This assignment consists of three samples of thinking about the relation between people and animals by philosophers in the Early Modern period (roughly 1600-1800). Each is a short selection from a longer work (and, in the case of Locke and Hume, that work is quite lengthy).
Philosophical writing tends to be composed of ideas and arguments and, when reading it, you should watch for each.
• Identify arguments. That is, think what conclusion is being argued for at any given point and what reasons are being offered for it. A selection may have one main argument, with the conclusions of smaller arguments providing reasons for its conclusion; but it may also argue for a number of conclusions that are more or less independent, none serving as a reason for another.
• Think through ideas. The arguments will concern ideas, so understanding the ideas that they are dealing with is part of identifying the arguments. But you should also think about ideas in their own right: formulate them in your own words, look for relations among them, and use them to think about other things.
Although the topics of the three selections are related and suggest some disagreements between Descartes on the one hand and Locke and Hume on the other, they are not simply arguing for contradictory conclusions. You should ask yourself what each might say about the others’ views, but don’t expect to find a simple answer.
One of the reasons for including these selections is their relation to other things under discussion this week, so you should look for such connections. For example, memory plays an important role in the account of personal identity Locke offers at the end of the selection from him, so you might look for connections between what he says and the issues concerning memory that arise in Blade Runner.