Thursday, April 22, 2010

Hegel: The Phenomenology of Spirit

Read the whole preface
text available at: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/ph/phprefac.htm
Journals due on April 26.

Guidance questions
1. What's the commonness and difference between Hegel and Kant regarding scientific knowledge?
2. How do you understand the statement: "subject is pure and simple negativity" (Φ 18)?

Monday, April 19, 2010

Midterm Presentation

Topics
Everybody should choose a philosopher (e.g. Hume) or a philosophical school (e.g. Buddhism) outside of the class readings for presentation. You should explain major points of her/his or their thoughts. It’s NOT a biographical introduction, but very brief background introduction is fine.
Below is a list of possible topics. You can also choose other topics, but they must be approved by me in advance.
Ancient: Democritus, Epicurus, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Protagoras, Heraclitus, Zeno, Plotinus, Sextus Empiricus, Marcus Aurelius
Medieval: Nicholas of Cusa, Boethius, Aquinas, Anselm, Scotus..
Modern: Machiavelli, Montaigne, Vico, Francis Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Voltaire, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Husserl, Marx
Contemporary: Heidegger, Hanah Arendt, Enscombe, Levinas, Derrida, Judith Butler, Kristeva, Wittgenstein, Rawls, Putnam, Russell, Sartre
Other cultures: Confucius, Lao-tse, Buddhism, Islamic philosophy, African philosophy

Form:
The presentation should be limited within 5 minutes, followed by 1-2 minutes Q&A session. The presenter must prepare several questions for audience.
You must NOT bring the paper to read. One may, however, bring an index card if one wishes to bring brief notes.

Grading
The presentation is to test students’ oral skills, capability of explaining philosophical arguments as well as ability to make meaningful philosophical discussion. The essential criterion is whether you can explain the thoughts of a philosopher precisely and clearly within five minutes.

Presentation date
April 29 and May 3, but everyone should be prepared on April 29.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Kant: The Critique of Pure Reason

Kant: The Critique of Pure Reason
a. Preface to the second edition 1787;
b. the whole Introduction:
namely from “I. Of the difference between Pure and Empirical Knowledge” to “VII. Idea and Division of a Particular Science, under the Name of a Critique of Pure Reason”)
text available at http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/cprrn10.txt
Journals due on April 15.

Guidance questions:
1. Which problem does Kant see in Mathematics, Natural Science (Physics) and Metaphysics (philosophy)? What does he aim to achieve?
2. How is judgment important for science? What means a priori synthetic judgment?
3. What means Copernican Turn in Kant's view of knowledge?

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Empiricism & Rationalism

In order to understand Kant, we have to know the philosophers before him. Therefore please research on these two terms "Empiricism" and "Rationalism", and write explanations for each term before Monday April 12.
Key question: their different accounts of knowledge, regarding the relationship between thinking beings (subjects) and existing things (objects)
Major philosophers: Hume for Empiricism and Leibniz for Rationalism
Methodology: Research on internet or in library
Format: explain each term with at least 100 words respectively and hand them in on Monday April 12.
It counts as one journal.