Early Modern Philosophy

In this course, we will study various conceptions of personal identity, self-consciousness, and the self in the early modern period. We will look at questions and debates that cut across a range of sub-fields in the history of philosophy, including metaphysics, ethics, and philosophy of mind. The course combines close primary text readings from early modern philosophical classics with excerpts and discussions from contemporary writings in philosophy, literature and art history to provide a comprehensive view of theories in the early modern period, highlighting the many possible ways students can approach a set of questions.