Genealogy of Ideas - a Seminar

Faculty: Dr. Mario D’Amato

Learning and Teaching Methods:

Lecture, Discussion, Response Papers (400 words), Presentation, Written Exam (final paper)

Intended Learning Outcomes:

Ability to think analytically and communicate clearly about the course’s major themes

Ability to understand, articulate, and respond to the philosophical arguments in the course

Ability to understand, articulate, and critique the methods through which the major thinkers of the course approach philosophy

Description:

In this course we will study Nietzsche’s genealogical method by placing it in its context of development, in the hopes of gaining a more nuanced understanding of the genealogical approach to philosophy. To that end, we will trace out a specific ‘dialectic’ of the critique of religion in Western philosophy, starting with David Hume, who was then responded to by Kant, who in turn was critiqued by Hegel, culminating with Friedrich Nietzsche’s development of the genealogical method in philosophy. In an illuminating passage in the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche offers us something of a précis of his genealogical method: “the origin of the emergence of a thing and its ultimate usefulness, its practical application and incorporation into a system of ends, are toto coelo separate; that anything in existence, having somehow come about, is continually interpreted anew, requisitioned anew, transformed and redirected to a new purpose by a power superior to it…in the process of which their former ‘meaning’ and ‘purpose’ must necessarily be obscured or completely obliterated” (II 12). Our goal in this course will be to come to a clearer understanding of Nietzsche’s method, by examining it in its context. And our aspiration will be to consider how the genealogical method may be adapted and deployed in new and differing contexts.

Format: This course will have 4 pre-recorded lectures one for each session. We will meet on the GCAS-Zoom platform for each discussion session.

Required Texts:

Hume, David. The Natural History of Religion. Edited by H. E. Root. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1956.

Kant, Immanuel. Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by Thomas K. Abbott. New York: Macmillan, 1949.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, One-Volume Edition:

The Lectures of 1827. Edited by Peter C. Hodgson. Translated by R. F. Brown, P. C.

Hodgson, and J. M. Stewart, with the assistance of H. S. Harris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

D’Amato, Mario and Robert T. Moore. “The Specter of Nihilism: On Hegel on Buddhism.” Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies no.12 (2011): 23-49.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. ‘On the Genealogy of Morality’ and Other Writings. 3 rd ed. Edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson. Translated by Carol Diethe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Leiter, Brian. “Nietzsche’s Moral and Political Philosophy.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition).

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/nietzsche-moral-political/.