20th C European Phil

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course is a guided, collaborative excursion into important thinkers and themes in 20th C. European philosophy. Students will spend the semester researching and producing a substantial e-portfolio, and class sessions will be designed to further this work. In some sessions, students will informally present their own research and follow up on topics of interest that arise over the term. Other sessions will resemble traditional lectures, covering works by significant thinkers (such as Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Levinas, Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Ferdinand de Saussure, Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben) and significant themes (such as the influence of Hegel, recognition and interpersonal relationships, the body, art and authorship, technology and modernity, and the structure of language). We will also aim to read short works of literature that influenced or were influenced by 20th C. European philosophy (such as works by Primo Levi, Italo Calvino, and Franz Kafka). The course will be fast-paced, eclectic, philosophically sophisticated, and writing-, research- and reading-intensive. Students can expect to accomplish much of their learning outside of the classroom and will be required to actively work on their e-portfolios and to actively participate in class sessions throughout the term.