There will be THREE tutorials at the second half of the semester (Tutorial papers to be announced in due course)

Transcription

1 PHIL 5543 Philosophy of the Human Condition: Life, Death, Love & Desire 1st Semester, 2010/11 Prof. Cheung Chan Fai Course Description: The main themes of this seminar course are eros and thanatos. It is a philosophical reflection of our conditio humana: love, lust, desire and death. Through intensive study of major Western and Chinese philosophical thought on these topics, the meaning of life will be the focus of discussion. Participants are expected to read significant amount of primary texts and related articles so that fruitful discussion can be achieved in class. Course Outline: 1. Introduction: Between Birth and Death Mortality vs Immortality 2. All Begin with Plato: Eros in Symposium and Thanatos in Phaedo 3. The Epicurean and the Stoic Reaction 4. The Christian Answer to Lust, Death and Love 5. The Chinese Ways of Qing and Death: Confucianism and Daoism 6. The Psychoanalysis of Eros and Thanatos: Sigmund Freud 7. The Extremity of Eroticism: the Marquis de Sade and Georges Batielle 8. The Phenomenon of Death and the Phenomenology of Dying: Heidegger and Sartre 9. Reflections: On the Possibility of a Meaningful Life Film Study and Discussion: 1. Luchino Visconti. Death in Venice, Nagisa Ohima. In the Realm of the Senses ( 感官世界 ), Ang Lee: Lust, Caution ( 色戒 ), 2007 There will be THREE tutorials at the second half of the semester (Tutorial papers to be announced in due course) Assessment: 2 term papers 1. A shorter paper on a philosophical reflection on any one of the films Due date: 1 st week of November, % 2. A final term paper on the topics discussed in the course. Due date: 3rd week of December, % - - 1

2 Primary Texts: Plato. Symposium. Trans. Alexander Nehamas & Paul Woodruff. Indianapolis: Hackett, Plato. Phaedo. Trans. R. S. Bluck. London: Routledge, [1955] The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers: The complete extant writings of Epicurus, Epictetus, Lucretius, Marcus Aurelius. Ed. Whitney J. Oates. New York: Random House, Seneca. Dialogues and Letters. Trans. C. D. N. Costa. London: Penguin Books, Sigmund Freud. Three contribution of the theory of sex. Trans. A. A. Brill, New York: The Modern Library, [1938] Sigmund Freud. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Trans. James Strachey, Standard Edition Vol. XVIII. London: The Hogarth Press, The Marquis de Sade. The 120 Days of Sodom. Trans. Austryn Wainhouse & Richard Seaver. New York: Grove Press, Georges Batille. The Tears of Eros. Trans. Peter Connor. San Francisco: City Lights Book, Georges Batille. The Bataille Reader. ed. Fred Botting & Scott Wilson. Oxford: Blackwell, Martin Heidegger. Being and Time. Trans. John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson. New York, Harper & Row, Jean-Paul Sartre. Being and Nothingness. Trans. Hazel Barnes. London: Methuen, D. P. Verene, ed. Sexual Love and Western Morlity. New York: Harper & Row, 唐君毅 : 人生之體驗續篇 1961 Major References: 1. Love / Eros Avis, Paul. Eros and the Sacred. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Love, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003 Bergmann, Martin. The Anatomy of Loving. New York: Columbia University Press, Dillon, M. C. Beyond Romance. New York: State University of New York Press, Ellis, Ralphs D. Eros in A Narcissistic Culture. Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer Academic Publisher, Ellis, Ralph D. Love and the Abyss: An Essay on Finitude and Value. Illinois: Open Court, Evans, Mary. Love: An Unromantic Discussion. Cambridge: Polity Press, Frankfurt, Harry G. The Reasons of Love. Princeton: Princeton University Prress, 2004 Giddens, Anthony. The Transformation of Intimacy. Cambridge: Polity Press, Johnson, Rolf M. Three Faces of Love. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, Marion, Jean-Luc. The Erotic Phenomenon. Trans. Stephen E. Lewis. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, [2003] Morgan, Douglas. Love: Plato, the Bible and Freud. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, - - 2

