A
1. Ought we be monists? Discuss, drawing on the views of one or more of: Cavendish,
Hume, Leibniz, Spinoza.
2. What, if anything, does pre-established harmony explain?
3. Discuss Hume’s uses of ‘liveliness’, ‘force’, ‘vivacity’ and ‘steadiness’ in characterizing:
EITHER: (A) impressions and ideas
OR: (B) memories and fantasies.
4. What, according to Cavendish, is the role of the imagination in philosophy?
5. In what sense, if any, was Spinoza a materialist?
6. What are you? Discuss, drawing on the views of one or more of: Cavendish, Hume,
Leibniz, Spinoza.
B
7. Was Descartes a libertarian?
8. ‘To understand is to be free.’ (SPINOZA) Is it?
9. EITHER: (A) ‘In absolutely indifferent things there is no choice, and consequently no
election or will, since choice must be founded in some reason or principle…’
(LEIBNIZ) Discuss.
OR: (B) ‘Liberty, and necessity are consistent: as in the water, that hath not only liberty,
but a necessity of descending by the channel; so likewise in the actions which men
voluntarily do: which, because they proceed from their will, proceed from liberty; and yet,
because every act of man’s will, and every desire, and inclination proceedeth from some
cause, and that from another cause, in a continual chain, (whose first link is in the hand
of God the first of all causes,) they proceed from necessity.’ (HOBBES) Discuss.
10. ‘The mind has no sex.’ (POULLAIN DE LA BARRE) Explain and discuss.
11. Is marriage an institution worth keeping? Discuss, drawing on the views of thinkers in the
early-modern philosophical debate.
12. Why are there no women in the history of philosophy?