DVPR35200:

Modern Philosophy of Religion: The Enlightenment




Winter term, 2009
Swift Hall 208
Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:00-11:20
Instructor: Dan Arnold
Office phone: 702-8276
E-mail: d-arnold@uchicago.edu

Office hours: Swift 401A, Mondays, 1:00-3:00 (or by arrangement);
for appointments during regular office hours, contact instructor's secretary,
Susie McGee, in the Martin Marty Center (702-7049)






Objectives of the Course
This course is designed to introduce certain philosophical developments of the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries as decisive for the characteristically modern understanding of "religion" (and hence, of philosophy of religion) -- and of much else that defines modernity, as well. The course is, moreover, designed to introduce these developments in such a way as to orient students with respect to one of the bibliographies for doctoral qualifying exams in the Divinity School's program in Philosophy of Religion: "Philosophy of Religions 1: The Modern Background" -- which is the one qualifying exam required of all doctoral students in the area. Accordingly, much of the assigned reading is also to be found on that exam bibliography, and it is to be hoped that this course will therefore constitute useful background preparation for those intending to do a qualifying exam in this area.

Required readings:

The following titles are available at the Seminary Coop Bookstore, and on reserve at Regenstein Library:

John Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding
G. W. Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding
David Hume, Principal Writings on Religion, including Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and The Natural History of Religion (ed. J. C. A. Gaskin)
Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Immanuel Kant, Religion and Rational Theology (trans. Allen W. Wood and George Di Giovanni)
Thomas Reid, Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays (ed. Ronald Beanblossom and Keith Lehrer)
G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (one-volume edition, ed. Peter C. Hodgson)
Winnifred Sullivan, The Impossibility of Religious Freedom

A few additional short readings are available for download from electronic reserve by accessing Chalk.

Course requirements:

In addition to regular attendance and spirited participation in discussion, two written exercises are assigned. The first will be a 5-10-page paper, due at the beginning of the sixth week; the second will be a 10-15-page paper, due no later than March 20. (For helpful guidance on the kind of exercise I will have in mind, consider philosopher James Pryor's "Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper"; a paper such as Pryor describes can be written under all manner of circumstances.)

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Schedule of Class Topics, Readings

WEEK 1 (Mon., 1/5; Wed., 1/7):

Course introduction: On the "Enlightenment," "religion," and "philosophy of religion." Reading: Immanuel Kant, "What is Enlightenment?" (1784); Jonathan Z. Smith, "Religion, Religions, Religious"; Merold Westphal, "The Emergence of Modern Philosophy of Religion" (the latter two readings available through Chalk).

WEEK 2 (Mon., 1/12; Wed., 1/14):

Where it all begins: Religious conflict, and the empiricism of Locke. Reading: John Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1689), Book IV (in the edition of Peter H. Nidditch, pp.525-721).

WEEK 3: (Mon., 1/19: NO CLASS [Martin Luther King Day]; Wed., 1/21):

A rationalist reply to Locke: Leibniz's commentary on Locke's Essay. Reading: G. W. Leibniz, New Essays on Human Understanding (1704), Book IV (in the edition of Peter Remnant and Jonathan Bennett, pp.355-527).

WEEK 4: (Mon., 1/26; Wed., 1/28):

The skeptical challenge of David Hume. Reading: 1), Hume, The Natural History of Religion (1757; in our edition of Hume, pp.134-193); 2), Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (published posthumously in 1779; in our edition, pp.29-130).

WEEK 5: (Mon., 2/2; Wed., 2/4):

Kant's attempt to split the difference between empiricism, rationalism. Reading: Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783; in this Cambridge edition, pp.3-122).

WEEK 6 (Mon., 2/9; Wed., 2/11):

Kant, continued: on "religion." Reading: Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1793; in Religion and Rational Theology, pp.57-215).

WEEK 7 (Mon., 2/16; Wed., 2/18):

Thomas Reid and the philosophy of common sense: An alternative refusal of Hume's skepticism. Reading: Selections from Inquiry (1764), Essays (1785, 1788): In Ronald Beanblossom and Keith Lehrer, ed., Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays, pp. 3-11, 19-22, 37-41, 46-61, 83-125 (all from the Inquiry); pp.129-59, 175-186, 198-206, 251-295 (all from Essays on the Intellectual Powers); and pp.314-323, 360-368 (from Essays on the Active Powers).

WEEK 8: (Mon., 2/23; Wed., 2/25):

Hegel: Historicist and critic of Kant. Reading: Selections from Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (the Lectures of 1827, one-volume edition): read pp.75-209, 391-416, 470-489; in addition, consider as much of Hegel's treatment of any particular "determinate" religion(s) as you can stand.

WEEK 9: (Mon., 3/2; Wed., 3/4):

Case studies in the legacy of the Enlightenment. Reading: Brian Leiter, "Why Tolerate Religion?"; Winnifred Sullivan, The Impossibility of Religious Freedom.

WEEK 10: (Mon., 3/9; Wed., 3/11):

Assessment: Towards the possibility of alternative visions of rationality. Reading: John Clayton, "Thomas Jefferson and the study of religion"; idem., "The otherness of Anselm".


FINAL PAPERS DUE BY FRIDAY, MARCH 20!