The Mind of God and the Works of Man, by Edward Craig, OUP 1996.
General | What to buy | Preparation | Electronic Resources | Topic 1 | Topic 2 | Topic 3 | Topic 4 |
This is a huge paper. For one thing, six of The Philosophers' First XI belong to the period. But never mind the sheer number of Great Dead Colleagues to be studied; the variety of philosophical themes available encompasses near as dammit the whole of philosophy. To make the paper manageable, I have done two things. First, cut down the number of authors to four: DesCartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume. Second, structure everything around a particular vision of the period. That vision is wonderfully well articulated by Edward Craig in a star book:
Read it. You may find it's themes more accessible if you first read transcriptions of three radio talks by Edward on the same theme. You will find these reproduced as:
This excellent book serves as an introduction to Philosophy in its own right. It is wonderfully informative as a tourist guide to the territory, and offers many delightful excursions into bways and backwaters of philosophical trivia. You can preview it here. Use it all the time. Woe befall anyone who uses a term of art in an essay and has not bothered to find out what it means.
But you might care to invest in one or more of the items presented below under Preparation. And, looking forward, you may well be studying John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism in Trinity term. Whereupon it will do you no harm to have on your shelves:
Read as much as you can of the classic texts. And think about them. Some of you will only have a week to acquire some background in modern philosophy before you embark upon a topic-by-topic study. Such people should of course devote as much time as possible to further background reading over the Christmas Vacation. Studying Philosophy is an ongoing dialectical process: Read, Think, Talk Write, get feedback, Read, Think, Talk Write....
And the more background reading you have done, the more coherent and fruitful the process. One target is Breadth: in Philosophy light dawns slowly over the whole picture, and thus the more parts of the big picture you have visited the better. Another target is Depth: better to read a few books (perhaps more than once through) with understanding than to skim many. There are no rules concerning the right combination of Breadth and Depth. Each individual must work out what best suits them. Select from the list, which is is no particular order:
You can preview it, and even buy it online here. So I shall say no more. Simon can do his own promotion.
Martin was the Philosopher who first made the subject compelling for me. He was an enormously enthusiastic and energetic overgrown schoolboy, who liked his philosophy to be quickfire, sharply logical, and full of helful metaphors. I found him excellent at painting the big picture. Humane, intellectual and generous, he was a typical Aquarian. I was much saddened when he died on February 27, 1998. I very much like his little book. Truly an Invitation rather than an Introduction. You can read his obituary, and browse through his bibliography here. Many of the articles therein listed are within the grasp of the beginner, so if you like his bright and breezy style, why not check out some more examples?
Nice man, Tom Nagel. Nice Philosopher, too. And he has written some of the best, and most accessible pieces on the contemporary scene. Here is his faculty page at NYU, where you can find a full bibliography, and here is a version of his famous article 'What is it like to be a bat?' Which you will no doubt enjoy. His little introduction to Philosophy is subtitled 'A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy'. Which may recommend it to you.
Not a nice man, this time. Got involved in a mad plot to build an offshore island, as in Waterworld, as a tax-haven for himself and other rich people. Associate and fan of Ayn Rand. And you can guess how it goes on. But those things do not matter, for many past students have told me that this textbook-style introduction helped them no end. So I know in advance that some of you will find it useful. But please, if you can, steal or borrow it, and don't buy it. Otherwise he gets another $5 to use against the interests of the poor and downtrodden.
The resources available to you are vast, absolutely vast. I shall point you first at two gateways. If you are new to internetting for philosophy, then your first port of call should be Internet Philosopher, which is maintained by the Humbul Humanities Project here in Oxford. It gives you an excellent tutorial on how to get the best out of the web as a philosophy student. And then you might want to explore the Humbul Humanities Hub itself.
And now some substantial, and very useful sites
Past Masters offers you a huge range of classical texts online.
If you are searching for works by Descartes, don't go to the Oeuvres Complètes, which are in French; but instead click on to the Continental Rationalists, and squirrel on from there. Unless, of course, your French is up to it.
The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy has a mirror site at Leeds University. Does what it says on the tin.
Philosophy in Cyberspace, hosted by Monash University has much information and many useful links.
Mind gives you the contents of that very journal online. And if you seek other journals online, try
Jstor or
We shall spend a fortnight on this topic. The first week will be devoted to the classic textual nexus, Descartes' Dream Argument, wherein the man himself presents a powerful argument for scepticism, and offers his defence against it. The second week will be spent looking at modern Brain-in-a-Vat versions of the sceptical argument, and modern defences against it.
If you have not yet seen The Matrix, watch it. The JCR have agreed to screen it on......
Forthcoming.........
One day I will lay out my own thoughts on the matter. If only because Oxford tutorial essays are a rather specialized philosophical art. But for now I link you to some excellent pages maintained by a nice man at Princeton. Have a good look around his site. His advice is designed for people writing American term papers, which are assessed, and where you have a good deal of time to think about your material and polish your final draft. So you will have to regretfully ignore the excellent advice on taking your time.
Here you will find avuncular advice on various philosophical matters arising in the course. So far there are no pages at all, but if people e-mail sensible requests, I will post some.
