6AANB th Century Continental Philosophy. Basic information. Module description. Assessment methods and deadlines. Syllabus Academic year 2016/17

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1 6AANB th Century Continental Philosophy Syllabus Academic year 2016/17 Basic information Credits: 15 Module Tutor: Dr Sacha Golob Office: 705, Philosophy Building Consultation time: TBC Semester: Semester 1 Lecture time and venue: TBC Module description This module introduces some of the most influential thinkers within modern continental philosophy. The course aims both to highlight key points of contact with analytic philosophy, and to capture and analyse some of the features that make the continental tradition distinctive. The main texts studied will be Sartre s Being and Nothingness, Merleau-Ponty s Phenomenology of Perception and Foucault s History of Sexuality and Discipline and Punish. All texts will be studied in translation. Generic Learning outcomes In successfully completing the course, students will demonstrate and refine an advanced ability to assess and criticise arguments, and to identify and analyse the rhetorical and stylistic structure of writing and speech. They will also have demonstrated and developed an ability to conduct individual research, to participate in seminars and seminar presentations, and to work to deadlines. Specific Learning Outcomes The capacity to grasp, assess and analyse the philosophical content of some of the most important developments within 20 th century continental philosophy. Assessment methods and deadlines Summative assessment: two 2,500-word essays (50% each) from the list marked Summative Questions. Essays to be submitted according to the standard schedule. Formative assessment: one 2,500-word essay from the list marked Formative Questions. Essays to be submitted according to the standard schedule. Please note that formative essays using one of the titles from the summative list will not be marked. 1

2 Outline of lecture topics plus suggested readings The following material is the core lecture reading: during the lecture, I will assume everyone has done it. Material marked with a * is available either online via Library Search or on Keats. Unless specifically stated, alternative translations are also acceptable. (1) Introducing 20 th Century Continental Philosophy Leiter, Analytic and Continental Philosophy at (2) Sartre and Phenomenology Husserl, Cartesian Meditations (Nijhof, 1960 or reprint), 1-8.* (3) Sartre and Existentialism Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism, Public Lecture 1945.* The Keats version is from Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre, ed. Walter Kaufman, Meridian Publishing Company, 1989; the text is widely reprinted. Sartre, Sartre: Basic Writings (Priest ed., Routledge 2001), p [Intro to and extracts from Being and Nothingness].* (4) Sartre on Bad Faith and The Look Sartre, Sartre: Basic Writings (Priest ed., Routledge 2001), p [Intro to and extracts from Being and Nothingness].* (5) Sartre on Emotions and Desire Sartre, Sartre: Basic Writings (Priest ed., Routledge 2001), p [Intro to and extracts from Being and Nothingness and Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions]* (6) Merleau-Ponty: Phenomenology and the Tradition Sacks, The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat (Picador: 2011), Chs3-8.* (7) Merleau-Ponty: Embodiment and Perception Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (Trans. Smith 1958 or reprint) The Spatiality of One s own Body and Motility, The Synthesis of One s own Body and The Theory of the Body is already a Theory of Perception.* (8) Merleau-Ponty on Freedom and Style Merleau-Ponty, Cezanne s Doubt (1945).* (9) Heidegger, Structuralism, and Foucault Heidegger, Extract from Letter on Humanism in Pathmarks, pp * Foucault Two Lectures: Lecture II 14 th Jan 1976 in Power/Knowledge (Pantheon: 1980).* 2

3 (10) Foucault, Sexuality and Subjectivity Foucault, History of Sexuality Vol.1 (Random House: 1978 or reprint) Pts1-2. 3

