Philosophy 304
Kant and the 19th
Century
Spring 2002
Office Hours: T 11-12, W 2:30-4, Th 11-12
Olin Hall 151
527-5243
frierspr@whitman.edu
Books:
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
Kant, Critique of Practical Reason.
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
On Reserve:
Hume: selections from the Enquiry Concerning Human
Understanding and the Treatise of
Human Nature
Hegel: Introduction and Conclusion to Faith and Knowledge
Kierkegaard: selections from Either/Or
Frege: Review of Husserl’s Principles of Arithmetic, “Function and Concept,” “Sense and Reference,” and “Concept and Object.”
Husserl, Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy
Assignments:
(1) Regular short papers.
For each class, I have listed a paper question. You should email me a brief response to these questions by 7 AM on the date for which they are listed. (Thus, the first one is due by 7 AM this Wednesday.) These short papers will not be graded, but they will give me a sense of the issues to be addressed in class.
About every two weeks, you should give me a revised version of one of the short papers from the previous week or two. (The first of these will be due on February 4. The days on which papers are due are noted in the syllabus.) These papers should be no longer than 1500 words. You should turn these papers in at the beginning of class on the day on which they are due. Late papers will be docked ½ grade point (i.e. from a B+ to a B) if less than 2 days late, a full grade point (from a B+ to a C+) if 2-7 days late, and I will not accept them after 7 days.
Your grade for short papers will take into account the quality of the original emails. As long as your initial attempts to answer the question are sent to me on time and show a serious engagement with the text, your paper grade will not be affected. For each email that is late or of poor quality, your grade will drop ½ grade point. For each email that is completely skipped, your grade will drop a full grade point. (Over the course of the semester, I will give you two free “skips.” Thus the first two skipped emails will not affect your paper grades. I warn you not to use these too early, however!)
(2) Final paper or
Exam.
You have a choice between writing a significant
paper (1500-3000 words) on a topic of your own choice, or
taking a two-hour final exam, consisting of four of the daily questions, of
which you must answer two. If the
average grade on your first five short papers is lower than a B+, you must take
the exam. (In this case, you have the
option of also writing a paper, the grade of which will be averaged with
your exam grade.)
Grading:
I’ve attached some general standards for grading papers to this syllabus (borrowed from Dana Burgess). For this class in particular, I want to emphasize that the primary purpose of the short papers is to insure that you adequately comprehend the texts we are reading. The philosophers we read in this class are difficult. Your short papers should explain their ideas as clearly as possible. It is fine to take these ideas in new and fruitful directions or offer creative interpretations, but I primarily want you to get a clear grasp of the basic arguments and ideas. Do not let creativity crowd out clarity. (An extremely creative paper that does not show clear understanding of the text will get a D. A paper that simply answers the question, showing a clear understanding of the text we are reading, without any bold new insights, could get an A. And of course, an extremely creative paper that also answers the question and shows a clear understanding, could definitely get an A.)
Grades will break down as follows:
6 Short Papers: 12.5% each.
Long Paper or Exam: 25%
Participation: I will not grade participation. Participation is an absolutely essential part
of this class, but not an essential part of your grade. However, if you are consistently absent or
disengaged from class, your final grade may be lowered.
Jan. 14 Introduction
16 Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason Bvii-xliv, B1-30.
How does Kant’s Copernican
Revolution (Bxvi) help show “how a priori synthetic
propositions are possible” (B19)?
21 No class
23 Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Transcendental Aesthetic, A19/B33-B73.
Kant says, “Our exposition
therefore establishes the reality, that is, the objective validity, of space in
respect of whatever can be presented to us outwardly as object, but also at the
same time the ideality of space in respect of things when they are considered
in themselves through reason, that is, without regard to the constitution of
our sensibility” (A28/B44). What does
Kant mean by these two claims and how does he establish them?
28 Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Transcendental Analytic, A50/B74-A57/B82, B87/A63-B88/A64, A68/B93-A83/B109, A84/B117-A92/B124, B218-B224, B233-B256. (Also read selections from Hume and/or refamiliarize yourself with Hume’s skepticism about causation?)
