In the comments below, please write your vote for which philosopher we should read to end the semester, along with a sentence or two explaining why. Make sure your name is included so I know that everyone voted!
My vote is for Pierre Bayle. Religious tolerance was a huge political and philosophical area of discourse in the early Modern period, and continues to be important today. Bayle’s work on the moral value of intention is also linked to the issue of free will, and can offer a more nuanced insight on that debate.
Miguel Silva-Soria
My vote goes for Pascal.
As much as having ideas that pave way for the decapitation of royalty, doing things in solitary is right up my alley so that gets my vote
Plus, Pascal helped me bypass taking precalc and straight into AP calculus in high school. I didn’t make the rules but he helped me bend the rules fr fr 🫱🏻🫲🏽
Hannah Witkin
I vote for Diderot. Aesthetics is an important area of philosophy that we did not cover much in this course, and Diderot’s contributions to this field are fascinating. Also, I’ve enjoyed exploring the variety of genres that can be used to present philosophy, and Diderot is a great example of exploring different literary forms to express his philosophical ideas.
Rye Kanarr
I vote for Francis Bacon. This semester we talked a little about science, so I think it would be interesting to take a deeper look at someone so involved with the foundation of knowledge and science. There are a lot of great philosophers that can be compared or in opposition to Bacon’s views, so having him presented in the next semester would hopefully encourage more discourse in the classroom.
– Rye Kanarr
Kareen Gill
I vote for Jeremy Bentham. We did not discuss much political philosophy so I feel like he would be a great addition to the course. I also thought the biography and comparison between Mill and Bentham was really interesting. I also think studying utilitarianism is really interesting and could make for really cool discussions.
– Kareen Gill
Grace Yao
I vote for Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Learning about his influential political philosophy would help us develop more informed views, living in an increasingly political society. In addition, his theories pair nicely with some of the philosophers already on the syllabus, such as Voltaire and Leibniz.
Ella Hyams
I vote for Johann Georg Hamann. Philosophy of language is something we have not covered in this class and I think it would be incredibly interesting to talk about it due to language’s incessant evolution. I also think Hamann would fit nicely in our syllabus considering his friendship with Kant and how his counter-enlightenment philosophy compares to the works of Locke and Voltaire.
-Ella Hyams
Alyssa Graegin
I am voting for Johannes Kepler to win the Philosophical adventure project. The website itself for this philosopher was put together really well, with a lot of thought clearly put into everything. On another note, I think that the philosophy of science is such a fun field and that adding Kepler to the syllabus would give students in the class a little more background on the philosophy of science through the early modern era. Additionally, I found it really interesting to read about a philosopher that wove together religion and science – as these things are not typically talked about in tandem.
-Alyssa Graegin
Sam Trisciani
My vote is for Pascal – so many philosophers on the syllabus thus far provide reasons for God’s existence as core pieces of their philosophical inquiries, but Pascal’s focus on the subject is informed in a more personal way from the life he led. I think that including him in the syllabus would help flesh out the syllabus’ and time period’s intense focus on God as a philosophical subject in a unique way from what other philosophers had to say about the topic.
Joshua Kim
I vote for Dierdot. I was always interested by aesthetics and I think that Dierdot’s contributions to the philosophy of art are critical and it opens doors to fascinating questions. How Dierdot integrates his philosophy of art with other aspects of his philosophy like his dialectics adds even more to his contributions and would probably add a lot to the class as we did not discuss aesthetics.
– Joshua Kim
Colby Kramer
My vote is for Francis Bacon. I found the website to be well written and articulate in explaining Bacon’s philosophy as well as how he contrasted with other natural philosophers already in the syllabus. I agree that Bacon is really only known for his contributions to the scientific method, but much more could be discovered about him if the class delved into some of his philosophy as well as it relates to much of the philosophers already taught in this course which makes his philosophy and philosophical contributions quite significant.
Anna Durazo
My vote goes to Pierre Gassendi, due to his innovations in his atomist matter theory which I find very interesting. He influenced empiricism, atomism and cosmology. He also had empiricist perspectives and defended and explored new physics at the time. He also had objections to Descartes’s meditations, and refutations of contemporary Aristotelians and mystical thinkers.
He had great influence in Boyle, Locke, Newton, and many other revolutionary thinkers. I think this would be a great addition to the syllabus for this class. – Anna Durazo
Trevor Dominguez
My vote goes to Mary Astell–
I was really moved by some of the quotes she said, in particular “If men are born free, why are women born slaves”. She seemed to have a profound impact on early feminist movement. I found it very interesting how she could have such profound views on feminism, but also at the same time stay true to the Christian principles. Especially, because those Christian principles were one of the very forces keeping women in submission during her time period. But most of all, I really loved her views on love and passion, I feel like it is a topic not spoken enough in philosophy and should be.