4 *Formative* Essay Questions (1) What is the most plausible feature Sartre s account of consciousness? What is the least plausible? (2) [For Sartre] Human being is not the same as the rest of being but is distinguished from it by a separating nothingness Is this nothingness a futile hypostatization? [Barnes]. Is it? (3) Outline and critically evaluate Sartre s conception of being-in-itself (4) If Sartre s account of freedom were true, agents would act randomly. But they do not. Discuss. (5) Are we always in bad faith? Are we ever in bad faith? (6) Outline and evaluate Sartre s account of the emotions. (7) What is Objective Thought? How compelling are Merleau-Ponty s criticisms of it? (8) Whilst his criticisms of other philosophers are cogent, Merleau-Ponty s own account of embodiment is hopelessly vague. How fair is this view? (9) What are the weakest and the strongest points of Merleau-Ponty s work on freedom? (10) You ask: How can we restore meaning to the word humanism? This question proceeds from your intention to retain the word humanism. I wonder whether that is necessary [Heidegger]. Is it necessary? (11) What, if anything, can Foucault contribute to a philosophical understanding of either subjectivity or sexuality? 4

5 *Summative* Essay Questions (1) How coherent is Sartre s account of a pre-reflective self-awareness? OR Discuss the relationship between Sartre s view of consciousness and that of any one of the following authors: Brewer, Evans, Kant, Rosenthal. (2) What does Sartre mean when he says that being-for-itself is what it is not and is not what it is? Is he right? (3) But the existentialist, when he portrays a coward, shows him as responsible for his cowardice. How does Sartre think he shows this? Is he right? (4) What in your opinion is the best reconstruction of either Sartre s waiter example or that of the woman on a date or both? (5) Conflict is the original meaning of being-for-others [Sartre]. Critically assess Sartre s reasons for this view. OR Cruelty is simply the energy in a man which civilization has not yet altogether corrupted: therefore it is a virtue, not a vice [Sade]. If Sartre s theory of sexuality is correct, was Sade a sadist? (6) Outline and assess Merleau-Ponty s attack on either empiricism or intellectualism. (7) What role exactly does Merleau-Ponty think embodiment plays in perception? Was he right? (8) Merleau-Ponty s discussion of freedom amounts to little more than some banal truisms. Discuss. (9) What role, if any, should a philosophy of the subject play in current thought? (10) Try teaching Foucault at a contemporary law school, as I have, and you will quickly find that subversion takes many forms As a perceptive libertarian student said to me, Why can't I use these ideas to resist the tax structure, or the antidiscrimination laws, or perhaps even to join the militias? (Nussbaum). Discuss OR What, if anything, can Foucault contribute to our understanding of either philosophical methodology or sadomasochism? 5

6 Further Reading by Lecture Topic The following material lists further reading by topic. There is no need to read all of it, but you should read all material on those topics that most interest you or that you are intending to write on. Material marked with a * is available either online via Library Search or on Keats. Material marked with a # is a particularly good place to start (the order of listing is otherwise not significant). (1) Introducing 20 th Century Continental Philosophy: Sartre and Existentialism Cooper, Existentialism as a Philosophical Movement in the Cambridge Companion to Existentialism (CUP: 2012).* Schrift, 20 th Century French Philosophy (Blackwell: 2006), pp.19-31*. Blattner, Some Thoughts About Continental and Analytic Philosophy at (2) Sartre and Phenomenology McCulloch, Using Sartre (Routledge 1994), Ch7.# Sartre, Sartre: Basic Writings (Priest ed., Routledge 2001), p [Transcendence of the Ego on pre-reflective awareness: a clearer account than Being and Nothingness].* Sartre, Sartre: Basic Writings (Priest ed., Routledge 2001), p.76 (from All consciousness ) to p.82 [Being and Nothingness on Intentionality].* Sartre, Sartre: Basic Writings (Priest ed., Routledge 2001), p [Being and Nothingness on Being-for-itself].* Crowell, Sartre s existentialism and the nature of consciousness in the Cambridge Companion to Existentialism (CUP: 2012).*# (3) Sartre and Existentialism Barnes, Sartre's ontology: The revealing and making of being in the Cambridge Companion to Sartre (CUP: 1992).* Sartre, Being and Nothingness (Trans. Barnes, 1943 or reprint), Pt4, Ch1, Secs 1-3. Webber, The Existentialism of Sartre, (Routledge: 2009), Chs4-5.*# Gardner, Sartre s Being and Nothingness (Continuum: 2009), pp McCulloch, Using Sartre (Routledge 1994), Ch3.# (4) Sartre on Bad Faith and The Look Sartre, Sartre: Basic Writings (Priest ed., Routledge 2001), p [Intro to and extracts from Being and Nothingness on Others ].* Simont, Sartrean Ethics in the Cambridge Companion to Sartre (CUP: 1992).* Webber, The Existentialism of Sartre, (Routledge: 2009), Chs.6#, 7 and 9.* Cooper, Existentialism (Blackwell: 1999), Chs7-8. 6