3 1964. Santas, Gerasimos. Plato and Freud: Two Theories of Love. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Singer, Irving. The Nature of Love. 3 Volumes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960/1984. Secomb, Linnell. Philosophy and Love. Bloomington: Indiana university Press, 2007 Soble, Alan. The Philosophy of Sex and Love. 2 nd Edition. St. Paul: Paragon House, Solomon, Robert c. & Higgins, Kathleen M. ed. The Philosophy of Erotic Love. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, Wagoner, Robert E. The Meaning of Love. Westport: Praeger, Sex / Lust Blackburn, Simon. Lust: The Seven Deadly Sins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004 Evola, Julius. The Metaphysics of Sex. London: and the Hague: East-West Publications, Giles, James. The Nature of Sexual Desire. Westport: Praeger, 2003 Lingis, Alphonso. Libido: The French Existential Theories. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Nussbaum, Martha. The Therapy of Desire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Paz, Octavio. The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism. Trans. Helen Lane, New York: A Harvest Book, Scruton, Roger. Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Silverman, Hugh ed. Philosophy and Desire. New York: Routledge, Singer, Irving. Sex: A Philosophical Primer. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, Soble, Alan. The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings. 5 th Edition. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, Death Aries, Philippe. Western Attitude toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present. Trans. Patrica Ranum. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Barry, Vincent. Philosophical Thinking about Death and Dying. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007 Carse, James. Death and Existence. New York: John Wiley & son, Clark, Beverley. Sex and Death. Cambridge: Polity Press, Dastur, Francoise. Death: an Essay on Finitude. Trans. John Llewelyn, London: Athone, Dollimore, Jonathan. Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture. New York: Routledge, Hadot, Pierre. The Inner Citadel. Trans. Michael Chase. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Malpas, Jeff & Solomon, Robert ed. Death and Philosophy. London & New York: Routledge, Pieper, Josef. Death and Immortality. Trans. Richard & Clara Winston. South Bend: - - 3

4 St. Augustine s Press, Ragland, Ellie. Essays on the Pleasure of Death: From Freud to Lacan. New York: Routledge, Warren, James. Facing Death: Epicurus and his Critics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, White, Carol J. Time and Death: Heidegger s Analysis of finitude. Aldershot: Ashgate,

5 PHI 7440 Philosophy of the Human Condition: Life, Death, Love & Desire Lecture Outline 1 1. Introduction: Between Birth and Death Mortality Vs Immortality 1.1 Conditio humana The Phenomenon of life The Problem of Human Existence Philosophy Begins with Wonder and Anxiety 1.2 Death The Fear of Death The Uncertain Certainty of Death Radical Individualization of Myself Why Should I Die? The Unnecessary Necessity of Birth What is Death? Death of Body / Death of Self? 1.3 Eros / Love Love as Eros-philia-agape The Answer of Life and Death The Pursuit of the Ideal and the Good Love as Spiritual activity 1.4 Lust Desire and Lust Natural Drive and Physical Pleasure Materialistic Universe Somatic Function: Procreation Sex and Sexuality; Erotic and Eroticism 1.5 Transcendence The Finitude and Contingency of Human Existence The components of Life: soma/psyche/spiritus The Telos of Philosophy and Religion: Immortality Metaphysics and Phenomenology of Life Readings 1. Beverley Clack, Introduction in Sex and Death. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp Octavio Paz, The Kingdom of Pan in The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism. Trans. Helen Lane, New York: A Harvest Book, 1995, pp Julius Evola, Eros and Sexual Love in The Metaphysics of Sex, London & the Hague: East-West Publication, 1969, pp Jonathan Dollimore, Introduction in Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture. New York: Routledge, 1998, pp ix-xxxii - - 5