Is there anything substantial to the “self”? If so, how is that evidenced? Can experience of myself be trusted as what is finally and demonstrably real, or is that just another obstacle to knowing things as they are?

This unit explores the modern project, beginning with Descartes, and continuing with Hume and Kant, to place the knowing self at the center of existence. Their investigations chart an intriguing philosophical quest for the substantiality of the self.  Descartes’  triumphant argument for the “thinking “I”‘,  as what undoubtedly “is”, is met with Hume’s dismissive questioning of that certainty, spawning  Kant’s ingenious reconciling of the two pictures. Kant begins a “Copernican revolution” on how thinking is connected to reality.  In the process, reason oversees a refashioned self, as experiencing Subject. The 17th and 18th centuries are crowned as the Age of Reason, its philosophical moves coming to rest at a confirmation that the self is and that it is structured to know.

The unit runs on Thursday evenings in Semester 2.

Course code AP2170P/3170P/9170P
Instructor J Martis
Mode of Delivery
Internal – Face to face
and External – Online
Synchronous
Semester 2 Thursday 6.00pm – 9.00pm

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