7 (5) Sartre on Emotions and Desire Sartre, Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions (Routledge:2002), Ch 3.# Sartre, Being and Nothingness (Trans. Barnes, 1943 or reprint), Pt3, Ch3, Secs 1-3. Lyons, Emotion (CUP:1985), Chs1-4. Giles, Sartre, Sexual Desire and Relations with Others in Giles (ed.) French Existentialism: Consciousness, Ethics and Relations with Others, (Rodopi: 1999). Richmond, Magic in Sartre s Early Philosophy in Webber (ed.) Reading Sartre (Routledge 2011).* Zahavi, Shame and the Exposed Self in Webber (ed.) Reading Sartre (Routledge: 2001).*# (6) Merleau-Ponty: Phenomenology and the Tradition Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (Trans. Smith 1958 or reprint), Introduction.* Romdenh-Romluc, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Merleau-Ponty and Phenomenology of Perception (Routledge: 2011), Chs1-2.*# Wrathall, Motives, Reasons, and Causes in The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty (CUP: 2004).* Carman, Sensation, Judgment, and the Phenomenal Field in The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty (CUP: 2004).*# (7) Merleau-Ponty: Embodiment and Perception Kelly, Merleau-Ponty on the Body Ratio 2002.* Kelly, Seeing Things in Merleau-Ponty The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty (CUP: 2004).*# Noe, Action in Perception, (MIT: 2004), Ch1. (8) Merleau-Ponty on Freedom and Style Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (Trans. Smith 1958 or reprint), Freedom, Other Selves and the Human World.* Wilkerson, Time and Ambiguity: Reassessing Merleau-Ponty on Sartrean Freedom, Journal of the History of Philosophy 2010.* Romdenh-Romluc, Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Merleau-Ponty and Phenomenology of Perception (Routledge: 2011), Ch5.* Stewart, Merleau-Ponty s Criticisms of Sartre s Theory of Freedom Philosophy Today 1995.*# Compton, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Freedom Journal of Philosophy, 1982.* (9) Heidegger, Structuralism and Foucault Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Allen Lane: 1977 or reprint), Pt 1, Secs 1-2; Pt 3, Sec 1.# Schrift, 20 th Century French Philosophy (Blackwell: 2006), Ch.4.* Harries, The Antinomy of Being: Heidegger s Anti-Humanism in the Cambridge Companion to Existentialism (CUP: 2012).* 7

8 Howells, Sartre and the Deconstruction of the Subject in the Cambridge Companion to Sartre (CUP: 1992).* (10) Foucault, Sexuality and Subjectivity Foucault, Subjectivity and Truth and Self Writing in his Essential Works: Ethics (New Press: 1994).*# Foucault Subject and Power Critical Inquiry 1982.* Kelly, The Political Philosophy of Michel Foucault (Routledge: 2009), Ch4. Han-Pile, Foucault s Critical Project (Stanford: 2002), Pt3. 8

6AANA034 Aesthetics Syllabus Academic year 2016/17. Module description. Assessment methods and deadlines

6AANA034 Aesthetics Syllabus Academic year 2016/17 Basic information Credits: 15 Module Tutor: Dr Sacha Golob Office: 705, Philosophy Building Consultation time: TBC Semester: First Lecture time and venue: