PHENOMENOLOGY:  THEME AND VARIATIONS

 Starting from Husserl's conception and practice of phenomenology, we will trace contrasting responses to, and revisions of, this influential program for philosophy.  Husserl believed his "new beginning" for philosophy was in fact a restoration of the most profound impulses of the western tradition against the inroads of positivism and historicism.  Nonetheless, some of his philosophical descendants have refashioned his own arguments to challenge this tradition without adopting scientistic dogmatism or irrationalism.  Our aim will be to see how debates over phenomenology have contributed to many of the main trends of 20th century European philosophy.

Required Texts:

  Husserl, Shorter Works, eds., McCormick and Elliston
  Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, An Introduction to Husserlian    Phenomenology
  Derrida, Speech and Phenomena
  Gadamer, Philosophical Hermeneutics
  Heidegger, Basic Writings (second ed.), ed., D. Krell
  Sartre, Essays in Existentialism

Course Outline:

Jan. 9 Course introduction

Jan. 14 Husserl, "Phenomenology," from Encyclopaedia Britannica, pp. 21-35
  Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, "Mathematics, Logic, and Phenomenology," pp. 13-57

  recommended:  "Husserl's Inaugural Lecture at Freiburg"  pp. 9-17;  Husserl, "On the Psychological Grounding of Logic,"  pp. 146-7

Jan. 16 Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, "The Methodical Founding of Phenomenology as the Science of Pure, Transcendental Consciousness," pp. 58-87

Jan 21 Husserl, "The Lectures on Internal Time Consciousness from the Year 1905," pp. 277-88
  Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, "The Universal Structures of Consciousness in the Phenomenological Sense," pp. 88-114

Jan. 23 Husserl, "Philosophy as Rigorous Science," pp. 166-97
  Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, "Perception, Thing, and Space," pp. 115-140

Jan. 28 Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, "The Phenomenology of Intuitional Presentation," pp. 141-165

Jan. 30 Husserl, "The Origin of Geometry," pp. 255-70

Feb. 4 Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, "Judgement and Truth," pp. 166-194

Feb. 6 Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, "Static and Genetic Constitution," pp. 195-204

Feb. 11 Husserl, "Renewal:  Its Problem and Method," pp. 326-31;  "Husserl's Letter to Arnold Metzger" (with introduction by Kohak), pp. 357-64
  Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, "The 'I' and the Person," pp. 205-216

Feb. 13 Bernet, Kern, and Marbach, "The Lifeworld, Both as a Problem Concerning the Foundation of the Objective Sciences and as a Problem Concerning Universal Being and Truth," pp. 217-228 and "First and Second Philosophy or Transcendental Phenomenology and Metaphysics," pp. 229-234

Feb. 18 Derrida, "Speech and Phenomena:  Introduction to the Problem of Signs in Husserl's Phenomenology," "Introduction," pp. 3-16  (along with Garver and Allison's prefatory materials)

Feb. 20 Derrida, chs. 1-3, pp. 17-47

Feb. 25 Derrida, chs. 4-6, pp. 48-87

Feb. 27 Derrida, ch. 7, pp. 88-104

 Spring Break

March 11  Gadamer, "The Universality of the Hermeneutic Problem," pp. 3-17

March 13 Gadamer, "Scope and Function of Hermeneutic Reflection," pp. 18-43

March 18 Gadamer, "On the Problem of Self-Understanding," pp. 44-58; "Man and Language," pp. 59-68

March 20 Gadamer, "Semantics and Hermeneutics," pp. 82-94

March 25 Heidegger, "Being and Time:  Introduction," pp. 37-57

March 27 Heidegger, "Being and Time:  Introduction," pp. 57-88

April 1 Heidegger, "What is Metaphysics?" pp. 89-110

April 3 Sartre, "The Origin of Negation,"  pp. 75-146

April 8  Sartre, "Bad Faith," pp. 147-86
 
April 10 Sartre,  "The Humanism of Existentialism," pp. 31-62

April 15 Heidegger, "Letter on Humanism," pp. 213-66

April 17  Heidegger, "Letter on Humanism," continued

Apr. 22 Heidegger, "The Question Concerning Technology," pp. 307-43

Apr. 24 Review
 

Course Requirements:

Class attendance is required.  Students should come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings.  Each student will be expected to bring to class written questions about the day's readings.

There will be four short writing assignments and a term paper.  The short assignments will be due Feb. 4, Feb. 28, April 1, Apr. 22, and the term paper will be due Friday, May 2, by 10 am in the Philosophy Department office, 503 S. Kedzie Hall.  Each short writing assignment will count 10% of the course grade, attendance and preparation for discussion will count 20%, and the term paper will count 40%.
 

Office Hours:

Wednesdays 2 to 5
  or by appointment

512 S. Kedzie Hall
353-9378                                       e-mail:  PetrsnRT@pilot.msu.edu
355-4490 (messages)