PHI 6938: Leibniz

Meetings: Thursdays, 3:00-5:50, FAO 248

Office Hours: Tuesdays, 4:00-6:00, FAO 221

Contact: Martin Schönfeld

Dept. of Philosophy FAO 226

USF, T, FL 33620

Phone: 974-5698

Fax: 974-5914

Email: mschonfe@chuma.cas.usf.edu

Books:

1. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Philosophical Texts, ed. R. S. Woolhouse and R. Francks, Oxford, UK/New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

2. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Philosophical Essays, ed. R. Ariew and D. Garber, Indianapolis/Cambridge, UK: Hackett, 1989.

3. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil, ed. A. Farrer and E. M. Huggard, La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1985.

Recommended:

Nicholas Jolley, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Grading:

A research paper, an essay, and a presentation jointly constitute the course grade. The research paper (50% of the course grade) is due on the Thursday of finals week; it should be 15-20 pages in length and on a Leibnizian subject of your choice. The essay (25% of the course grade) will be on a topic announced in advance (mid-October) and due two weeks later. The format is a “take-home essay examination” (or history comp question, if you wish); I will give you three options, you pick one question and answer it in an essay of 10-12 pages in length. The presentation (25%) of the course grade) will be held in class, on a Leibnizian topic, and should be 30 minutes in length.

Goals:

A basic familiarity with Leibniz’s philosophy—the views, issues, and the historical and intellectual context (the early Enlightenment)—for the sake of a better understanding of the history of ideas and as a training for teaching courses in Leibniz and early modern philosophy.

Topics

1. Principles of Nature and Grace (1714)

2. Discourse on Metaphysics (1686)

3. Correspondence with Arnauld (1686-90)

4. New System of the Nature of Substances (1695)

5. A Specimen of Dynamics (1695)

6. Essays in Theodicy (1710) (selections)

7. Principles of Nature and Grace (1714)

8. Monadology (1714)

9. Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (1715-1716)