We think Bruno deserves a spot in the syllabus in the future due to his importance in the history of western philosophy, especially in the period of the Renaissance. His work and life really echoed “the spirit of the times” as it was at once the product and shaper of connections between religion, philosophy, and science that were being undone and remade. As the old order was being questioned, people’s responses and reactions were still rooted in millennia-long traditions of thought as much as they might have seemed rebellious or a result of impending modernity.
Research into the work of Bruno and other Renaissance-era scholars influenced by Hermeticism and other mystical ideas helped challenge the once-dominant narrative that the period was simply about “disenchantment” and the march of science, as much as these concepts might still hold narrative power. While he challenged church orthodoxy on scientific issues and valiantly stood up for his belief in the power of human reason to understand the world, he was also digging into ancient texts and saw the world as interconnected, and had a fascination with things that would now be deemed in the realm of the esoteric or the occult. If discourse in Western thought can be broken down into the three major pillars of orthodox religion, a more skeptical rationalism/empiricism, and those ideas deemed wrong by the authorities formerly mentioned, then an investigation into Bruno’s works can help us better understand the conflicts between them.
In terms of what philosopher should be removed from the syllabus, this is a hard question because we agree with the normative goal of including non-Western and female philosophers to help diversify the curriculum. Perhaps Mandeville could be replaced as we think there are other ways to work in analyzing economic and political thought. For example, Spinoza wrote the TTP and is already a philosopher we have discussed. If the goal of the class is to mainly cover metaphysics then we think it is sufficient to use other existing philosophers that have also written on these topics. To sum it up, including our philosopher in the syllabus can help give a strong grounding in the historical context of the time, given that this is technically a history of philosophy of class.