Phl 417 The Empiricists

Study of the British philosophers, Locke, Berkeley and Hume, who hold that all of the ingredients of thought enter the mind by way of experience and that only what has a definite relation to experience can be thought. Among the particular topics considered will be material substance, spirit, abstract ideas, causation, induction, and skepticism. Also offered for graduate-level credit as Phl 517 and may be taken only once for credit. Recommended prerequisite: 8 credits in philosophy.