Contemporary Continental Philosophy

PHILO110

5 Credits

Level: BA

The Undergraduate College of Interdisciplinary Studies

Critical Writing

Team Taught: Andrew Keltner, MA,

Anthony Clemons, MA, and Creston Davis, PhD

Meeting Times

Course Requirements 

• Read assigned texts

• View pre-discussion recordings before attending the conversation/discussion live sessions.

• Complete the assignments

Technology and Environment

Students will need to have a computer and access to the internet, and to Zoom (free to download here: https://zoom.us). The mobile phone zoom app will work as long as the student has a way to use it hands free (we may need both our hands to make sound!). Students will also need a private, relatively quite space, to attend meetings, in order to make sound in uninhibited ways. 

Assessment

1. Participation/Attendance

2. Raising questions and engaging with the course materials

3. Complete writing assignments

Specific Instructions: Once you have enrolled, you will be assigned a gcas.ie email and APP account, which is Google based. You must activate your account to access the course’s platform.

BA Seminar

College: The Undergraduate College of Interdisciplinary Studies

Title: PHIL: 110  Introductory Topics & Themes: Contemporary Continental Philosophy

Dates:  September 20-December 20

Time: Sundays 1PM - 3.30PM EST 1.5 hours

Term: Fall 2020

Year: 1 BA

Academic Level: Year 1 Bachelor

Credits: 5

Instructor:

Professor Creston Davis creston.davis@gcas.ie

Meeting Place:   Online

Course Description: This course is designed to give students an introduction to the seminal aspects of Continental Philosophy with the aim that they develop a sophisticated methodological-interpretive structure.  They will then be required to apply their interpretive structures onto various cultural phenomena ranging from film to literature, the arts, opera, music, architecture, philosophy and religion.  The class will take a chronological approach, which will trace the origin of postmodernism beginning with Hegel and Kierkegaard in the 19th century to Igor Stravinsky, Ferdinand de Saussure, and T.S. Eliot (in the early 20th century) to Derrida, Deleuze, Lacan, Butler, and Zizek (in the late 20th and early 21st century).   We will pay careful attention to themes such as, disenchantment, alienation, nihilism, truth, grand-narratives, desire, system and structure among others.  

Texts: 

Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit (The Oxford Edition)

A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader, 2nd ed.  Eds. Easthope and McGowan

Media and Cultural Studies: Key Works.  Eds. Durham and Kellner 

Creston Davis and Alain Badiou, “The Contradictions of America”

S. Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

Assessments:

The grade will be determined in the following three ways:

Participation:  20% [10% in class discussion/10% in the forum “stream”]

Presentation:   20%

Paper(s):    60%

Presentation—You will be responsible for presenting/introducing two readings during the course of the seminar.  

Papers—You can either write a 10 page research paper (2,500 words) on some topic related to the seminar or you can write two, shorter 5-page papers (1,250 words).  Should you opt for the latter option your first paper is due on November 1 and your second paper on the last day of class, December 20.

Learning and Teaching Methods:

Blended Learning (online/ in person) consisting of lectures, discussions, small group work, supervising, peer-group, student presentation.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

• The ability to write, think and communicate critically

• The ability to understand the basic elements of an argument (thesis, premises)

• The ability to argue for a thesis clearly and persuasively

• The ability to understand the history of ideas from the Modern epoch to the Present

• The ability to understand the major shifts in epistemological structures in the western tradition

Schedule: Meets on Sundays from 1PM - 3:30 PM EST

Week: 1  September 20 Introduction

Modern Philosophy—Rene Descartes “Meditation on First Philosophy” (on-line text)

Week: 2 September 27

Modern Philosophy--Spinoza Ethics
Week: 3 October 4

The Enlightenment—Kant “What is Enlightenment?” Link: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/kant.html

Week: 4 October 11

Romanticism—Hegel—Early Theological Writings  (Hand-out) & Introduction to The Phenomenology of Spirit

Week: 5  October 18

The Phenomenology of Spirit  on the Antigone passages paragraph 437 (page, 261) & paragraphs 470 (page 284) and 471 (pages 284-285). 

Week: 6  October 25

E.A. Poe “The Raven” & Karl Marx –The Communist Manifesto [selections] (on-line)

Week: 7  November 1 (1st paper is due if you opted for two papers)

S. Freud—Psychoanalysis Civilization and Its Discontents

Week: 8  November 8

Semiology—Introduction to A Critical & Cultural Theory Reader and Section 1

Study #1 :  Art—Giorgio de Chirico, Pablo Picasso, & Guillaume Apollinaire

Week: 9 November 15

Ideology—Section 2 A Critical & Cultural Theory Reader

Study #2 : Literature—T.S. Eliot The Wasteland Link: http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

Week: 10  November 22
Subjectivity – Section 3 A Critical & Cultural Theory Reader

Study # 3:  Music: Igor Stravinsky “The Rite of Spring”
Week: 11  November 29

 Davis, Badiou “The Contradictions of America”:  Study #4  Architecture 

Week: 12 December 6

W: Benjamin—Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (M 18-40) and Slavoj Ẑiẑek—“Welcome to the Desert of the Real” (M 453-81 & C 228-34)
Week: 13 December 13

Derrida—Differance (C 113-142)

Week: 14 December 20  July 18/20

“Postmodernism” A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader 

Study #5 Film [The Moving Image]

Conclusion/ Paper’s Due

Grading Scale:

10 Excellent, 9 Very Good, 8 Good, 7 Satisfactory, 6 or below, Fail

Accommodations:

Please inform Creston Davis  if you need accommodation @ creston.davis@gcas.ie

Take this Course for Credit: Tuition Cost 416€

If you are taking this course for 7 Credits, please contact GCAS so we can provide you with the syllabus at contact@gcas.ie

Refund:

You may have a full refund if after the first class session you would like to drop out of the course. After the second session, there is no refund.

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