History of Early Modern Philosophy I

True, false, free: modern philosophy and the paradoxes of freedom
The doubt with which Descartes inaugurates modern philosophy is an act of freedom and liberation. An act of liberation from prejudices and opinions that are only plausible in order to access certain and indubitable knowledge. But it is also an act of freedom, because one must decide to doubt and persist voluntarily in doubt in order to ultimately attain irrefutable knowledge.
With this initial decision, Descartes bequeaths to subsequent thinkers a thesis concerning man's relationship with truth: knowledge is an act of the will, which gives its assent to what presents itself to the intellect in a perfectly clear and distinct manner. But Descartes also leaves the philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries with a question: what is the nature of human freedom? Is it true freedom or just an illusion? The world described by modern science is in fact a deterministic world, made up of efficient causes that necessarily produce their effects. How can man fit into such a universe and, at the same time, claim the privilege of freedom? And when we give our assent to what we conceive in a perfectly evident manner, are we truly free, or does that very evidence make our assent inevitable, and therefore no longer free? Perhaps the only solution is to define freedom differently and distinguish it from free will. But if man is free only in a broad sense, is there still room for error and its correction, and even more so for moral action?
The course aims to retrace the answers that the major thinkers of early modernity gave to these questions and to highlight their continuing relevance.
Knowledge of the general outlines of the history of modern philosophy will also be acquired through the study of a textbook, encouraging students to independently apply the methodological guidelines and knowledge acquired to the authors and issues presented in the reference text.