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Existentialism and Postmodernism
PHIL 239:01
Dr. McWhorter
Fall, 2008
NOTE: I am teaching this course currently (Spring, 2011), but my syllabus is on Blackboard rather than this website. I will be happy to provide a syllabus to anyone interested by email.
Books Required and Available for Purchase in the University Bookstore:
Heidegger, Being and Time (trans. Joan Stambaugh)
Levinas, Totality and Infinity
Irigaray, An Ethics of Sexual Difference
Badiou, Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil
See below for information about grading in this course.
Click here to email Dr. McWhorter, or call 804/289-8423.
Calendar of Readings
August 26:
Introduction to the Course.
August 28:
Phenomenology. Reading: Sean Kelly, "Edmund Husserl and Phenomenology" (on electronic reserve) from The Blackwell Companion to Continental Philosophy. Robert Solomon and David Sherman, eds. Maldon, MA: Backwell Publishers, 2003: 112-126. (Note: Students are not required to read the final section on Merleau-Ponty, although doing so would be edifying.)
September 2:
The Question of the Meaning of Being. Reading: Heidegger,
Being and Time, 1-23.
September 4:
The Analytic of Dasein and Being-in-the-World. Reading:
Heidegger, Being and Time, 39-58
September 9:
The Worldliness of the World and Contrast with Cartesian
Ontology. Reading: Heidegger, Being and Time, 59-71, 83-94.
September 11:
Authentic Being and Disclosure. Reading: Heidegger, Being
and Time, 107-126.
September 16:
Attunement, Understanding, and Interpretation. Reading:
Heidegger, Being and Time, 126-139, 169-183.
September 18:
Work on take home exam.
September 22:
Take Home Exam Due! Yes, this is a Monday, not a class day. But this gives you ample opportunity to prepare for Tuesday's class. Click here for late policy.
September 23:
Discussion: Authenticity and Immorality. Reading: Michel Haar, "The Enigma of Everydayness" (on electronic reserve) from Reading Heidegger: Commemorations, ed. John Sallis, Indiana University Press, 1993: 20-28.
September 25:
Truth. Reading: Heidegger, Being and Time, 196-211.
September 30:
Being-toward-Death. Reading: Heidegger, Being and Time,
219-246.
October 2:
Authenticity. Reading: Heidegger, Being and Time,
247-277.
October 7:
Nonbelonging and Inauthenticity. Reading: Charles Scott,
"Nonbelonging/Authenticity" (on electronic reserve) from Reading Heidegger: Commemorations, ed. John Sallis, Indiana University Press, 1993: 67-79.
October 9:
In-Class Exam! Click here for exam attendance policy.
October 14:
NO CLASS: Fall Break.
October 16:
NO CLASS: Meetings of the Society for Phenomenology and
Existentialist Philosophy in Pittsburgh.
October 21:
Critique of Heidegger's First Philosophy: Ontology or
Ethics? Reading: Emmanuel Levinas, "Is Ontology Fundamental?"
(on electronic reserve) from Basic Philosophical Writings, Adrian Peperzak, Simon Critchley, and Robert Bernasconi, eds., Indiana University Press, 1996: 1-10.
October 23:
Ontology as Ethics. Reading: John D. Caputo, "Disseminating
Originary Ethics and the Ethics of Dissemination" (on electronic
reserve) from The Question of the Other: Essays in Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Alrene Dallery and Charles Scott, eds, SUNY Press, 1989: 55-62.
October 28:
Reading: Levinas, Totality and Infinity, 21-30, 109-121, and 212-219.
October 30:
Reading: Levinas, Totality and Infinity,
251-277, and Levinas, "Peace and Proximity" (on electronic
reserve) from Basic Philosophical Writings, Adrian Peperzak, Simon Critchley, and Robert Bernasconi, eds., Indiana University Press, 1996: 161-169..
November 4:
Feminist Critique of Levinas. Reading: Catherine Chalier,
"Ethics and the Feminine" (on electronic reserve) from Re-Reading Levinas, Robert Bernasconi and Simon Critchley, eds., Indiana University Press, 1991: 119-129.
November 6:
Irigaray, "The Fecundity of the Caress: A Reading
of Levinas, Totality and Infinity, "Phenomenology
and Eros," in An Ethics of Sexual Difference, 185-217.
November 11:
Differing Difference. Reading: Irigaray, "Sexual
Difference" and "An Ethics of Sexual Difference"
in An Ethics of Sexual Difference, 5-19 and 116-129.
November 13:
Morality as Nihilism. Reading: Badiou, Ethics,
1-39. Guest Lecturer Dr. Todd May, Lemon Professor of Philosophy at Clemson University, will lead the class. Dr. May will also speak at 4:00. Students are expected to attend the afternoon lecture if at all possible.
November 18:
Truth and Truths. Reading: Badiou, Ethics, 40-57.
November 20:
The Problem of Evil. Reading: Badiou, Ethics, 58-91.
November 25:
Take Home Exam Due! Click here for late policy.
November 27:
NO CLASS: Thanksgiving Break.
December 2:
Ethics and Ethos. Reading: Pierre Hadot, "Philosophy
as a Way of Life" (on electronic
reserve) from Philosophy as a Way of Life, Arnold Davidson, ed. and trans., Blackwell, 1995: 264-276, and Michel Foucault, "On the Genealogy
of Ethics: An Overview of Work in Progress" (on electronic reserve) from Ethics, Subjectivity and Truth: The Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. I, Paul Rabinow, ed., The New Press, 1997: 253-280.
December 4:
Ethics and Freedom. Reading: Michel Foucault, "An
Ethics of the Concern for Self as a Practice of Freedom"
(on electronic reserve) from Ethics, Subjectivity and Truth: The Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. I, Paul Rabinow, ed., The New Press, 1997: 281-301.
December 15:
Comprehensive Final Exam! Click here for exam attendance policy. Note: There will be one alternate offering of the final exam, if five or more students commit to taking it then, on Monday, December 8, at 9:00. No other alternative dates or times will be scheduled--no exceptions.
Graded Assignments:
September 22: Take Home Exam worth 24% of the final grade in the course.
October 9: In-class Exam worth 24% of the final grade in the course.
November 25: Take Home Exam worth 24% of the final grade in the course.
December 15: Comprehensive Final Exam worth 28% of the final grade in the course.