Syllabus
1)
18.2: Introduction to the course. The Meditations in context
2)
25.2: Doubting as a method. Meditation I
3)
4.3: Some medieval antecedents
4)
11.3: Meditation II
5)
18.3: Aristotle’s On the Soul, and the assimilation principle
6)
25.3: Meditation III
7)
8.4: Against Aquinas
8)
15.4: Meditation IV
9)
22.4: Evil or false
10)
29.4: Meditation V
11)
6.5: Ideas and certitude
12)
13.5: Meditation VI: bringing back the body and the soul
Annotation
SPRING 2021
Charles University
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
BA Course
Email: anna.tropia@ff.cuni.cz
This course targets some of the false philosophical beliefs identified by Descartes in his Meditations on first philosophy (1641): like that all knowledge derives from the senses, or that the soul is a corporeal thing; but also, that a certain resemblance between the external objects and the mind is necessary in order for cognition to take place. By following the iter of the Meditator (the subject of Descartes’ work), we will focus on the strategy of the philosopher to modify previous philosophical beliefs by fighting them on their very same ground.
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