Josh Schultz
My vote is for Francis Bacon. I felt as if I did a decent job writing it, but while writing and researching I came to love Bacon and his philosophy and find it to be criminally underrated. It also fits well within the course material and subject matter and is relevant outside of this class.
Jinxi He
I vote for Bacon！
“Knowledge is power,” the ideas of Francis Bacon, an agitator of scientific experiments and a prophet of the future age of science, were far more significant than the elaborate methodology of scientific practice.
Fuyi Kuang
My vote goes to Blaise Pascal. Pascal has written about lots of questions that are contemporary in philosophy. I am interested in the topics of pessimism and free will, having read some chapters of Pascal’s Pensées.
Zhao Liu
I voted for Machiavelli. While Machiavelli was known for his analysis of power and republics, he was also an early nationalist urging Italian princes to unify the Italian peninsula and defend Italy against the invasion of the Habsburgs and the Kingdom of France. He was also one of the early theorist of secular power and a prominent political philosopher, and political philosophy deeply interest me.
Jordan Chapman
My vote is Baron D’Holbach because this class should continue to keep a solid line of chaotic philosophers. His story is extremely interesting and his philosophy had impact and consequences. I also think the author articulated his story quite well and was very organized. -Jordan Chapman
Robert Chen
My vote is for Poulain.
First off, the custom website looked very clean, was easy to navigate, and was well organized.
From a character standpoint, someone who opened themselves up to criticism in defense of a group they were not apart of (women) is something that stands out to me.
Henry Wetzel
My vote is for Johann Georg Hamman
I was particularly interested in the exploration on Hamman’s ideas on language. It’s refreshing to see a philosopher assert the limitations and shortcomings of dialectical language, and recognize the importance, universality and ease with which metaphor and poetic language can be used to understand the world around us. This is, roughly, the mission most poets saddle themselves with. Most artists are keenly aware of the shortcomings we have in analytic language, and understand how powerful an all encompassing a suggestive use of language can be.
— Henry Wetzel
Kaitlyn Brewer
I vote for Rousseau because we did not talk a great deal about political philosophy in the course and I think Rousseau’s views can connect nicely to other philosophers we talked about, especially those towards the end of class. In addition, he is often compared and contrasted with Locke and I think it would be useful to study Rousseau alongside of him in class to see the important differences between the two. The webpage for Rousseau was easy to comprehend and interesting as well.
Rachel Knebel
My vote is for Francis Bacon.
He reimagined natural philosophy by moving away from fitting new evidence into their existing axioms to finding the actual reasoning behind natural phenomenon. He went against other philosophers’ methods and viewpoints and came up with his own.
Sarah Mammen
My vote is for Wang Yangming. I like the idea of practical ethics that are highly concerned with their actual implementation rather than remaining abstract and divorced from reality. Also, his belief in a singularity of thought and action is interesting because it is not an intuitive concept to me, but I think the relationship between knowing better and doing better is important and I would like to learn more about it.
Eric Monsebroten
I vote for Hamann.
I think that his Philosophy of language is really fascinating and something that could make for some great discussion in class. His stance that logic and analysis’s precedence falls behind more emotional ways of understanding is a nice contrast to some of the other philosophers in the class, and his role in the transition from a rationalism to romanticism is also something that I think is worth examining.
Karl Hirsch
My vote is for Thomas Hobbes. Before reading his webpage, I viewed his philosophy as standalone. In the context of American history, it seemed to me that his philosophy existed in a vacuum and was dropped in place of Locke’s model of the social contract. I did not know that he had influenced both social and political philosophers from all ends of the spectrum. To me, his influence makes him a worthy philosopher to consider. Plus, I am very interested in philosophy of history and political philosophy.
Paul Bloom
My vote is for Adam Smith. I think Will did an excellent job motivating why we study Adam Smith both as a philosopher and economist and why we can view most of his works (including the sometimes boring ‘Wealth of Nations’ as a philosophical treatise in addition to his economic contributions.
Will Hagerstrom
My vote is for Francis Bacon. His objection to “anticipating nature” is quite appealing to me. I am interested to learn more about his more general axioms that allow for some deduction to be made. I also appreciate that he does not claim that his method can determine fact. He intended to improve the way we understand knowledge, but was aware of the limits.
