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Early Modern Philosophy: Descartes and the Rationalists

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01: Philosophy at the Dawn of the Modern Age

Explore the intellectual climate in the 16th and 17th centuries, when early modern philosophy took off. What makes this philosophical movement modern? And what connects it to ancient and medieval philosophy? Professor Reid previews the thinkers covered in the course, and examines their connection to the ongoing Scientific Revolution and the concurrent Reformation that was dividing Christians.

31 min

02: René Descartes’s Quest for Certainty

A pioneer of early modern philosophy, René Descartes set the goal of building a foundation for knowledge that is absolutely certain. Trace the chain of reasoning in his Meditations on First Philosophy that led him to the self-evident truth of his own thinking existence. From this foundation, he demonstrates the existence of God. Look at other conclusions reached by Descartes in this remarkably subtle work.

36 min

03: Descartes’s Method and Motives

Why was Descartes so obsessed with certainty? Delve into The Discourse on the Method, which includes an intellectual autobiography. A key step was the time he spent alone in a stove-heated room, when he concluded that a single individual using reason can get closer to the truth than the aggregate of learning contained in all books. Follow the revolutionary deductions he reached by applying this method.

30 min

04: Elisabeth of Bohemia and Cartesian Ethics

In his Discourse, Descartes outlines a provisional moral code, but the full development of his ethical system emerges through his correspondence with Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia. A gifted philosopher, she posed challenging questions that prompted him to rigorously refine his ideas. Their colloquy explored happiness, virtue, emotions, and the passions, with a strong emphasis on practical ethics.

31 min

05: Lady Anne Conway’s Vitalist Metaphysics

Descartes’s works prompted Lady Anne Conway, a reclusive English noblewoman and philosopher, to set down her own ideas, which bridged metaphysics, ethics, and theology in sharp contrast to Descartes’s system. Drawing on her posthumously published treatise, Dr. Reid summarizes her influential critique of Cartesian dualism and her vitalist conception of all reality, which incorporates reincarnation.

33 min

06: Baruch Spinoza on God and Nature

While Descartes argued that mind and body are two distinct substances, Baruch Spinoza, proposed that there is only one substance, which he identified as God or Nature. Everything else, including mind and body, are modes or expressions of this one substance. Spinoza’s God is not a personal deity but an infinite, impersonal substance that encompasses all of reality.

31 min

07: Spinoza on Mind and Emotion

Continue your study of Spinoza’s Ethics by focusing on his philosophy of mind, notably his theory of emotions. Spinoza held that despite their fluid nature, emotions are far from random or irrational. Instead, they are part of the natural order, arising from encounters with external objects or events that affect the body, which in turn affects the mind. This was a highly innovative view at the time.

32 min

08: Spinoza on Bondage and Freedom

Spinoza’s theory of emotions leads to his account of bondage and freedom. Bondage relates to actions over which we have no control, while freedom is detachment from those emotions that hold us captive. These represent two opposing ways of living—one that results in frustration and suffering, and another that brings fulfillment and peace. The latter is the fundamental goal of his Ethics.

32 min

09: Nicolas Malebranche’s Occasionalism

After reading Descartes, priest and philosopher Nicolas Malebranche broke with the medieval Scholastic view, which was inspired by Aristotle, and developed his own doctrine of occasionalism. This integrated Cartesian metaphysics with a vision of divine intervention. Although rooted in a theistic framework, Malebranche’s ideas influenced later, more secular thinkers such as Hume and Kant.

26 min

10: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz on Truth and Being

A co-inventor of calculus with Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is best known as a philosopher who built a unified explanation of reality. He called his explanatory agents monads—indivisible, non-physical entities that account for being, perception, consciousness, and other natural phenomena, and play a key role in Leibniz’s understanding of truth. Explore this powerful and subtle system.

33 min

11: Leibniz on Morality and the Problem of Evil

In his satire Candide, Voltaire makes fun of Leibniz’s idea that God has created “the best of all possible worlds.” What led Leibniz to this conclusion, and how does he account for the obvious shortcomings of the universe, notably evil? Examine his distinction between metaphysical, physical, and moral forms of evil. And consider his views on freedom, moral choice, and the aspiration to perfection.

30 min

12: Rationalism Then and Now

In this last lecture, Professor Reid asks how the thinkers presented in the course shed light on today’s debates. Although early modern philosophers often disagree, they are committed to reason as the only hope for a more truthful way of inhabiting the world. Being philosophers, they accept that on matters of fundamental philosophical importance, reasonable people should be free to disagree.

30 min

Overview Course No. 60110

From the 17th to 18th centuries, bold thinkers cast off the authority of ancient traditions and embraced reason as the primary tool for understanding the world. These rationalists, or early modern philosophers, included René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz—visionaries whose answers to profound questions remain relevant today.

Early Modern Philosophy: Descartes and the Rationalists covers the key philosophers of this period in 12 fascinating, half-hour lectures, presented by award-winning teacher James D. Reid, Professor of Philosophy at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

The rationalists addressed momentous questions such as: What can we know for certain? Are we truly free? Is there a God or a higher power? In addition to Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, this course also covers Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, Lady Anne Conway, and Nicolas Malebranche, who each contributed unique perspectives.

It is no accident that early modern philosophy developed in tandem with the Scientific Revolution. Together, the two movements laid the foundation for a fully modern world, guided by reason, systematic inquiry, empirical evidence, and a growing secular view of the universe that emphasizes human autonomy. As a result, taking this course is like witnessing the birth of the modern mind.

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About

James D. Reid

Well into the 21st century, revisiting the rise of early modern philosophy continues to provide a unique opportunity to learn about the birth of our own ways of thinking about our place in the cosmos.

ALMA MATER

The University of Chicago

INSTITUTION

Metropolitan State University of Denver

James D. Reid is a Professor of Philosophy at the Metropolitan State University of Denver. He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Chicago and has taught ethics and the history of philosophy there and at several other schools. He received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support translation work on Martin Heidegger and an NEH award for scholarship in German Romantic philosophy and poetry. He is an author, editor, and translator and the series cofounder and editor of the Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy and Poetry.