to check your York e-mail account regularly). 

 The good news: you may complete the work required for this course in accordance with your own personal schedule. You will not be asked to “attend” virtual classes or be available at a specific time twice a week. However please make note: Deadlines for course work hand in (see above) are fixed and non – negotiable. 

  Before embarking on this course think carefully about your own schedule and self-discipline. This course requires a significant amount of reading and working alone.   It will be up to you to set a schedule and deadlines for the completion of readings and written components. Also, try to find a friend or family member who, face to face or online, will discuss with you some of the themes of the course. Lastly, I will be recording my lectures (which will be of a short duration) via Zoom software. You will require accesses to a computer with this technology loaded.  

Zoom Office hours will be provided. Video conferencing via Zoom will be held as required.