Heath Bostick
My vote is for Francis Bacon. I just love that he went against other Philosophers and stuck to what he believed. I think his advancements and ideas that are used in Science today are highly significant.
Mark Shneyderman
I have to give my vote to Pascal. Pascal would serve as an excellent source to consider against the ideology of the rationalists. His idea that there is a higher form of knowledge that governs reason would also be excellent as an elaboration of Al Ghizali’s idea that we have covered very early in the class.
My vote is for Pierre Bayle. Religious tolerance was a huge political and philosophical area of discourse in the early Modern period, and continues to be important today. Bayle’s work on the moral value of intention is also linked to the issue of free will, and can offer a more nuanced insight on that debate.
My vote goes for Pascal.
As much as having ideas that pave way for the decapitation of royalty, doing things in solitary is right up my alley so that gets my vote
Plus, Pascal helped me bypass taking precalc and straight into AP calculus in high school. I didn’t make the rules but he helped me bend the rules fr fr 🫱🏻🫲🏽
I vote for Diderot. Aesthetics is an important area of philosophy that we did not cover much in this course, and Diderot’s contributions to this field are fascinating. Also, I’ve enjoyed exploring the variety of genres that can be used to present philosophy, and Diderot is a great example of exploring different literary forms to express his philosophical ideas.
I vote for Francis Bacon. This semester we talked a little about science, so I think it would be interesting to take a deeper look at someone so involved with the foundation of knowledge and science. There are a lot of great philosophers that can be compared or in opposition to Bacon’s views, so having him presented in the next semester would hopefully encourage more discourse in the classroom.
– Rye Kanarr
I vote for Jeremy Bentham. We did not discuss much political philosophy so I feel like he would be a great addition to the course. I also thought the biography and comparison between Mill and Bentham was really interesting. I also think studying utilitarianism is really interesting and could make for really cool discussions.
– Kareen Gill
I vote for Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Learning about his influential political philosophy would help us develop more informed views, living in an increasingly political society. In addition, his theories pair nicely with some of the philosophers already on the syllabus, such as Voltaire and Leibniz.
I vote for Johann Georg Hamann. Philosophy of language is something we have not covered in this class and I think it would be incredibly interesting to talk about it due to language’s incessant evolution. I also think Hamann would fit nicely in our syllabus considering his friendship with Kant and how his counter-enlightenment philosophy compares to the works of Locke and Voltaire.
-Ella Hyams
I am voting for Johannes Kepler to win the Philosophical adventure project. The website itself for this philosopher was put together really well, with a lot of thought clearly put into everything. On another note, I think that the philosophy of science is such a fun field and that adding Kepler to the syllabus would give students in the class a little more background on the philosophy of science through the early modern era. Additionally, I found it really interesting to read about a philosopher that wove together religion and science – as these things are not typically talked about in tandem.
-Alyssa Graegin
My vote is for Pascal – so many philosophers on the syllabus thus far provide reasons for God’s existence as core pieces of their philosophical inquiries, but Pascal’s focus on the subject is informed in a more personal way from the life he led. I think that including him in the syllabus would help flesh out the syllabus’ and time period’s intense focus on God as a philosophical subject in a unique way from what other philosophers had to say about the topic.
I vote for Dierdot. I was always interested by aesthetics and I think that Dierdot’s contributions to the philosophy of art are critical and it opens doors to fascinating questions. How Dierdot integrates his philosophy of art with other aspects of his philosophy like his dialectics adds even more to his contributions and would probably add a lot to the class as we did not discuss aesthetics.
– Joshua Kim
My vote is for Francis Bacon. I found the website to be well written and articulate in explaining Bacon’s philosophy as well as how he contrasted with other natural philosophers already in the syllabus. I agree that Bacon is really only known for his contributions to the scientific method, but much more could be discovered about him if the class delved into some of his philosophy as well as it relates to much of the philosophers already taught in this course which makes his philosophy and philosophical contributions quite significant.
My vote goes to Pierre Gassendi, due to his innovations in his atomist matter theory which I find very interesting. He influenced empiricism, atomism and cosmology. He also had empiricist perspectives and defended and explored new physics at the time. He also had objections to Descartes’s meditations, and refutations of contemporary Aristotelians and mystical thinkers.
He had great influence in Boyle, Locke, Newton, and many other revolutionary thinkers. I think this would be a great addition to the syllabus for this class. – Anna Durazo
My vote goes to Mary Astell–
I was really moved by some of the quotes she said, in particular “If men are born free, why are women born slaves”. She seemed to have a profound impact on early feminist movement. I found it very interesting how she could have such profound views on feminism, but also at the same time stay true to the Christian principles. Especially, because those Christian principles were one of the very forces keeping women in submission during her time period. But most of all, I really loved her views on love and passion, I feel like it is a topic not spoken enough in philosophy and should be.
