Loyola University Chicago

Department of Philosophy

PHIL 309: Classical Modern Philosophy

PHIL 309: Classical Modern Philosophy

The Generic Catalog Description

Study of selected modern philosophers with an evaluation of their principles. Typical authors include Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Kant.


PHIL 309: Classical Modern Philosophy

Kristen Irwin

Studying the classical modern philosophers doesn't tell the entire story of Western philosophical thought in the 17th & 18th centuries. While we will cover the canonical thinkers in this course primarily via secondary sources, we will spend our time in primary texts on noncanonical philosophers, which may include figures such as Elisabeth of Bohemia, Damaris Masham, Mary Astell, Anne Conway, Nicolas Malebranche, Pierre Bayle, Margaret Cavendish, Catherine Trotter Cockburn, and Mary Shepherd.

This course fulfills a Writing Intensive (WI) requirement.