A study of the major movements and figures in European philosophy from the 16th to the 19th century. The focus of the course is the rise of skepticism in relation to developments in science and religion, the study of the nature of the mind, and the knowing process and claims about the nature and existence of the self, of the external world and of God. A number of thinkers and philosophers will be surveyed with principal emphasis on Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant. Restriction: junior standing or instructor consent. Fall semester.