My vote is for Francis Bacon. I felt as if I did a decent job writing it, but while writing and researching I came to love Bacon and his philosophy and find it to be criminally underrated. It also fits well within the course material and subject matter and is relevant outside of this class.
I vote for Bacon！
“Knowledge is power,” the ideas of Francis Bacon, an agitator of scientific experiments and a prophet of the future age of science, were far more significant than the elaborate methodology of scientific practice.
My vote goes to Blaise Pascal. Pascal has written about lots of questions that are contemporary in philosophy. I am interested in the topics of pessimism and free will, having read some chapters of Pascal’s Pensées.
I voted for Machiavelli. While Machiavelli was known for his analysis of power and republics, he was also an early nationalist urging Italian princes to unify the Italian peninsula and defend Italy against the invasion of the Habsburgs and the Kingdom of France. He was also one of the early theorist of secular power and a prominent political philosopher, and political philosophy deeply interest me.
My vote is Baron D’Holbach because this class should continue to keep a solid line of chaotic philosophers. His story is extremely interesting and his philosophy had impact and consequences. I also think the author articulated his story quite well and was very organized. -Jordan Chapman
My vote is for Poulain.
First off, the custom website looked very clean, was easy to navigate, and was well organized.
From a character standpoint, someone who opened themselves up to criticism in defense of a group they were not apart of (women) is something that stands out to me.
My vote is for Johann Georg Hamman
I was particularly interested in the exploration on Hamman’s ideas on language. It’s refreshing to see a philosopher assert the limitations and shortcomings of dialectical language, and recognize the importance, universality and ease with which metaphor and poetic language can be used to understand the world around us. This is, roughly, the mission most poets saddle themselves with. Most artists are keenly aware of the shortcomings we have in analytic language, and understand how powerful an all encompassing a suggestive use of language can be.
— Henry Wetzel
I vote for Rousseau because we did not talk a great deal about political philosophy in the course and I think Rousseau’s views can connect nicely to other philosophers we talked about, especially those towards the end of class. In addition, he is often compared and contrasted with Locke and I think it would be useful to study Rousseau alongside of him in class to see the important differences between the two. The webpage for Rousseau was easy to comprehend and interesting as well.
My vote is for Francis Bacon.
He reimagined natural philosophy by moving away from fitting new evidence into their existing axioms to finding the actual reasoning behind natural phenomenon. He went against other philosophers’ methods and viewpoints and came up with his own.
My vote is for Wang Yangming. I like the idea of practical ethics that are highly concerned with their actual implementation rather than remaining abstract and divorced from reality. Also, his belief in a singularity of thought and action is interesting because it is not an intuitive concept to me, but I think the relationship between knowing better and doing better is important and I would like to learn more about it.
I vote for Hamann.
I think that his Philosophy of language is really fascinating and something that could make for some great discussion in class. His stance that logic and analysis’s precedence falls behind more emotional ways of understanding is a nice contrast to some of the other philosophers in the class, and his role in the transition from a rationalism to romanticism is also something that I think is worth examining.
My vote is for Thomas Hobbes. Before reading his webpage, I viewed his philosophy as standalone. In the context of American history, it seemed to me that his philosophy existed in a vacuum and was dropped in place of Locke’s model of the social contract. I did not know that he had influenced both social and political philosophers from all ends of the spectrum. To me, his influence makes him a worthy philosopher to consider. Plus, I am very interested in philosophy of history and political philosophy.
My vote is for Adam Smith. I think Will did an excellent job motivating why we study Adam Smith both as a philosopher and economist and why we can view most of his works (including the sometimes boring ‘Wealth of Nations’ as a philosophical treatise in addition to his economic contributions.
My vote is for Francis Bacon. His objection to “anticipating nature” is quite appealing to me. I am interested to learn more about his more general axioms that allow for some deduction to be made. I also appreciate that he does not claim that his method can determine fact. He intended to improve the way we understand knowledge, but was aware of the limits.
My vote is for Francis Bacon. I just love that he went against other Philosophers and stuck to what he believed. I think his advancements and ideas that are used in Science today are highly significant.
I have to give my vote to Pascal. Pascal would serve as an excellent source to consider against the ideology of the rationalists. His idea that there is a higher form of knowledge that governs reason would also be excellent as an elaboration of Al Ghizali’s idea that we have covered very early in the class.