How does Kant’s Copernican Revolution allow him to respond to Hume’s skepticism about causation?
30 Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Antinomies, A421/B448-A460/B488, A497/B525-A507/B535, A516/B544-A558/B586.
Choose one antinomy. Explain what causes the antinomy and how Kant
resolves it.
Feb. 4 First paper on Kant due. Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 5:3 –
5:57.
(You should also review the Groundwork, Parts one and two.)
To what extent is there a “deduction of the principles of pure practical reason” (5:42)? Can the reality of the moral law be deduced? If so, how? What can be deduced from the reality of the moral law? If anything, how can this be deduced?
6 Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 5:72 – 5:106, 5:151 – 5:163.
What are the “incentive of pure practical reason”? What does Kant’s discussion of these incentives add to his moral philosophy?
11 Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, 5:107 – 5:148;
(Optional reading: Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, A583/B611 – A642/B670.)
How does Kant’s second Critique clarify the way in which Kant’s first Critique “denies knowledge in order to make room for faith?”
13 Hegel, Intro and Conclusion to “Faith and Knowledge” and “The Oldest System Programme of German Idealism.”
How does Hegel differentiate himself from his predecessors?
18 No class. Second short paper on Kant due.
20
25 Hegel, Phenomenology, Introduction. (Optional reading: Preface.)
How
is Hegel’s method of doing philosophy different from Kant’s?
27 Hegel, Phenomenology, pp. 58-103.
What is “sense-certainty”? What is wrong with “sense-certainty” as a way of understanding the world?
Mar. 4 Hegel, Phenomenology, pp. 104-138. Focus on “Lordship and Bondage.”
Why
is recognition so important at this stage in Hegel’s dialectic?
6 Hegel, Phenomenology, pp.
211-35.
How does Hegel think we can
achieve the goal of “self-consciousness that is recognized and acknowledged,
and which has its own self-certainty in the other free self-consciousness, and
possesses its truth precisely in that ‘other’” (§ 349)?
(I
strongly recommend getting your Hegel papers done before the break, but they
are not technically due until 3/25.)
SPRING BREAK
25 Short paper on Hegel due. Kierkegaard, Either/Or, Preface and Diapsalmata, pp. 27-57.
Choose one aphorism and discuss it. Include some discussion of how it relates to ideas found in Kant and/or Hegel.
27 Kierkegaard, Either/Or, “The Edifying . . .”, pp. 597-609.
How do the ideas expressed in
this sermon relate to Kant, Hegel, and A?
Apr. 1 Short paper on Kierkegaard due. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil,
pp.1-56.
How does
Nietzsche seek to revalue traditional values of philosophy?
3 Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, pp. 59-118 (focus on pp. 97-118).
Offer a Nietzschean critique of Kant’s, Hegel’s, or Kierkegaard’s moral theory. What kind of response does Nietzsche’s critique call for?
8 Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, pp. 121-170.
What is the relationship between “we scholars” and
the philosophers of the future?
10 Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, pp. 173-245 (focus on pp. 201-237).
What
is noble? For Nietzsche, what is beyond
good and evil?
15 Short paper on Nietzsche due. Frege, “Review of Husserl.”
What is Frege’s objection to Husserl? (How might Frege object to Nietzsche? How might Nietzsche respond?)
17 Frege, “On Sinn and Bedeutung.”
What is the difference between Sinn and Bedeutung? What is the significance of this distinction?
22 Husserl, “Philosophy as a Rigorous Science.”
How is phenomenology different from empirical
science? In what sense
is phenomenology a rigorous science?
24 Husserl, “The Crisis of the European Sciences.”
How is the philosophy of the late Husserl different from the philosophy of the early Husserl?
29 Short paper on Frege
or Husserl due. Read selection from Russell.
Holly Phillips on analytic philosophy.
Given its foundations in Frege, what would you expect to find in 20th century analytic philosophy?
May 1 Tom Davis on continental philosophy. Read selection from Heidegger.
Given its foundations in Husserl, what would you expect to find in 20th century continental philosophy?
6 Wrap-up.