2014 Spring
Note: the term “Stoic Family” is formulated by your instructor for purposes of introductory instruction. In ethical theory, this kind of philosophy would more usually go by the name “deontological.” In epistemology, this family would generally count as “rationalist.” And for metaphysics this family tends to run in the direction of “idealist.”
Epictetus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epictetus
Discourses
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/dep/
See: Book 1, Ch. 1 & TOC references to “reason.”
Aurelius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius
Meditations
http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html
See: Book 1, “In my father . . .”
Spinoza
Ethics
http://capone.mtsu.edu/rbombard/RB/Spinoza/ethica-front.html
Kant
http://www.iep.utm.edu/kantmeta/
Categorical Imperative
SECOND SECTION.: transition from popular moral philosophy to the metaphysic of morals. – Immanuel Kant, Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason and Other Works on the Theory of Ethics [1785] (Online Library of Liberty)
Rawls
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls/
Database suggestion:
Boehm, Omri. “Kant’s Regulative Spinozism.” Kant-Studien: Philosophische Zeitschrift Der Kant-Gesellschaft 103.3 (2012): 292-317. Philosopher’s Index. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.
. . .PI and P2 are but formulations of the PSR [Principle of Sufficient Reason] – a subjective and an objective formu- lation, respectively62:
P1: Find for the conditioned knowledge given through the understanding the unconditioned whereby its unity is brought to completion. (A 308/B 364)63
P2: If the conditioned is given, the whole series of conditions, subordinated to one another – a series which is therefore itself unconditioned – is likewise given, that is, is contained in the object and its connection. (A 307/B 364)64 (Boehm 313)
The diff between Kant and Spinoza. Spinoza deduces P2 (we live in that world); Kant says successful deduction of P2 would be unknowable (and yet reason requires that we act as if we live in that world).
CourseLinks 