Twentieth-Century Philosophy: Existentialism, Phenomenology, and Hermeneutics (AP9160C)

Content

How has philosophy evolved between the 19th century and today? How have developments in philosophy affected how we think about theology? This unit examines developments in post-Kantian continental philosophy from the 19th century until now. The unit examines key thinkers and frameworks for contemporary thought about philosophy itself, the possibility of faith, metaphysics, and God: thinkers who may include Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau Ponty, Camus, Gadamer, Stein, Deleuze, Habermas, Marion, and Meillassoux. Particular attention will be given to major texts covering early and later phenomenology, hermeneutics, influential postmodern thinkers, and the theological turn in contemporary French thought.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

One unit of Philosophy

Pedagogy

Lectures and tutorials

Indicative Bibliography

• Copleston, Frederick C. A History of Philosophy. Vols 7 and 9. London: Burns & Oates, 1963 and 1975.
• Critchley, Simon, and William Schroeder. A Companion to Continental Philosophy. Blackwell Companions to Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
• Cutrofello, Andrew. Continental Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy. London: Routledge, 2005.
• Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Truth and Method. 2nd ed. Translated by William Glen-Doepel. Translation revised by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. New York: Crossroad, 1992.
• Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time: A Translation of “Sein und Zeit”. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. Revised by Dennis J. Schmidt. State University of New York Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010.
• Husserl, Edmund. The Idea of Phenomenology. Collected Works. Vol. 8. Translated by Lee Hardy. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1999.
• Levinas, Emmanuel. “Philosophy and the Idea of Infinity.” In Collected Philosophical Papers, Translated by Alphonso Lingis, 47–59. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1998.
• Sokolowski, Robert. An Introduction to Phenomenology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Stein, Edith. On the Problem of Empathy. 3rd Rev ed. The Collected Works of Edith Stein, V. 3. Translated by Waltraut Stein. Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1989.
• West, David. Continental Philosophy: An Introduction. New ed. Cambridge: Polity, 2010.

Assessment